Orioles vs Red Sox (8/31-9/2)

Game 1: The Red Sox showed some offensive resiliency on Friday night after the Orioles took a 9-3 lead on a 3-run homer by Nick Markakis. The game appeared over, but the Red Sox hitters did not give up as they tacked on three runs in the 7th and another two in the 9th. The Red Sox had the opportunity to score more runs in the 9th as they had runners on 1st and 2nd and Jason Varitek at the plate with 1 out, but Varitek grounded into a double play to end it.

Fortunately, the Yankees were unable to gain any ground as they lost their opener against the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.

Eric Hinske, Dustin Pedroia, and Mike Lowell had solid offensive contributions for the Red Sox, but it wasn't enough to come away with a victory. The divison lead remains at 5 games.

Game 2: Clay Buchholz made his 2nd career start on Saturday evening after Tim Wakefield discovered some discomfort in his back. The discomfort turned out to be a blessing in disguise for the Red Sox as Buchholz came threw with the first Red Sox no-hitter since 2002, the first ever by a Red Sox rookie.

Buchholz baffled batters with a wide array of pitches as excitement grew throughout the night as he got closer to the great accomplishment. Buchholz ended up walking three and hitting a batter, but held the Orioles hitless. Nine of the outs were strikeouts by Buchholz.

The final out of the game came when Buccholz threw a nice offspeed pitch to Nick Markakis. The pitch froze Markakis as he failed to swing at the pitch. After a short hesitation, the umpire punched out Markakis sending Fenway Park and the surrounding areas into a frenzy.

The no-hitter was the 3rd of the season (Mark Buehrle and Justin Verlander each threw a no-hitter earlier in the season). The Red Sox won by the score of 10-0 and kept the division lead at 5.

Game 3: The final game of the series proved to be a tight affair as Jon Lester and Daniel Cabrera both pitched pretty good ballgames. The Red Sox took a 3-o lead, one of the runs coming on Jacoby Ellsbury's 1st career homerun. Ellsbury ended up collecting another hit and a stolen base in the contest.

Jon Lester pitched 6+ innings of 2 run ball, his final pitch thrown in the 7th inning to Ramon Hernandez was a solo homer, which brought the Orioles within 1 run. Lester was the beneficiary of some great defense, including a great throw by JD Drew to gun out a runner at home. Javier Lopez relieved Lester and pitched a scoreless 7th. Okajima came in to pitch the 8th and allowed a leadoff double. The runner was moved to 3rd with 1 out before Okajima struck out the final 2 batters of the inning. Jonathan Papelbon came in to pitch a perfect 9th to end the game, one of the outs coming on a very nice diving catch by Jacoby Ellsbury.

The win combined with a Yankees loss moved the Red Sox to 6 games ahead in the AL East.

On Deck: The Red Sox will begin a 3-game set with the Toronto Blue Jays on Monday. Daisuke Matsuzaka will face Jesse Litsch in the opener.