Fortunately, at least for Mirabelli's psyche, redemption was quick to come. One inning later, in fact, as the catcher added his third hit of the afternoon, an RBI single that broke the tie in what would become a 7-4 Red Sox win.
"No doubt, I left early," Mirabelli said. "It's just one of those things where I was trying to get a good jump. I don't run very fast -- I think you guys probably know that. Regardless of how far that ball is, when I'm on third I never feel like I have an easy trot into the plate.
"It's hard to make two mistakes in one play running the bases, but I achieved it today. The first mistake was leaving too early on a ball that I didn't really have to leave that early [on]. Then to go back and tag and try to come home after that was the second mistake. It's embarrassing. It's one of those things where as good of a game as it looks like I had, I feel like I had a terrible game."
It started out so well for Mirabelli. With one run already in on Manny Ramírez's single in the third, Eric Hinske hit a home run to right to push the Red Sox to a 2-0 lead in the fourth. On the next pitch, Mirabelli's drive hit the first row of the Monster Seats for his fourth homer. It was the sixth time the Sox have hit consecutive home runs this season.
In the fifth, Sox starter Tim Wakefield delayed his 41st birthday celebration by allowing three runs, beginning with a sacrifice fly by Jay Payton that scored Aubrey Huff (triple). Bako and Brian Roberts scored on Corey Patterson's single. But that would be it for the Orioles against Wakefield (13-9), though they mustered a ninth-inning run off Eric Gagne in the reliever's first appearance with the Red Sox.
Baltimore's fifth-inning runs took Jeremy Guthrie -- also the Orioles' starter in the Mother's Day Miracle game -- off the hook. Guthrie has not yet lost a game on the road as a starter this season.
