Opening day arrives with all its typical pomp and circumstance. exceed! Huge American flag! Hmm. .
Dana Barros? (Yes, Dana Barros! You dare not deny the pride of Mattapan, Xaverian, BC and now Stoughton). , the Red Sox hype men are desperately trying to add some sparkle to the starting lineup.
Rafael Devers will be in Boston for 10 years! Masataka Yoshida has just won the World Baseball Classic! Corey Kluber is a two-time Cy Young Award winner!
The Red Sox overreact
It all feels forced, which matches the Red Sox’s effort to lose its shine at about the same rate as a homegrown All-Star team. Opening day marked the unofficial arrival of spring here, but now it’s just something happening between Lamar Jackson business rumors. (“T-Pain told Mr. Kraft that Lamar likes to go to Wrentham Outlets for Le Creuset!”) The buzzy 2023 season set a dire tone, and they showed enough to fight back, especially on offense, to prevent their obituary.
I really couldn’t beat them today because the negative/positive ratio basically mirrored the 10-9 final against the Orioles. The Red Sox painstakingly developed a determinedly aggressive pitching corps over the winter, then quickly tied the franchise record for a first game with nine walks. All of those extra base runners add up to the five easiest steals the Orioles will get
But after leading 5-1, 7-2 and 10-4, the Red Sox still won a game, thanks in part to Baltimore’s sloppy defense. New left fielder Masataka Yoshida looked like the real deal, going 2 for 4 with RBI and easily tossing a 95 mph fastball into the inside corner. Rafael Devers hits the rocket back and forth. Justin Turner and Alex Verdugo each had two hits. The offense has juice.
The Red Sox outscored the Orioles 5-0 the past two innings and nearly sealed the comeback in the ninth before Adam Duvall closed it with an tying strikeout in the second.
So while no one is saying we should be happy with another 0-1 start, at least the Red Sox have avoided a real disaster.
“You want to win the first one. We’ll try again next year,” said manager Alex Cora. “That’s how we play.
You’d rather have a clear 3-2 or 1-0, but that’s not the case. But you ended up taking a positive approach. We fight and traffic. Offensively, we did a lot of good things. “
If Opening Day is any time for big announcements, here’s this one: The Red Sox and Orioles looked like two teams battling for the last spot in baseball’s top league. That’s not to say any of them are bad, just that they should be ready to take a beating from the Yankees, Jays and Rays, who all won Thursday.
“We played very well today,” said Turner. “The guys kept hitting and fighting back and gave us a chance to win the game in the ninth. I’m proud of what we did.
We’re just a little short.
The Red Sox are back on Saturday with ace Chris Sale on the mound, where he hopes to be better than Corey Kluber’s three innings against the O’s.
The Red Sox can’t afford a slow start, they have given Dig a hole myself. It wasn’t as disastrous as buying it another day, but that’s about it. The baseball season is long.
We can only hope it’s not longnnnnnnng.
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