Today was opening day at Fenway Park and the Evil Empire New York Yankees are in town. With their rival in town what better time to pick up the first win of the year. Well it happened the Red Sox defeated the Yankees 9-6.
Coming into the game today fans was restless and some even starting to panic wondering when the first win would happen. I think the management even was thinking like that to because GM Theo Epstein held a closed-door meet with the team ready to play and it worked. Red Sox set up man Daniel Bard “On a scale of 1 to awesome, it was awesome. It was like Rudy, except there was no prayer at the end.” If it takes pep talks like this all season I say get in their everyday Theo and do work.
Today’s game was like a boxing match that was split up into nine rounds because both teams came out swinging early. The first inning the Yankees put up two runs in the first inning thanks to Robinson Cano knocking in a pair of runs in. The Red Sox could not allow them to steal the show at the home opener so Dustin Pedroia gets up to bat and starts his 2011 Laser Show by knocking a home run into the monster seats.
The top of the second Brett Gardner hit a double to score a run making it 3-1 at the middle of the second. This is when the Red Sox bats decided to go nuts as they would score 5 runs off of Yankee right hander Phil Hughes. All nine Red Sox batters saw action in this inning as Hughes gave up six hits, a fielder’s choice and a walk. After all that action it would be the end of Hughes day.
So with the offense being in full sync you would assume pitching would be as well. Well you know what happens when you assume it makes an ass out of you and me. Most people would think after Jon Lester went seven innings of shut-out ball Thursday that John Lackey would follow with a similar performance not at all. Lackey pitched so poorly that he gave up at least one run in all five innings of work. Lackey was charged with six runs on seven hits, while walking two and striking out a pair and giving up a home run to A-Rod.
Following the Lackey disaster Jarrod Saltalamacchia gets an RBI to give the sox a 7-6 lead and gives Lackey the undeserved win. The seventh inning was another big one for the Sox as they put two more runs on the board. The Seventh started with Adrian Gonzalez hitting a leadoff single followed by Big Papi hitting a green monster double for his third hit of the day. J.D. Drew comes up to the plate and blast a base hit that would allow both Gonzalez and Ortiz to score.
The Red Sox bullpen looked amazing today with the newly addition Alfredo Aceves pitching the sixth, Bobby Jenks in the seventh, Daniel Bard in the eighth and Jonathon Papelbon getting the Save. The four of these guys combined for one hit and five strike outs and most important no runs.
The Red Sox are finally getting in gear for the season getting their bats going, now if pitching can get in gear the Sox are going to be a force to be recon with. Getting home was just what the doctors ordered.
Congratulations to the Red Sox on finally winning a game in the 2011 season! When you score 9 runs, have a batting average of .333, and go 6-for-10 with runners in scoring position, you have a good chance of winning the game. In their prior six games, the Red Sox averaged 2.7 runs per game, had a batting average of .181, and were 7-for-44 with runners in scoring position, so Friday’s game was a huge improvement.
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