It’s finally here!! Opening Day is upon us and I can hardly wait. The Sox will open up against the Yankees in the same spot they ended their truly awful season last year. It was October 3, 2012 and the Sox embarrassingly loss to the Yanks 14-2 in the Bronx . I remember watching the game thinking to myself, wow, and way to show up guys. But after a long agonizing winter, baseball and the Sox are back to right the ship. 1:05 can’t get here soon enough.
The Final Roster
Here’s the final roster breakdown for 2013:
PITCHERS (12)
Alfredo Aceves (R), Andrew Bailey (R), Clay Buchholz (R), Ryan Dempster (R), Felix Doubront (L), Joel Hanrahan (R), John Lackey (R), Jon Lester (L), Andrew Miller (L), Clayton Mortensen (R), Junichi Tazawa (R), Koji Uehara (R)
CATCHERS (2)
David Ross, Jarrod Saltalamacchia
INFIELDERS (6)
Mike Carp (1B/OF), Pedro Ciriaco (2B, SS, 3B), Jose Igesias (SS), Will Middlebrooks (3B), Mike Napoli (1B), Dustin Pedroia (2B)
OUTFIELDERS (5)
Jackie Bradley Jr. (LF, CF, RF), Jacoby Ellsbury (CF), Jonny Gomes (LF, RF), Daniel Nava (RF), Shane Victorino (RF, CF, LF)
DL (4)
Craig Breslow (L), Stephen Drew (SS), Franklin
Not too many surprises here. Obviously Jackie Bradley Jr. is the biggest as he’s never played about AA ball. After the spring he had and the injuries to Ortiz and Drew, it just made a ton of sense for him to open the season on the major league club. I look forward to seeing how he handles the situation and so far I’ve seen nothing but great things from him. Clayton Mortensen is a bit of a surprise too as he didn’t have the greatest spring and I think everyone was hoping for Daniel Bard but Bard still hasn’t found his control and he has options so he’ll work on it in the minors and hopefully be called up as the Bard we once knew and loved.
It’ll be Lester vs. Sabathia today and here are some cool tidbits:
The Yankees have won 11 straight home games on Opening Day. The Sox are a combined 55-57-1 on Opening Day with losses in their last 2.
This will be the first Opening Day since 2003 that David Ortiz hasn’t been the starting DH. That year Jeremy Giambi started at DH, yikes!
Jackie Bradley Jr. is the youngest position player to start on Opening Day for the Red Sox since 1998. Donnie Sadler was 22 and started in 1998 for the Sox.
I’ll have my game report tomorrow morning. Go Sox!
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