What a great ring ceremony to
start off the afternoon. Seeing the
Boston Marathon survivors bring out the rings to the players, the firefighters
and David Ortiz raising the American flag and the 2013 Championship flag, then
lowering it to half staff in honor of the firefighters that lost their life
last week was very touching. It seems
David Ortiz got the biggest ovation and quite frankly he deserves it. He is the face of the Red Sox and after last
year has become an icon in the Boston area.
I’m sure one day; we’ll see a statue outside the stadium in his honor.
Unfortunately, the boys couldn’t
bring home a win to make the day extra special.
After a pitcher’s duel the Red Sox bullpen, which has been so good early
on, gave up 4 runs in the top of the ninth to the visiting Milwaukee Brewers to
spoil the celebration.
The Brewers got to starter Jake
Peavy early in the 2nd when Jonathan Lucroy belted a solo homer to
start the inning and then were able to get another run across on a Carlos Gomes
RBI single to get ahead 2-0.
Grady Sizemore would cut the lead
in half when his single in the bottom half of the inning plated Mike Napoli on
a throwing error. Then in the bottom of
the 3rd, Will Middlebrooks hit a solo homer, his first of the year
to tie the game up.
The game would stay 2-2, until
the top of the 9th, when newcomer Edward Mujica came on and stunk up
the joint.
Khris Davis started the rally
with a leadoff double then Scooter Gennett dropped down a bunt to move the
runner to 3rd. Mujica tried
to get the out at 3rd but Middlebrooks couldn’t apply the tag in
time and everyone was safe. The Brewers
now had runners at the corners with no outs.
The aggressive move didn’t pan out and I would have liked Mujica to have
gone the safe route and gotten the out at 1st. Instead the close play at 3rd
seemed to energize the Brewer bats as Lyle Overbay doubled in both runners to
put the Brewers up for good.
Carlos Gomez and Amaris Ramirez
would also add RBI singles to make it a 4-run deficit. Mujica was then pulled for Andrew Miller who
nearly walked the ballpark, issuing free passes to both Lucroy and Shafer to
load the bases before retiring Khris Davis to end the inning. However, the damage had been done and the Sox
could do nothing in the bottom of the ninth against closer Francisco Rodriguez.
The line on Mujica? Two-thirds of an inning, four hits and four
runs. He lost the closer role at the end
of last year when he was with the St. Louis Cardinals and outings like this
will certainly put some doubt in John Farrell’s mind but he is typically good
so hopefully this will just be one bad outing and something he can move on
from. I have faith that he’s a good
pitcher and days like this will be very limited.
Jake Peavy started the game and
rose to the occasion going 6 strong innings, giving up 6 hits, 2 runs, walking
2 and struck out 4. He threw a lot of
pitches (102) and seemed to get into a lot of deep counts but there was a lot of
movement on his pitches and only one ball, the homer to Lucroy, was hit extremely
hard.
Burke Badenhop, another newcomer
to the Sox, pitched 2 innings and allowed only 2 hits and struck out 1.
Offensively, the Sox were not
good. Only 5 hits and 0 for 6 with
runners in scoring position. They left 5
men on base but were stifled by Brewers pitching all day. Starter, Marco Estrada struck out 6, Will
Smith struck out 2 and Francisco Rodriguez struck out 1.
Dustin Pedroia, David Ortiz, Mike
Carp, Grady Sizemore and Will Middlebrooks were the only ones to muster a hit
in the game. Mike Carp’s was a double
and Middlebrooks had the homer. Mike
Napoli walked twice, as did Grady Sizemore.
Will Middlebrooks also chipped in a walk as as well.
Grady Sizemore stole his first
base of the year and again is staying healthy.
Let’s hope this is legit and he’s the player he was a couple years
ago. It certainly looks to be but it’s
still early and I’m still holding my breath every time he runs the bases or
runs down a fly ball.
It was a disappointing day for
the Fenway opener but hopefully they’ll get them tomorrow. Clay Buchholz will take the hill for his
first start of the year. He’ll be
opposed by Wily Peralta for the Brewers.
SHAVING CREAM PIE TO THE FACE –
GAME MVP
Will Middlebrooks. Will went 1 for 2 with a solo homer and also
was intentionally walked once. It looks
like he’s heating up and if so, that’s a big plus for this offense.
ELBOW TO THE FACE – GAME LVP
Edward Mujica. Not a good first impression in front of the
home fans Eddie. 4 runs in two-thirds of
an inning won’t garner you much support from the Fenway Faithful.PLAY OF THE GAME
Lyle Overbay’s 2-run double in the top of the 9th.
NEXT
Saturday, April 5th at home vs.
the Milwaukee Brewers.
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