The Red Sox have finished their first game of the season. We’ve been waiting for this for 176 days. So let us overreact. In this case, EVERYBODY PANIC!
What looked like a disaster turned out to be exciting in the end. The Red Sox fell to Baltimore 10-9 after making an impressive comeback.
There were highlights but mostly lowlights. Let’s start with the highlights because that’s what the people want. Masataka Yoshida (Macho Man!) picked up his first career hit going 2-4 with an RBI. He also reached base a third time with an HBP. Rafael Devers, who will probably be a highlight all year, with a double and an RBI. Alex Verdugo was back in the leadoff spot where he thrived in 2020. He led off the season with a triple (everyone yells stuff like “get three” at their TV, right).
Now the lowlights. The first that comes to mind is Devers being called for a pitch clock violation resulting in a strikeout. The real lowlight was the pitching. In any game where you give up ten runs, there aren’t going to be many highlights from the mound. But the thing that hurt is the Red Sox pitchers walked nine batters. Nine! Look at this box score:
The front office added some arms to the bullpen that were desperately needed. In a four-run game, you turn to…Kaleb Ort and Ryan Braiser. Two pitchers that struggled last year and were retained for unknown reasons. They gave up two and three runs respectively.
Two-time Cy Young winner Corey Kluber started the game. He was solid his first time through the order and then fell apart when hitters saw him the second time. Kluber’s performance shows the current situation with the pitching staff. The veterans are all high-risk medium upside pieces. The exciting pitchers are young and inexperienced.
Garrett Whitlock, Brayan Bello, and Tanner Houck are the pitchers who will hopefully take a step forward and be the anchors of the staff. It is only one game, there are 161 more but this is what you do on Opening Day. You overreact and play out the whole season in your head.
(I can’t be upset because as I am writing this the Celtics are up by forty over the Bucks.)
Photo by Billie Weiss/Boston Red Sox/Getty Images
The Never Weres 
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