The Red Sox just wrapped up their first series of the season. They earned a split with Seattle book-ending the four-game set with wins. The crazy part is they easily could have won three or four of the games. This is the first of a hopefully year-long endeavor of wrapping up each series.
We have to start with the pitching. All off-season we lamented the lack of movement on the pitching staff. But the team kept saying they were happy with the guys they had. Four games in, maybe they were onto something. The first caveat is it was four games. The second is the Mariners were second-worst in baseball in team strikeout percentage last year at 25.9%. They do not look like they did anything to improve that so far this year.
But even if the Mariners are a three-true outcomes team, the Red Sox flat-out pitched the past weekend. Nick Pivetta was the group’s standout on Friday night with a line of 6IP, 1 ER 10K, and 0 BB. He lost a 1-0 duel to George Kirby, his only mistake being a solo home run. As a team, they let up only 8 earned runs for the series to go along with 6 walks.
It wasn’t all positive things from the pitching staff. Joely Rodríguez struggled big-time. Allowing 3 ER in his 3 appearances over the weekend. He picked up the loss in extra innings Saturday night. Rodríguez may not be on the team long. Brennan Bernardino is waiting in Worcester to be the top lefty out of the bullpen.
The offense was up and down. In the season opener, they got to Luis Castillo scoring 4 runs over 5 innings including a Rafael Devers opposite-field home run.
Devers was a surprise scratch for the second and third games. The offense struggled when he was out of the lineup. Getting shut out on Friday and only managed a run on a ground out in the first nine innings Saturday. Devers was back in the lineup on Sunday and the Red Sox won to earn the split.
The weekend had some good things to build on. The first being the Ceddanne Rafaela experience. The defense was incredible.
The offense was hot right out of the gate. The man TRIPLED on a ball to left field. A triple! I am so happy they broke camp with him. He is such an exciting player.
Tyler O’Neill’s biceps were on display both literally and figuratively. He hit two home runs including his 5th straight homer on opening day, a new MLB record. Enmanual Valdéz hit a three-run home run to ice Sunday’s game.
Pivetta was just one of the starters this weekend. Brayan Bello, Kutter Crawford, and Garrett Whitlock all pitched well. As a group, the starters went 22 innings while only giving up 4 earned runs. This was a group that was 27th in innings pitched last year. A great start for a group that was much maligned heading into the season.
A few slow starts as well. Triston Casas struggled in the first four games as the Mariners fed him slider after slider. Of the pitches Cases saw, 50 of them (64%) were breaking balls in the series. He struck out 6 times managing only 1 hit with 2 walks. Jarren Duran only managed two hits but was able to steal two bases.
It is too early to be worried about people struggling and with the Athletics and Angels coming up in the next two series, it may be too early to really judge the pitching.
For now, the most important thing is taking at least two from the Athletics.
Photo from @RedSox
The Never Weres 
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