This afternoon, the Red Sox received their 2018 World Series rings with the help of the New England Patriots and the 2019 regular season has finally begun! A 151-game season is a strange thing to us right now but in due time, we will adjust to it. Really excited to see what the reigning World Series champs have up their sleeves for us this year! It’s about time the regular season began; it felt like spring training lasted forever.
Alright, first things first. I can’t *not* discuss the ring ceremony. The following are my main ceremony takeaways. Skip over this part of the blog if you’re here strictly for baseball and wish to not see me have a New England fan-gasm.
The rings. The freaking rings. WOW. Take a look at these immediately:
Lord have mercy. According to Jen McCaffrey, the company that created these rings, Jostens, had so many stones that needed to be custom cut that each one had to be set by hand. Individually. One by one. Each ring has north of 185 stones. I’m too broke to even begin to comprehend this.
Among the Red Sox alumni that kicked off the ceremony by walking on the field with each World Series trophy was Pedro Martinez, Curt Schilling, Tim Wakefield, Orlando Cabrera, Mike Timlin, Manny Ramirez, Manny Delcarmen, Mike Lowell, Jarrod Saltalamacchia, Will Middlebrooks, Mike Napoli and David Ortiz. WHAT a lineup of men. This is a yearly thing but it still manages to blow me away. Since the turn of the century, this franchise has seen an absurd amount of generational talent and having all of them together at Fenway will forever get me fired up and prepared to run through a brick wall at any moment.
The 2018 Red Sox will eternally hold a special place in my cold heart. This past baseball season was so much fun and the overall year of 2018 was very good to me in a number of ways. Seeing these boys receive their rings, talk amongst themselves, showing off their rings to each other actually made me so happy. I do not care how pathetic that sounds. 2018 was so beyond special and having the majority of that team returning together in 2019 makes me feel some type of way. On a daily basis, my love for baseball is reaffirmed in a number of ways, but today was a bit more special than usual.
Having the Patriots at Fenway? Now don’t even get me STARTED. Gronk came out with the Lombardi trophy held high and it was nearly a tearjerker. Him, Julian Edelman and Stephon Gilmore threw out the first pitch to Mookie Betts, Jackie Bradley Jr. and Steve Pearce and my little sports heart spontaneously combusted across my living room. It greatly reminded me that I truly have no idea where I would be without sports, specifically Boston sports, of course. They quite literally saved my life, have connected me with countless lifelong friends and idols and allowed me to determine what I want to do with my life professionally. Having my two favorite teams together in one place on such a special day like a ring ceremony really helps me step back and realize just how much sports mean to me aside from the obvious fandom aspect.
Oh, and not to mention: Steve Pearce, David Ortiz, Manny Ramirez and Mike Lowell each lined up next to each other as MVPs with their respective World Series trophies and I officially cried. My heart is in the shape of a baseball, I’m certain of it:
Okay, now that I’ve wiped myself down, I think it’s time to discuss the actual baseball match that took place.
What in the name of heck is up with Christopher Allen Sale?! This man teased that poor Opening Day Fenway crowd by initially silencing the haters who doubted his velocity/overall health by throwing 94 MPH against the first batter of the game, living up to pitching coach Dana LeVangie’s promises of seeing a rise in his velocity this afternoon. Sale proceeded to throw 95 in the second inning and admittedly made me as giddy as the players receiving their World Series rings just a while ago. Seeing him throw as hard as he has all season in feels-like 33-degree-Fahrenheit weather really revved up my engine. He really looked like the Chris Sale we all know and love. He looked confident out there, was hitting his spots and finally throwing harder. I was ready to go to war with the haters until Sale ran into a bit of trouble in the third inning.
Sale’s velocity quickly dropped in the third inning, down to an average of 92 MPH, and let up three singles, all of which just barely finding the outfield grass and two of them being grounders that poked through the infield. None were the pitcher’s fault but two runs scored that inning to tie the game which certainly was not encouraging. Our biggest fears were confirmed in the fourth inning when Sale himself completely imploded. He let up three more singles and another run all with no outs and ended up letting up yet another single and two more runs (final line of: 4 IP, 7 hits, 5 earned runs, zero walks, three strikeouts). Sale threw a changeup nearly in the dirt and catcher Christian Vazquez recorded a passed ball to score the fourth run but somehow the fifth and final run of Sale’s outing was even worse. Wait for it: the runner, Lourdes Gurriel Jr., on third base stole home and scored. Let me repeat that one more time: the runner, Lourdes Gurriel Jr., on third base stole home and scored. I wish I was kidding:
Red Sox new low: letting someone just straight up swipe home pic.twitter.com/GcXjifDuec
— Starting 9 (@Starting9) April 9, 2019
The runner started racing home before Sale’s windup which was key in order to score. Sale threw a panic pitch and completely missed the catcher, not even giving Vazquez the chance to tag him. I was fully expecting a rabid Chris Sale and a classic Sale start this afternoon. As I said, he really teased us and made me believe we were going to get just that in the first two innings. Sale threw 12 pitches in the first inning, 13 in the second, 17 in the third and a whopping 34 in the fourth. He gave up seven total hits (all singles) and to put things into perspective, he gave up six-plus hits only once all of last season in 2018. Do I think he’s hurt? No. Am I panicking? No. Am I curious as to why this is happening to him specifically? Absolutely. I truly think that he is healthy and I’m truly not worried. I simply want to know if he’s doing something differently, perhaps. There has to be something he’s doing differently or simply something else going on that we don’t know about that is leading to these performances out of him. His one-run, no decision start against Oakland last week was, for the most part, prime Sale, but his first start and now this one is rightfully raising eyebrows.
With Sale’s loss, this is the first time since 1908 that no Red Sox starter has recorded a win through twelve games. Through 50.1 innings, Red Sox starters have combined to allow 58 total runs (52 earned) with a less-than-stellar 9.30 ERA. Woof. One quick question: what is wrong with this rotation?!? Seriously. A lack of velocity and an inability to hit their spots has combined to lead this team to a 3-9 (!!!!!!) record to begin the 2019 season. Today was the first game of the 2019 season for the Red Sox, so I’m not panicking just yet. Regardless, something needs to change. I’ll gladly take any sliver of improvement from any of this team’s starters at this point.
The bullpen didn’t help that much themselves, either, on top of a poor start by a member of the rotation. Tyler Thornburg replaced Chris Sale after four innings and pitched a 1-2-3 fifth inning and another clean sixth. I’m personally rather hopeful in regards to Thornburg this year. At last, he had a normal and healthy offseason that allowed him to do what he needed to do, and properly. This outing was a baby step in the right direction and it would be phenomenal if he could become a reliable arm that Cora can turn to whenever needed.
Heath Hembree pitched two-thirds of the seventh inning and the moment he walked a batter, Cora came out and brought in Brandon Workman. As a noted Hembree Hater™, I loved this move. I could not begin to tell you how or why Hembree is still employed by the Red Sox. I’m sure he’s a nice guy but I cannot stand him. It’s been over four years of pain and suffering with this guy. I hope he makes me eat my words this year but for the time being, I am sick of this man. As I said, Workman replaced him and finished off the seventh and gave up a two-out single to Randal Grichuk to score the runner on second making it a 6-4 game. Dennis Eckersley called Workman “The Yack Man” on the broadcast this afternoon and it singlehandedly made my day.
Marcus “Weapon” Walden pitched a 1-2-3 eighth inning and Matt Barnes pitched the ninth and destroyed the Red Sox’ hopes of a comeback when he gave up a run to make it 7-5 with no outs after Xander Bogaerts and Rafael Devers teased us in the bottom of the eighth. Bogaerts (worth every penny, by the way) drove in Martinez with an RBI double to make it 6-5 but Devers couldn’t do anything with it and allowed Matt Barnes to solidify the 7-5 L.
Blue Jays’ starter and longtime Los Angeles Angels pitcher Matt Shoemaker kept Boston’s bats in check for the most part. He let up a first inning solo shot to Mitch Moreland (Mitchy 2 Bags is officially dead and Mitchy 4 Bags is his killer) and a sixth inning Monster solo dong to none other than Markus Lynn Betts (his initials are MLB get it ‘cause he plays major league baseball hahaha) but went a strong 5.2 innings giving up only five hits and two earned runs. Dustin Pedroia’s first at-bat in over a year consisted of a double play but a run scored on the play, unfortunately not giving Pedey to RBI. The keyboard warriors are simply furious that Pedroia received a ring AND contributed early on in this game. Sad!
It would be dirty of me to not take a moment to recognize and appreciate the greatness of Mitch Moreland. We need to discuss how much of a steal this guy was back when Boston signed him in 2017 and how much of a steal he continues to be in the present day. This man is getting paid literal pocket change by the Red Sox, is so underrated both locally and nationally yet can be classified as an anchor of this team. If he weren’t so injury-prone I fully believe that he could hit 35-40 home runs. Through 11 games played by the first baseman, he has hit four home runs and looks like has more power than ever. If he wasn’t a platoon man I think he would get the respect that he rightfully deserves both offensively and defensively.
Since this was Pedroia’s first game back after being activated earlier this morning, it’s also only right of me to report on his day. He didn’t record anything but as I said, the second run of the game did score on his double play in the second inning, way back when the Red Sox had the lead early. He did rip a liner down the right field side to lead off in the ninth and give Fenway a small dosage of life on this dreary Opening Day. He had opportunities to do damage as he had men on the bases in his first three at-bats but I’m not going to knock him for it, unlike some people who have internet access and a Twitter account. This was his first game back. He’s easing back into the swing of things (literally) and I’m guessing the team is forcing him to be careful in regards to his knee. Much to the disdain of said Pedroia haters, he did get multiple massive standing ovations early on in the afternoon, another thing that made my heart swell.
Another small bright spot in this game was Toronto low-key melting down in the sixth inning. Betts hit his solo shot in the sixth inning off of Shoemaker which forced him out of the game, and the Jays’ right fielder, Teoscar Hernandez, dropped a Devers fly ball scoring Bogaerts which forced them to go to the bullpen.
The final bright spot of this game came in the ninth inning in true 2019 Rd Sox fashion, as they love to essentially waste eight innings of baseball and wait to actually try until the very last possible moment. Pedroia shot that line drive down right and gave the slimming crowd at Fenway a slight jolt of life. A couple of fly outs and Mookie avoiding swinging at a pitch that he usually mashes, the three-hour and forty-minute torturous game came to a close.
I’m gonna say it: I’m slightly concerned. I love the fight in this team but especially after today’s ring ceremony, I’d like to see them actually pull one off one time. Again: twelve games into the season, this afternoon’s was their first home game. I’m going to give them time to breathe plus tomorrow’s off day. But damn, that one stung a bit. Giving up seven runs to a tanking Blue Jays team s t i n g s. After having a 2-0 lead to start, fans shouldn’t have to file out of the stadium on Opening Day because the game simply feels so dull.
Something needs to change before it’s too late. I’ll never give up on this team until the fat lady stops singing her final note but any sliver of a win would be really awesome. Here’s to praying that this team gets a proper kick in the butt by Thursday night.
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