It's been quite some time since the Red Sox have had a pitcher, or any player for that matter, that's been signed with a ton of hype, and actually lived up to it right away. Chris Sale did just that last night, tossing seven innings of shutout ball, fanning seven while only surrendering three hits. You know who else had that exact same stat line in his Red Sox debut? Pedro Martinez.
Just saying. Sale certainly did not disappoint, however, the Red Sox bats did. They were unable to get any run support for their starter, as the Pirates starter, Jameson Taillon had a great outing of his own. Both pitchers would exit after the seventh inning in a 0-0 game, a game that would stay that way until the bottom of the 12th. Boston had a great chance to win the game in the bottom of the 10th, when a Bradley Jr. single kicked off the rally. Then, Sandy Leon would hit a bloop single into right that would set up a first and third with two outs. Dustin Pedroia drew a walk to load the bases that set up a lefty v.s lefty match-up with Andrew Benintendi. Benintendi would ground out to second base to end the inning. In the bottom of the 12th inning, Chris Young flew out to start the inning. Then, Bradley Jr. walked, then Pablo Sandoval drew a walk after Bradley stole second. With two men on and one out, Sandy leon came up to the plate and hammered Bastardo's 0-1 pitch into the Monster seats in left to give Boston it's first walk-off win of 2017 and it's second overall of the season. Today's series finale against the Pirates has been postponed due to rain in the area.
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The Red Sox officially kicked off the post-Ortiz era yesterday afternoon as they opened their 2017 campaign at Fenway Park for the first time in seven years, and the first time against an inter-league opponent in franchise history. Even though Ortiz wasn't suited up in uniform or even at Fenway, he was there in spirit, as the Red Sox put up a special message from Big Papi on the video board in center field, with the former star DH wishing his boys luck and they need to go "give Red Sox nation what they deserve". Obviously Ortiz is referring to a World Series championship, and coming off a sweep in the ALDS at the hands of Terry Francona and the Indians in 2016, Boston is ready to take another stab at taking down the tribe this season.
John Farrell tabbed Rick Porcello as the Opening Day starter with a couple weeks left in Spring Training, which was the first of the reigning Cy Young award winner's first in his career. Chris Sale will start on Wednesday when the Sox take on the Pirates in game 2 of the series. The Sox bats that scored the most runs in all of baseball last season, struggled against Pittsburgh starter Gerrit Cole, who had yielded just one hit in his first four innings of work. Cole looked like he was going to cruise through the fifth inning as well if not for a Jackie Bradley Jr. triple that ignited a five run, two-out rally. Pablo Sandoval would follow up by legging out an infield single, allowing Bradley to score and put the Sox up 1-0. Sandy Leon hit an infield single to third to put men on first and second. Then, Dustin Pedroia shot a laser back up the middle to score Sandoval and advance Leon to second. Andrew Benintendi would come up to the dish and launch a missile over the wall in right field for his first homerun of the season to put Boston up 5-0. The score would remain 5-0 until the top of the seventh, where the PIrates went on a rally of their own, scoring three runs to cut the Boston lead to 5-3. In the bottom of the ninth with closer Craig Kimbrel on the hill looking for his first save of 2017, Pittsburgh once again gave Boston a scare. A double to center lead off the inning, followed by two out by way of the K. Kimbrel would then plunk the next batter he faced to put the tying run on first. However, Kimbrel would get Starlin Marte to pop out to Mitch Moreland at first and the Red Sox got their first win of 2017. Boston's next game is Wednesday night, first pitch is at 7:10 p.m ET. Pitching match-up: Sale (0-0) Taillon (0-0) |