Poyner feels the feeling
Pitcher makes his debut
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Bobby Poyner was warming up on Opening Day, but manager Alex Cora never used him, not even when the platoon advantage could’ve been given to the Red Sox against lefty-hitting Denard Span.
Instead, Carson Smith
faced Span and gave up a bases-clearing triple that led to the Sox’ 6-4 loss.
But warming up in a big league game for the first time was helpful to get Poyner comfortable, he said. And last night he made his major league debut in the seventh inning of the Red Sox’ 3-2 win over the Tampa Bay Rays.
Poyner was called on to face the left-handed hitting Kevin Kiermaier in the seventh. He located his family in the stands and felt his heart racing. Asked what Cora told him on the mound before his debut, Poyner said, “He made sure I knew how we were going to pitch to Kiermaier.” Did he?
“Oh yeah, I knew,” Poyner said. He retired Kiermaier to end the seventh.
“It was exciting,” said the 25-year-old, who had never pitched above Double-A before this year. “It was every- thing I dreamed of growing up. It was incredible.”
Cora strangely brought Poyner on after Span had already hit. And then Cora left Poyner out to face the right-handed hitting Carlos Gomez to start the eighth.
Poyner dropped a firstpitch curve to Gomez, who hammered it for a homer. He then retired Brad Miller
to end his first career major league game.
Smith relieved Poyner and escaped a jam to finish the eighth. Cora was trying to stay away from Matt Barnes, who had pitched scoreless innings in both of the first two games.
Asked if he was still trying to figure out how he’s going to bridge the gap to closer Craig Kimbrel, Cora said, “Not really.”
“Matchups,” he said. “That breaking ball to Gomez wasn’t on the menu. I think that’s his first breaking ball to a righty since (he was at the University of Florida). We felt that
matchup was a good one for us. We knew they could pinch hit for the lefty after that and we were comfortable with him facing C.J. Cron too. He commands the top of the strike zone and has a good changeup. He can get lefties and righties out. Everybody was talking about him in the first game, but at least he got the heartbeat up. And now he’s a full-go.”
J.D. hits the field
Three games into the season and Cora wanted to get J.D. Martinez into the outfield.
Martinez made his first start in left field as Cora slid Andrew Benintendi to center field and Jackie Bradley Jr. out of the lineup. Bradley was 0-for-7 through the first two games.
Martinez went 2-for-4 with a double and a run scored last night.
Benintendi started 27 games in center field last year, most of them while Bradley missed time on the disabled list in April due to a knee sprain and a thumb sprain in August.
“He looked great in spring training,” Cora said of Benintendi. “And J.D. in left, so this is a stadium that, the way we’ve been playing, we’re pushing (right fielder) Mookie (Betts) to that rightcenter gap very hard, although it was with the lefties. I feel very comfortable with where he’s at with this lineup. We’ll take into consideration a lot of stuff for our defensive alignment.”
Rafael Devers and Christian Vazquez were held out of the lineup.
Devers hurt his right knee in a home-plate collision on Tuesday and Cora didn’t want him to push himself too hard on the Tropicana Field turf.
Eduardo Nunez moved from second base to third base while Brock Holt made his first start of the year at second. Devers will be back in the lineup today and Nunez will rest.
Mitch Moreland made his first start at first base while
Hanley Ramirez took over at designated hitter.
Swihart on hold
It’s going to be tough to find ways to get Blake Swihart in the lineup, Cora admitted yesterday.
“We’ll see,” he said. “That’s a tough one because we play the National League in the upcoming days. He’ll pinch hit. As far as defensively, we have the two guys behind the plate and we know where we’re at. He’s a work in progress.
“We feel comfortable. He can play left field and he can catch. But right now it’s a little tougher to get him in there. Hopefully we can do that before we get home. That’s the goal.”
ERod getting ready
Hector Velazquez will make his first start of the season today. It sounds like he could make more than one start, since Eduardo Rodriguez needs more time to get ready in extended spring training.
Rodriguez will make a minor league start in Fort Myers on Tuesday, and will likely need another rehab start after that, Cora said. That would make April 13 the soonest day he’d be ready to make his debut.
“It’s strictly his knee and his extension,” Cora said. “It’s very important for him to be 100 percent. I think this organization has been through the path before and it seemed like it didn’t work out so we have to make sure he’s completely healthy.”
The Sox will keep their rotation on turn through Wednesday’s off-day so David Price will start the home opener Thursday.