Sox walk off all happy
Ramirez delivers in 12th for win
Welcome back to “Sweet Caroline” and David Price’s Cy Young Award form.
Welcome back to ill-advised baserunning decisions and late-inning bullpen woes.
Welcome back to walkoff wins. What a dramatic home opener it was yesterday when the Red Sox fell behind in the eighth inning, tied it in the ninth, nearly won it on a replay review but had to wait until the 12th for a 3-2 walkoff victory over the Tampa Bay Rays.
Hanley Ramirez roped a line drive to the right-field wall to score Jackie Bradley Jr. from third and send the remaining fans of a once sold out crowd home happy almost four hours after the 2:05 p.m. start.
“This is why we’re here,” Ramirez said. “That swing warmed me up a little bit.”
Ramirez has been responsible for four game-winning hits in the 12th inning or later since last year’s All-Star break. He also had the game-winning hit on Tuesday against the Miami Marlins.
“Everybody is relaxing and just letting things happen,” Ramirez said. “The more you get tight, the harder things get.”
The Red Sox went hitless from the fourth inning until the ninth when, down 2-0, Mookie Betts poked a single to left field to open the frame against Rays closer Alex Colome. Andrew Benintendi worked a full-count walk, and Ramirez, fresh off his heroics in Miami, dropped a blooper to center to score Betts and wake up the chilled Fenway Park crowd.
J.D. Martinez had a perfect chance to make his presence felt in his first home opener with the Sox, but he hit a double play ball to second and put his team’s fate in the hands of Xander Bogaerts. With Benintendi on third, Bogaerts ripped a two-strike, two-out double off the Green Monster to tie the game at 2.
The Sox nearly won it later in the inning after Rafael Devers was intentionally walked and Eduardo Nunez hit an infield single to load the bases. Bradley hit a chopper to second and was called out on a bang-bang play at first. The video replay indicated that Bradley stepped on the bag just as the ball was caught, but officials in New York ruled that the out call on the field would stand.
And another gem from a Red Sox starter went wasted because of one bad eighth-inning pitch by Carson Smith.
Price threw another seven-inning start in which he shut out the Rays, his second straight scoreless outing to begin the season. Smith took over in the eighth and left a juicy fastball up in the zone for Matt Duffy, who lofted it over the center-field wall for a two-run homer.
Smith also blew the Opening Day game in Tampa when he threw a similarly dead-red fastball to Denard Span for a three-run triple at Tropicana Field.
The Sox offense had only three hits until the ninth inning. Benintendi singled in the first and, go figure, was thrown out on the bases. On the play, after Ramirez struck out, the ball got away from catcher Wilson Ramos for a second and Benintendi took off, only to get thrown out.
Center fielder Kevin Kiermaier gave the Red Sox a golden opportunity in the second inning when he lost a sky-high pop-up in the sun and Martinez made it all the way to third base for a triple. But Bogaerts, Devers and Nunez each grounded out in the infield. Martinez never scored.
It wasn’t until the ninth that the offense woke up again.
“The at-bats were a lot better at the last third of the game,” Sox manager Alex Cora said. “Then we took advantage of certain pitches in the zone. Put good swings on it and you saw the result.”
Ramirez is now hitting .310 through seven games and is responsible for driving in six of the team’s 24 runs on the season.
“He’s been putting good at-bats since the first day of spring training,” Cora said. “He’s healthy and he feels that he can work on his mechanics and he doesn’t have to try and generate power. He can stay back and drive the ball. I’m not only pleased with the way his at-bats are going but playing defense and running the bases. I saw him early in December and we talked about it and he said, ‘You don’t have to worry about me I’ll be fine, I’m healthy.’ When he’s healthy . . . he was healthy two years ago and everyone saw what happened. And last year he didn’t feel healthy and you saw what happened. He’s hitting third for a reason. I do believe in him. I know the quality of his at-bats. I’ve seen him throughout his career and we challenged him and he’s doing a good job.”