X miscue has slide effects
Bogaerts exits early after ankle injury
RED SOX NOTEBOOK
Shortstop Xander Bogaerts injured his ankle badly enough that he had to come out of yesterday’s 8-7 victory in the seventh inning.
The nature and severity of the injury remains unknown — he is undergoing more evaluation — but the availability of the Red Sox’ best player to date for tomorrow night’s Yankees series opener at Fenway Park appears unlikely.
Bogaerts hurt himself sliding into the Rays dugout after he made an ill-advised feed to an invisible Sox defender at third base in the seventh inning. Bogaerts chased after his toss and slid hard across the top step of the visitors’ dugout. Somewhere, he hurt himself. “I just asked him — he doesn’t know if it was when he slid or when he landed,” said manager Alex Cora.
Bogaerts has been the Red Sox’ top hitter this season, leading the team in batting average (.368) and tied for the team lead in RBI (nine).
Brock Holt came in to replace Bogaerts.
“It’s obviously big if it’s a big injury, I’m not sure if it is or not,” said Holt. “He’s been our best player up to this point, so we’ll definitely miss him, but hopefully everything turns out OK. I guess we’ll find out sooner rather than later.”
Said Mookie Betts: “(Bogaerts) played great. Hopefully it’s nothing too serious, miss a couple games, that’s OK, but to have him for the long run, that’s a huge plus.”
Brief outing for E-Rod
Starter Eduardo Rodriguez was lifted with two outs in the fourth inning, with two runners on base. Reliever Hector Velazquez came in and stranded the runners, leaving Rodriguez with a line of three runs allowed on five hits, two walks and seven strikeouts.
“He was a one-pitch pitcher (yesterday). He only threw one good changeup to (Carlos) Gomez, he struck him out 3-2,” said Cora. “Besides that, his changeup wasn’t great. You saw it — infield hits, bloop singles. The 3-1 pitch to (C.J.) Cron (on his a solo shot that led off the second), you’ll take that. You don’t want to walk him. But when you only have one pitch, that’s what’s going to happen. Teams are going to adjust and they’re going to foul pitches off.
“But I thought overall he was good. We wanted him to go deep in the game, of course, but for his first outing it was a good one.”
Mixed outing
In Pawtucket, rehabbing starter Drew Pomeranz went 41⁄3 innings, allowing two runs on two hits, with six walks and one strikeout in a 4-3 win over the Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs. He threw 85 pitches, 47 for strikes . . . .
Without fanfare, the Red Sox replaced their “Welcome to Yawkey Way” banner that hung over the street near Gate D. The new banner now reads “Welcome to Fenway Park.”
The Sox and other abutters along Yawkey Way filed a petition with the City of Boston to change the name of the street back to its original “Jersey Street” in order to distance themselves from the negative legacy of the former Sox owner.
A vote on the name change by the city’s Public Improvement Commission is scheduled for this Thursday . . . .
Early in the game, a drone hovered a couple hundred feet directly over the diamond. Before the drone flew up, up and away, Fenway Park security scanned nearby buildings for the operator.
Magical beginning
The Red Sox’ 8-1 record is their best through nine games in franchise history. And the last time a Sox manager began his tenure by winning at least eight of his first nine games was Joe Morgan during Morgan Magic in 1988.
The Red Sox are also now 5-0 in one-run games this season . ...
The Sox still have not committed an error this season, their best season-starting mark ever . ...
The first-pitch temperature of 38 degrees was the coldest at Fenway since the 34-degree start to the April 17, 2003 game here, also against the Rays . ...
Andrew Benintendi’s game-winning RBI double in the eighth was his first extra-base hit of the year . ...
Mookie Betts is 10-for-22 (.455) with eight runs scored in his six April games . ...
Hanley Ramirez drove in two runs, and all eight of his RBI have come in his last five games . ...
Rafael Devers is tied with Bogaerts for the team lead in RBI with nine. Devers’ two-run double in the eighth brought the Sox to within two . ...
Craig Kimbrel collected his third save of the season. He’s now 14-for14 in save opportunities against the Rays.