A debut to forget for newcomers
Offseason acquisitions struggle in new uniform
Well, the Red Sox stunk. They found a way to take the joy and optimism out of the air on two straight days.
Opening Day, Take 1, was a bust after a preemptive postponement on what turned out to be a perfectly pleasant Thursday afternoon.
Opening Day, Take 2, wasn’t any better but for a nice pregame ceremony and the general enjoyment of welcoming fans back to the ballpark for the first time in 18 months. Otherwise, they stunk.
But it wasn’t a surprise, was it? The only surprise was that Kiké Hernandez, brought here for his defense, bobbled a hard-hit grounder in the sixth inning and made an error on what could’ve been an inning-ending double play. It came back to bite the Red Sox, whose offense looked overmatched, and they took a 3-0 loss to the rebuilding Orioles to start their 2021 season.
Otherwise, Friday’s game was entirely predictable.
Nathan Eovaldi dominated the Orioles over 5L innings, just as he should, just as he was expected to.
He’s healthy (right now). The Orioles aren’t particularly dangerous. Eovaldi looked strong and did his job.
That he came out after 89 pitches wasn’t a surprise, either. There was a 60-game season last year and the Sox aren’t about to have their most injury-prone starter throwing 100-plus pitches on April 2.
Where the Red Sox might’ve driven some fans into the Charles River are in two areas: their offense looked limp and manager Alex Cora’s bullpen management is already coming into question.
The choice to replace Eovaldi in a 0-0 ballgame in the sixth inning — a huge spot in the game given O’s starter John Means was shoving — was newly-acquired righthander Matt Andriese.
Andriese walked Trey Mancini, allowed Anthony Santander to reach on an error by Hernandez and then left a 93 mph fastball upand-in to rookie Ryan Mountcastle, who pummeled it to the top of the Green Monster for a two-run double.
Andriese, who signed for $1.8 million this winter, is a below-average pitcher with a 4.57 career ERA and had an average fastball velocity of 90 mph in 2020. He’s supposed to be a swingman, maybe a decent sixth starter/long relief type. He’s a depth guy. Every team needs them.
Why is he coming into a 0-0 game in the sixth inning against the Orioles best hitter on Opening Day? That’s probably a question best answered by chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom, who assembled this team.
Cora’s answer was that he wanted Andriese to get the ball down, presumably for a double play. Andriese got the double-play ball he needed two batters into his outing; Hernandez just couldn’t field it properly.
Bloom’s bullpen isn’t exactly flush with options.
This isn’t a modern-day stable full of guys who throw 99 mph. This is an inexpensive bullpen, one built on a budget and one that was another reason to wonder if this team is anything more than a longshot to make the playoffs this year.
Closer candidates Adam Ottavino and Matt Barnes weren’t coming in that early; they’re being saved for the eighth and ninth innings.
You’d like to think a $200-million team would have better options in the sixth, but they don’t.
You could’ve flipped a coin and guessed that Rule 5 pick Garrett Whitlock or Japanese rookie Hirokazu Sawamura would have been better choices there. Whitlock had a great spring; Sawamura did not.
And sure, there’s an argument to be made that Cora could’ve gone to one of his lefties, Darwinzon Hernandez or Josh Taylor. All three of the right-handed hitters due up — Mancini, Santander and Mountcastle — have performed better against righties in their mostly-brief careers.
The point is, there was no clear better choice. And the way Cora tries to manage this bullpen will be an adventure worth watching from Game 1 through 162, if the Sox are lucky enough to hold our interest that long.
This team is light on pitching, deep with free-swingers and loaded with new guys trying to find some chemistry while they replace big names who won a World Series in this town.
Cora made a good point about that before the game, noting that the postponement allowed the Sox time to watch other games around the league. They saw some former fan-favorites like Mookie Betts, Andrew Benintendi, Jackie Bradley Jr., Brock Holt and Mitch Moreland make appearances on five different teams.
“It was a reminder they’re not here anymore,” Cora said. “And for us to get to where we want to go, we have to turn the page and we have to play better and we have to do it with the group that we have.”
That could be the theme of the 2021 season: those guys are gone, it’s time for a new identity. And it’s clearly going to take some time to develop.
If you want Opening Day overreactions, here’s one: none of the new guys played well.
Hernandez arguably blew the game (and was also picked off first base in the first inning), Hunter Renfroe was 0-for-3 with three strikeouts, Marwin Gonzalez was 0-for-3 and Andriese gave up the big hit.
Hey, at least Sawamura pitched a scoreless ninth inning.
Buckle up. This season will be anything but smooth sailing.