Kapler is booed but Phillies win opener
Gabe Kapler got booed twice, Nick Pivetta received a standing ovation and the Philadelphia Phillies celebrated winning their home opener with a nightclub atmosphere in the clubhouse.
After several questionable decisions during a 1-4 trip to start the season, Kapler was booed during introductions before his first game as manager in Philadelphia. The boos were even louder when he pulled Pivetta in the sixth inning with a shutout intact, but the move worked out this time as the Phillies’ bullpen held on Thursday for a 5-0 win over the Miami Marlins.
“They cheer for the players,” Kapler said. “I’ll take that.”
Maikel Franco homered, tripled, singled and drove in four runs to boost the Phillies.
A week ago, in his first game as a big league manager, Kapler took out Aaron Nola in the sixth with a 5-0 lead after just 68 pitches. Atlanta rallied to win 8-5 and that move, along with multiple pitching changes, quirky shifts, and odd lineups, led to Kapler getting heavily criticized by fans and media.
“Whenever people are unhappy, I’ll always ask myself why and if there’s anything I can do to adjust accordingly,” Kapler said. “I’m gonna work my tail off for these fans. Hopefully, over the course of the season, they will learn to trust my process is strong.”
Pivetta fanned nine in 5 2/3 excellent innings, allowing four hits and no walks. Fans quickly went from booing Kapler to giving Pivetta a nice ovation while the skipper waited on the mound for reliever Adam Morgan to enter the game. Morgan retired the four batters he faced and Luis Garcia and Hector Neris combined on the four-hitter.
l Hanley Ramirez blooped a bases-loaded fly ball over the drawn-in outfield in right to break a 12th-inning tie and the Boston Red Sox, who rallied from a two-run deficit in the ninth, beat the Tampa Bay Rays 3-2 to win their home opener at Fenway Park.
It was the sixth straight victory for Boston and new manager Alex Cora, and the sixth loss in a row for the Rays. Tampa Bay topped the Red Sox on opening day last week, and the teams have gone in opposite directions since then.
After David Price pitched seven shutout innings for the second straight outing, Carson Smith gave up Matt Duffy’s tworun homer in the eighth. The Red Sox tied it off Tampa Bay closer Alex Colome before Ramirez won it.
l Adrian Beltre singled and doubled to become the career hits leader among Latinborn players with 3,055 in Texas’ 6-3 victory over Oakland. Martin Perez (1-0) pitched into the sixth inning of his first start of the season, and Shin-Soo Choo homered for the second consecutive day. Daniel Mengden (02) took the loss. The crowd of 10,132 was the largest of the series that attracted 34,613 total for the four games.
Allen Crabbe scored 25 points and hit two 3-pointers in the closing minutes of a tight game, and the visiting Brooklyn Nets shot 48 percent from behind the arc to beat the Milwaukee Bucks 119-111.
The sharpshooting Nets were 19 of 39 from 3-point range, dealing a blow to the Bucks’ hopes of moving up from the eighth seed in the Eastern Conference playoff race.
Crabbe was clutch by hitting two of his five 3s over the final three minutes, the second coming with 1:18 left to give the Nets a sixpoint lead that sent Bucks fans to the exits.
St. John’s forward Kassoum Yakwe plans to transfer and will not return to the Red Storm next season.
The 6-foot-7 junior from Mali said in a school statement Thursday that St. John’s is a “great place” that he had the “privilege to call home for the past three years.”
He did not disclose his plans but says the decision to leave is “best for me.”
Yakwe came off the bench this season in 23 of 24 games. For his career, he averaged 4.5 points, 3.2 rebounds and 1.8 blocks in 18.9 minutes a game. His 149 blocks rank seventh in school history.
Coach Chris Mullin calls him a “wonderful young man” who will “always be part of the St. John’s basketball family.”