Schreiber settles in with Red Sox
John Schreiber is from Michigan, lives about 20 minutes from Comerica Park, and was in the Tigers organization from 2016-2020. He grew up rooting for the Tigers, too. Brandon Inge was his favorite player.
In 2013, Schreiber was cheering like crazy for the Tigers in the American League Championship Series against the Red Sox.
“I still don’t know how they lost that series,” Schreiber said. “That was a great team. I remember being home watching on TV and being crushed that they lost.”
But his baseball home is now in Boston. The Red Sox plucked him off waivers in 2021 and Schreiber had a 2.25 ERA and 1.06 WHIP over his first 69 appearances.
His low arm slot offers a different look that makes him effective against lefthanded hitters. The 29-year-old righthander is also not afraid to challenge hitters, although he had an uncharacteristic four walks in his first four innings this season.
“He’s a guy we trust,” Sox manager Alex Cora said.
This weekend, Schreiber was able to sleep in his own bed for a few days while on a road trip and spend time with his wife and 2-month-old son.
A few other observations on the Red Sox:
The new light shows at Fenway have sparked some conversation. Ultimately, a few seconds in a game is not a big deal, right?
The real significance is how much better the field looks at night. The new LED lights are a big upgrade from the metal halide lights that were at Fenway. There used to be dark spots in the leftfield corner, deep center field, and in the right-field gap. Now there’s even lighting across the field.
“It’s a lot better than it was before,” right fielder Alex Verdugo said.
The field looks a bit like a well-lit stage with it being a little darker in the stands. One issue Sox players have mentioned is that high popups disappear for a second when they get above the lights. That’s being looked into and adjustments could be made.
You can argue about the quality of the roster, but the Sox have made some good improvements to Fenway over the last few years.
The Sox announced a crowd of 24,477 for Wednesday’s game against the Pirates at Fenway. That’s the smallest crowd for a home game (discounting the 2020-21 pandemic seasons) since May 2, 2000, when they drew 22,897 against the Tigers.
Yes, it was 41 degrees for a midweek day game against the Pirates. But the Sox have played plenty of day games in bad weather against downtrodden teams since 2000.
They also had a (somewhat suspicious) sellout streak at home from 2003-13. In those days, it didn’t matter what the weather was.
Masataka Yoshida batted fourth in his first seven games as a rookie. The last Red Sox rookie to do that was 24year-old Watertown native Jack Hoey, who hit cleanup in his first nine games in 1906. Hoey was productive at first but ultimately hit .232 over parts of three seasons and was back in the minors by 1908.
The Sox don’t miss many opportunities to sell ad space, even in the visitor’s clubhouse.
Opposing players have metal lockers with a shelf at the top. The thin strip of the shelf that faces out now has the name of a private jet company. The company’s logo is emblazoned on the inside wall of the locker. So if a player does a television interview in front of his locker, the ad will get in the picture.
Kourtney Turner, Justin’s wife, ran the Los Angeles Marathon on March 19 and will run Boston on April 17 to benefit the Red Sox Foundation. Go to givebutter.com/BostonKourt if you want to contribute.