Devers homers in opening victory
redsox 6 Mariners 4
SEATTLE — The Red Sox did not make a splash in the offseason. They saved it for opening Day. rafael devers blasted a two-run home run, brayan bello grinded his way through five innings, allowing two runs and throwing 84 pitches, as the Red Sox topped the mariners, 6-4, Thursday night at T-mobile park. Remarkably, tyler o’neill also homered. It was his fifth consecutive opening Day homer, the first player to achieve that feat. Among the other Sox highlights: a hustle triple by center fielder Ceddanne rafaela, who also had a RbI in the third to give the Sox a 3-0 lead.
kenley Jansen saved it in the ninth. He followed Chris Martin, who struck out two in the eighth inning.
Home in seattle
Although the Red Sox are beginning the season on the West coast, Seattle feels like home for o’Neill. The 28year-old grew up in british columbia, canada, roughly three hours from Seattle.
His parents, in-laws, wife, and close friends made the trip Thursday for the Sox’ opening Day matchup against the mariners.
“We’ve got a lot of tickets this week,” said o’Neill, who said he has roughly 20 tickets. “So yeah, I’m going to say a lot of hellos. It’s a good enough effort for them to get down here, and I appreciate all the support and stuff. Having obviously all my family here and some buddies who are from back home is always good.” o’Neill remembered taking the trip from canada to then-Safeco field as a kid to see the mariners, his favorite club, play the blue Jays and Yankees. His family always wanted to make sure they saw all the good teams from the American League East. Now that he’s in the AL East, it’s sort of a full-circle moment. “Seattle Northwest is as far away from everything,” he said. “Especially like team sports. So yeah, it means a lot. It means a lot of my family. They get to see me in person.”
Abreu doesn’t start
manager Alex Cora said throughout camp that Wilyer Abreu would get most of the reps in right field. Yet on opening Day, with righthander Luis Castillo on the hill, cora went with o’Neill over the lefty Abreu. Spring stats don’t determine regular-season success, but the 26 strikeouts in 77 plate appearances for Abreu indicated some of his struggles.
“[We didn’t like the strikeouts],” said cora. “but I think the at-bats were really good. He was going deep into counts, controlling the strike zone. We saw the mechanical adjustment. We saw the mechanical adjustment the last five or six days. “I think he hit the ball hard in Texas, especially the last game there. He had three rockets. So he’ll be ready. The cool thing about the roster is that we can always move Rafaela around. We can put him at second. obviously at short we got trevor story, but if we have to hit for enmanuel Valdez, Rafaela can play second and we like the outfield alignment.” The Sox like the at-bats Abreu gave them, especially down the stretch last season when the Red Sox were out of contention. Still, Abreu, for as good as he is at commanding the zone, there is still a learning process in which the 25year-old will have to take his lumps. furthermore, with Rafaela seen as the everyday center fielder (for the most part), that puts Jarren duran in left field. Despite left field being o’Neill’s main position, he has a plus arm in right, and gives the Sox the ability to mix and match. “I think it’s more about giving Tyler’s a chance to go out there and play on opening Day,” said cora. “That’s important, too. And also, like the flow of the lineup. I think it helps having [Tyler in the five-hole].”
no six-man rotation
The Sox explored a six-man rotation in an attempt to navigate a schedule that includes two offdays in their first 26 games. cora doesn’t expect to use that method during this three-city road swing . . . The Red Sox plan on using righthander Chase Anderson ina multi-inning role. considering the uncertainty in the rotation, the Sox will try to keep him stretched out in case they need him to start.
Hendriks: 60-day IL
The Red Sox moved reliever Liam Hendriks to the 60-day injured list as he continues to recover from Tommy John surgery. The Sox placed lefthander Chris Murphy (left UcL sprain) on the 60-day IL. The club moved righthander bryan Mata (right hamstring strain) to the 15-day IL, while Vaughn Grissom (left hamstring strain) and rob refsnyder (left toe fracture) were placed on the 10-day IL. both injuries are retroactive to march 25. The Red Sox selected righthander naoyuki Uwasawa to the big league roster and optioned him to the club’s spring training complex.