How about that launch, huh? The Red Sox have dropped their 2020 season opener against the Orioles, which they project to be the worst team in baseball. It is not what you want. Unsurprisingly, it was pitching that did the Red Sox up front with Ryan Weber just not doing the job. With his lack of material, he needs his command to be pretty perfect if he’s going to be successful, and that wasn’t the case here. His control was off and he made a couple of mistakes, and that was enough for six runs without even leaving the room. The bullpen did a solid job behind him until the ninth, to be fair, but the Red Sox offense fought early against Wade LeBlanc and failed to make up the difference against the Baltimore bullpen. More positively, Boston hosted a couple of dinners from Christian Vazquez and Kevin Pillar.
All games for the Red Sox this season will be about the initial pitch and whether or not they can keep the team in the game. With this opening series against the Orioles, who appear to be the worst team in all of baseball on paper, there was at least some optimism that they could get off to a good start. Except, well, Martín Pérez was hit early in Saturday’s game, so it fell to Ryan Weber’s shoulders to start on Sunday with a good footing. It didn’t work that way.
Weber is not the type of pitcher you expect to see succeed in today’s game as a right-hander who throws a lot of soft stuff and needs to control the edges of the zone to be successful. If you are not on the edge, you do not have a large area or chases, it is often a long day, and that is what happened here.
In the first, he got a couple of quick exits to start, but then José Iglesias continued to be a plague on all three holes. Weber actually threw him a solid two-shot ball from the outside edge, but Iglesias managed to keep the inning alive by depositing a soft lining in right field for a base shot. That brought Rio Ruiz to the plate, and he was wrong. Weber threw a fastball into the area over the center of the plate and the Orioles third baseman put it in the bullpen. That gave Baltimore the initial 2-0 lead.
Weber was better in the second, where he only allowed to walk, but the third went down again. This started with the second walk of the day on the right before Iglesias passed again. This time he hit a double in left center field, and Anthony Santander walked the bases to give the O’s their third run. Fortunately, Weber didn’t leave that snowball and ended up leaving Iglesias standing in the second.
:format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/20532698/1227789826.jpg.jpg)
Photo by Billie Weiss / Boston Red Sox / Getty Images
However, that momentum did not reach the room, and that’s where the wheels really fell off. Renato Núñez quickly started the inning by breaking a base hit from the left side, and that was immediately followed by another Weber walk. With the first two men reaching, DJ Stewart for some reason dropped a touch. He successfully moved the runners up, but it was a free exit that Weber didn’t seem like he was getting alone. However, he paid quick dividends, as Baltimore got his fourth run on a sacrifice fly. This brought Santander to the plate with a runner in second and two outs. The Orioles outfielder grappled with the bat and fouled, and then Weber tried to lead him to a trade below the box. Somehow, Santander caught up with him and put him in the bullpen for Baltimore’s second home run of the game. That ended Weber’s day with six runs on the board. Colten Brewer came out of the bullpen and out of the inning without further damage, although he allowed a couple of base runners.
So the initial pitching was unsuccessful, but the plan for this season was for the offense to make up for that lack of strong pitching. Facing Wade LeBlanc, a left-hander with disappointing things, it seemed like the Red Sox bats had a good chance. Instead, it was a frustrating affair from the start. They got a bit of damage early when Christian Vazquez hit his first home run of the year in the second, sending him over all the cardboard cutouts in the Monster Seats. However, that would be his only success until the fifth, when Kevin Pillar hit one to a similar spot for his first home run in the Red Sox uniform.
So, that made it a 6-2 game, and Marcus Walden entered the sixth. He only had to contend with three batters thanks in part to Christian Vazquez as he caught his first base thief of the season. Then, at the bottom of the inning, the Red Sox had a chance to come back after an infield single by Jackie Bradley Jr. and a two-out double by Rafael Devers, their first hit of the season.
That brought Xander Bogaerts to the plate with a pair in scoring position and Miguel Castro emerging from the Baltimore bullpen. Bogaerts won the battle, hitting a base hit from the left side to bring both runners home and so it was just a two-run game.
Walden then went out again in the seventh, and once again, Iglesias continued to pester Red Sox pitching, this time breaking an opening double after initially falling behind 0-2. Walden added another base runner to the mix with a one-out walk, too. However, the right-hander eventually came out of the inning, maintaining the lead of two runs while leaving the runners in the corners with a strikeout that ended the inning.
After the Red Sox fell in order at the bottom of the inning, Matt Barnes entered for the eighth. His season didn’t get off to the best start when he walked the first two hitters he faced (with a little help from a tight strike zone), but he followed up with a strikeout, pop up and one out and kept the deficit at two.
At the bottom of the inning, Jackie Bradley Jr. led things with a base hit against the turn to put the leader, but that was immediately followed by a double play by José Peraza. They took a break after this with Iglesias making a routine ground ball error, but Devers was unable to take advantage of the error, ending the inning with a grounded to first base.
Austin Brice came in ninth and didn’t do the job. After a single by Hanser Alberto, Chris Davis alone He missed a home run, instead of settling for a double RBI to make it 7-4. However, Davis made peace with the Red Sox, forgetting how many outs there were on the board on a routine flyball to left field to end the inning by doubling.
That gave the Red Sox one more chance in the ninth to make up for the three-run deficit. Vazquez tried to start a rally with a two-out single, but that was all they got when the inning ended without runs, and the Orioles took the opening series of the year.
The Red Sox will look to shake off this very bad opening series as they take on the Mets starting Monday. Depending on how you see things, it is a series of four games with two games in each park or a series of two consecutive games against the same team. Either way, the Mets are coming to Boston on Monday to start at 7:30 pm ET. Michael Wacha is going to New York, while the Red Sox have yet to announce their starter.
BOX
