The 2020 baseball season opened disorientingly at Fenway Park, where the normal 45-minute rush hour commute from North Boston took 18 minutes, parking was plentiful and cheap just outside Gate D, and not a single one fanatic entered the park, though A handful stirred out of it.
The Red Sox avoided their usual pomp and circumstance for discreet pregame ceremonies that correctly focused on the sizable number of pandemic victims, in addition to honoring the Black Lives Matter movement with a black ribbon extending from the Orioles in a line from base to the Red Sox on the other, in a sample of our interconnection.
The game started with Red Sox starter Nathan Eovaldi shooting 100mph fastballs and Orioles starting hitter Austin Hays abruptly lining up in deep right field, where Kevin Pillar, handling the field once owned by Mookie Betts, made A good spinning grip in front of the bullpen as the fake fans roared late.
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After months of uncertainty about whether baseball (a) wanted to return or (b) would be able to do so, the Red Sox treated the audience that was watching and listening to a familiar sight, hitting the Orioles, 13-2, and in the process revealing the plan for how they could make the playoffs this year:
By bringing some serious pain.
“If you look at what this lineup is very capable of doing,” said JD Martinez, “it could be scary.”
The Orioles may be a shame, but the Red Sox still make it look easy. They hit 17 hits and eight doubles. Martinez debuted at hole number 2, where manager Ron Roenicke once feared he would not have as many RBIs, with three hits and three runs. “I’m not complaining, I went up twice with the bases loaded, so far so good,” Martinez said. Newcomer José Peraza stroked a pair of doubles as part of a four-hit night. Jackie Bradley Jr. led the ball with authority en route to three shots of his own.
Perhaps most impressive, the Red Sox did considerable damage despite the trio of Andrew Benintendi, Rafael Devers, and Xander Bogaerts going 1-for-12. They hit an astonishing base 24 times, enough to load the bases at eight o’clock tickets that hit. leaving the Orioles in a constant state of bombardment.
Their pitching team may be a mess after Eovaldi, but they should get the most out of the ball, and there’s certainly an entertainment value of 60 games in that.
“I knew our offense was good and we’ve balanced the bat well, but obviously you don’t expect them to come out … in my opinion, I don’t expect us to score as many runs.” Roenicke admitted. “But the guys keep swinging the bats great and we got the good pitching.”
The challenge for the 2020 Red Sox will be the reality of its pitching team, which most fans couldn’t name. “Honestly, we don’t have one of the best pitching teams in baseball,” Bogaerts said before the game in a refreshing moment of candor.
Starting Eovaldi in the first match is one thing. We’ll see what Martin Perez’s experience looks like in Game 2 on Saturday, before the Red Sox open twice early next week. There is a clear possibility that 13-2 will become 13-11 in no time.
But as long as the offense changes as it did on Friday, there is a significant baseball chance this fall, and considering everything we’ve been through just to play a season, Red Sox fans should take advantage of it.
