Rain could only delay opening day baseball in Boston for 24 hours as the Red Sox defeated the Tampa Bay Rays 5-3 at Fenway yesterday. The game started at 4:06 pm to honor Ted Williams’s batting average in 1941; perhaps a sign of the events to come…
courtesy of Creative Commons
In the team’s second at-bat of the season, American League MVP Dustin Pedroia hit a homerun over the Green Monster. Nevertheless, he did not carry the offensive load yesterday, thanks to J.D. Drew, Jason Bay, Mike Lowell, and Jason Varitek each ending up with an RBI. Varitek hit the 2nd homerun of the season for the Red Sox; a solo shot down the right field line.
It indeed was a team effort, as starting pitcher Josh Beckett struck out 10 in 7 innings and allowed 1 earned run on only 2 hits. After struggling against the Rays in the playoffs, Beckett looked like the 20-game winner and Cy Young contender of 2007.
Tonight it will be a battle between lefties as the Red Sox will put Jon Lester on the mound against the Ray’s Scott Kazmir. Last season, Lester was 3-0 against the Rays with a 0.90 ERA.
Notables:
- U.S. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, who has been diagnosed with brain cancer, threw the first pitch.
- Kennedy’s grandfather, John Fitzgerald, threw out the first pitch at the first major league game ever played at Fenway, on April 12, 1912.
- Varitek made his ninth straight opening-day start, most for a Red Sox catcher. Left fielder Carl Yastrzemski holds the franchise lead with 15.
- Jonathan Papelbon got the save after the Rays tacked on 2 runs in the 8th.
- James Shields fell to 0-4 with a 9.56 ERA in four career appearances at Fenway Park.
- Lester was 11-1 with a 2.49 ERA last season at Fenway.
By: Omar Taveras
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