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Back to Florida

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After splitting the 4-game weekend series with the Orioles, the Red Sox are heading back to Florida for their first matchup of the season against the Tampa Bay Rays.

The Patriots’ Day Red Sox win came in an official, though rain-shortened game of 6½ innings. It was the first rain-shortened Red Sox game since beating the Yankees 3-0 on June 2, 2013. The Sox are now 69-51 for all-time on Patriots’ Day, including 11-4 in their last 15 games.

For all time the Red Sox lead the Rays 171-126 though that tally includes some very bad Tampa Bay seasons. More recently, Boston is 43-49 (.467) vs Tampa Bay over the past five seasons making the Rays one of just 5 American League clubs against which the Red Sox have a sub-.500 win percentage.

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In 2013 the World Champion Sox beat the Rays 12-7 in the season series. I 2014 Tampa Bay edged the Red Sox 10 games to 9.

Tuesday’s season series opener will be the first of 19 games between the clubs this season. After 3 games this week the Rays will be at Fenway May 4-6.

Pitching for the Red Sox Tuesday will be Wade Miley (0-1, 10.57 ERA this season). Miley earned a Win against the Yankees his first time out in 2015, but then melted down against the Nationals at Fenway, allowing 7 earned runs over just 2.1 innings pitched. He’ll be facing the Rays’ Chris Archer (2-1, 1.37 ERA), who is coming off back-to-back wins against the Marlins and Blue Jays.

Though the Rays are just 2 games back in the AL East they’ve opened the season with a miserable 1-5 home record. Tampa Bay has gone 4-6 against clubs of their division, including just being swept at home in a 3-game series against the Yankees.

For completeness, here are the five AL teams against which the Red Sox have the highest win percentage since 2010:

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Game 6: Buchholz meltdown

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Sunday night’s series finale between the Red Sox and Yankees was a spectacle, but not the kind we hoped to see.

Clay Buchholz, fresh from a solid performance on Opening Day, allowed seven first-inning New York runs that all but sealed the Red Sox’ fate in Game 6. Despite getting within striking distance with three Boston runs, Buchholz quickly gave those runs back.

With their club starting the year 1-4, Yankees fans no doubt heaved a heavy sigh of relief with the performance of Masahiro Tanaka, who improved to 1-1, 7.00 ERA on the year. As important in New York was, no doubt, the awakening of the Yankee bats with home runs by Brian McCann (the 200th of his career) and by Stephen Drew.

Red Sox fans, meanwhile, were left scratching their heads as how Buchholz could swing from such a beautiful outing last Monday to this. Certainly, the Yankees lineup, while not the fearsome bunch of years past, is still better than what Buchholz faced in Philadelphia on Opening Day. Never the less, Buchholz has been known to be inconsistent as the following chart of career performance indicates.

Buchholz Career Record

Edward Mujica, who on Friday allowed a 2-out, 9th inning game-tying home run by Chase Headley (and thereby initiating what would become the longest game in Red Sox history), gave up a home run again Sunday night, his second in as many appearances.

When all was said and done the Red Sox allowed 14 Yankees runs, the most allowed to any club since a 14-1 loss to the Blue Jays last July 28. Boston had three games where an opponent scored 14+ runs in 2014, just one such game in 2013.

Red Sox pitching, we all know, is suspect but in the cold weather of April the Red Sox anticipated offensive pop has yet to fully materialize. Hanley Ramirez gracefully swatted his club-best third home run of the year. Another small but bright sign was the long awaited first hit of the season for Mike Napoli.

While a sweep of the Yankees would have been satisfying (the last came September 13-15, 2013 at Fenway; the last in New York was June 7-9, 2011), Sunday’s game still counts as just one loss despite the lopsided score.

After the game the Red Sox headed to Boston for the Home Opener with wins in both of the first two series of the season.


Game 5: Kelly’s masterpiece

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Joe Kelly

Joe Kelly

After the longest game in Red Sox franchise history, the club needed relief and Joe Kelly provided it in spades.

Kelly, the Red Sox newcomer who was acquired from the Cardinals at the non-waiver trade deadline last season, executed what the Boston Herald justifiably called “a masterpiece.”

The 25-year old, who boldly declared himself a 2015 Cy Young candidate during Spring Training, threw like a legitimate contender in the Red Sox win over the Yankees Saturday, 8-4, striking out a career-high 8 batters.

Kelly allowed just one hit and two walks over 7.0 innings pitched. So far this season, only the Athletics Scott Kazmir and Sonny Gray have had similar games. In fact, in the 2014 season there were just 27 such games in all of baseball.

Kelly became the first Boston pitcher to strikeout 8 or more Yankees in New York since Ryan Dempster (also 8 SO) on April 4, 2013. By the end of the day, Red Sox pitchers had struck out 11 Yankees for the 44th time in the history of rivalry. It marked the first time the Red Sox have struckout 11 or more Yankees in New York since 13 strikeouts on May 14, 2011.

Daniel Nava improved to 6-for-11 (.546) with 7 RBI lifetime vs Saturday’s New York starter, Adam Warren. Both Nava’s RBIs came with two outs.

Brock Holt, in his first action of 2015, built on his penchant for day game success. Last season he went 43-for-121 (.355) in day games, good for the 2nd-best such mark in the American League among players with a minimum of 100 plate appearances.

On Saturday Holt put together 4 hits in 5 at-bats collecting his 10th career multi-RBI game overall. It was Holt’s first game with 3 RBI,  all coming with a bases loaded, base clearing double with two outs in the 8th inning. Prior to today’s game Holt had been 0-for-11 over his career in bases loaded situations.

The big Boston bats were quiet today with Hanley Ramirez given the day off, Pablo Sandoval going 1-for-5, and both David Ortiz and Mike Napoli held hitless. Despite a torrid Spring Training, Napoli is now 0-for-32 dating back to September 8.

The Red Sox, who improve to 4-1 for the first time since 2006, have now won back-to-back series with the final game of this one coming Sunday night. They then head to Boston for the season’s home opener against the Nationals.


Game 4: History made

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Red Sox and Yankees games are notoriously long, but Friday’s was historical. The 6 hour, 49 minute affair (409 minutes) was the longest game in club history, by time. More importantly, it was a hard-fought Red Sox win.

For the Yankees, it was their longest-ever home game and the 2nd longest game in their club’s history behind a 7 hour contest on June 24, 1962 against the Tigers.

Boston has now won 6 of their last 7 extra-innings games against the Yankees dating back to 2010.

Previously, Boston’s longest regular season game was August 25, 2001, a 6 hours, 35 minute, 18 inning  7-8 loss to the Rangers. The longest Red Sox regular season game against the Yankees before Friday’s was 6 hours, 9 minutes on August 29, 1967. The Yankees won that game 4-3.

The Red Sox’ longest regular season 9-inning game by time was August 18, 2006 against the Yankees. That game clocked in at 4 hours, 45 minutes. The next three longest regular season  9-inning Red Sox games have also come versus New York on September 9, 2007, September 1, 2011, and April 25, 2009.

In terms of innings, Friday’s game was just the 11th in Red Sox history to go as many as 19 frames.

Friday’s game was the first extra-innings game in the American League this season.

According to Elias, the longest game by time in Major League history took 8 hours, 6 minutes and was played between the Brewers and White Sox on May 8, 1984.


It’s finally here!

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AMLB Opening Dayfter a long, hard winter—harder for some than for others—the day we’ve longed for is just about upon us.

Monday’s Opening Day kicks off the Red Sox 2015 campaign with a bunch of new faces in a revamped lineup that’s sure to provide plenty of offense and plenty to talk about on the mound.

April 6th is the latest Red Sox Opening Day since the April 7th start in 2009, a 5-3 win over the Rays. It’s just the 3rd time that the Red Sox have started a season on or after April 6 since the strike shortened season of 1995, which opened on April 26.

The Red Sox are 55-58-1 in Opening Day games for all-time, going 5-5 in their last 10, and 2-3 for their last five starting sets.

The Red Sox face the Phillies Monday, Wednesday and Thursday before heading to New York for a weekend series of 3 games against the Yankees Friday to Sunday. Sunday’s game will be broadcast on ESPN Sunday Night Baseball. The Phillies will face Boston again this season September 4-6 at Fenway.

It’s the fifth straight Opening Day on the road for Boston, the 75th time overall. The last time the Red Sox opened the season at Fenway was on an unseasonably warm April 4, 2010 vs the Yankees, when game time temperature was 67º F. Since 2000 the Red Sox have opened the season at home just three times: 2002, 2009, and 2010. Boston is 32-41-1 in road openers for all time.

A little history

1915 World Series programMonday’s game marks the first time the Red Sox have opened a season against a National League team, but not the first time they’ve opened the season in Philly. The last time came in 1954, a 6-4 loss to the Philadelphia Athletics. That was the last year the City of Brotherly Love had an American League team, which switched to become the Kansas City Athletics the following season.

In a sense, it’s particularly fitting for the Red Sox to open the season in Philadelphia this year. 2015 marks the 100th anniversary of Boston’s World Championship over the 1915 Phillies. In that year the Red Sox Opening Day game was a 2-0 loss to the Philadelphia Athletics and their last game of the season was the World Series clincher on October 13, 1915 vs the Phillies at Philadelphia’s Baker Bowl. This Thursday, in the last game of this opening series, the two clubs will wear throwback caps similar to their 1915 designs.

Player milestones

Clay Buchholz, last year’s No. 5 starter, will be the Opening Day starter for the first time in his career. The last time that happened for the Red Sox was with Roger Clemens, who started Game 5 of the 1987 season just before opening the next 7 straight seasons. In all, Clemens holds the club record for the most Opening Day starts by a Red Sox pitcher (8).

David Ortiz will be making his 11th Opening Day start with the Red Sox, tying him with Harry Hooper 7th-most in club history. Carl Yastrzemski holds the club record with 22 such starts followed by Dwight Evans (17), Jim Rice (14), Bobby Doerr and Ted Williams (13 each), and Rico Petrocelli (12).

Red Sox with the most Opening Day starts by position are Jason Varitek at catcher (10), George Scott and Mo Vaughn at first (7 each), Doerr at second (13), Wade Boggs at third (10), Everett Scott at shortstop (8), Yastrzemski in left (15), Dom DiMaggio in center (9), and Evans in right (14). Ortiz has the most Opening Day starts as Red Sox DH (10).

Opening Day records

Yastrzemski hit a club-best 6 home runs on Opening Days of his career. Dwight Evans had 5, Jim Rice and Ted Williams each have hit 3. David Ortiz, Dustin Pedroia and nine other Red Sox batters have hit 2. In all, Big Papi has 4 Opening Day home runs in his career, the most among active players.

The most Red Sox team home runs in an Opening Day game is 4. It happened three times: April 12, 1965 against the Senators, April 7, 1986 against the Tigers, and April 1, 2002 against the Blue Jays.

Four Red Sox batters have hit a club-best 2 home runs in an Opening Day game: Carlton Fisk (1973), Carl Yastrzemski (1968), Lenny Green (1965), and Ted Lepcio (1955).

Remarkably consistent, Pedroia has hit safely in all 8 career openers, going 13-for-33 (.394) in such games. His 1-for-3 record in each of his 8 opening games is the longest Opening Day hitting streak by a Red Sox player since Yastrzemski had 13 such hits from 1968-1980.

Eleven Red Sox players have a club-best 4 hits in an Opening Day game, most recently Jose Offerman in a 5-3 win over the Royals on April 5, 1999.

The Red Sox hold the record, since at least 1914, for the most walks drawn in an Opening Day game. It came on April 1, 2002 against the Blue Jays. Despite drawing an MLB-record 13 free passes, Boston lost that game 11-12. The Sox also hold baseball’s 3rd-best mark for most hits in an Opening Day game during that same span, amassing 20 in a 15-5 win over the Yankees on April 6, 1973. Since 1914 the most hits in an opener was 23 by the Cubs over the Diamondbacks in 2005.

The road ahead

The Red Sox will come home for the Fenway opener versus Nationals on Monday, April 13—15. The home opener will mark just the 10th time these two club have played each other and the 1st time since June 10, 2012.

Boston will complete their first homestand with 4 games against the Orioles April 17—20.