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THE BEST RED SOX TEAM EVAH! ...
Xander and the Sox offense take off
April 7, 2018
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The Red Sox had a tremendous start to their season, winning six
straight heading into this afternoon’s contest at Fenway Park. There
haven’t really been any games quite as nice as this one, though. The
offense exploded early on, knocking out Rays starter Jake Faria with
him having recorded just four outs on the day and showing real depth
in the lineup.
Xander Bogaerts stood out, as he has all year, contributing six
RBIs on the day including one absolutely demolished home run. Even
Rick Porcello looked good despite a rough start to the day.
While most of this one was panic-free, the Red
Sox actually found themselves in an early hole. The Rays jumped all over the Red Sox early, smacking two
singles in the first three at bats, bringing Brad Miller up with two on and just
one out. Tampa’s first baseman came through, sending a fly ball over Jackie
Bradley Jr’s head and into the triangle for a two-run double. Just like that,
the Rays had an early 2-0 lead and looked as if they could score more. Porcello
avoided more damage, though, getting a fly out and a strike out to get out of
the inning with just the two-run deficit.
From there, it was
all about the Red Sox offense. They didn’t waste much time cutting into that
lead as they were all over Faria from the get-go. Mookie Betts led off the
bottom half of the first with a double of his own, and then Andrew Benintendi
drew a walk and Hanley Ramirez hit a single to load the bases. That brought up
J.D. Martinez, who hit one well but one that stayed in the park and he settled
for a sacrifice fly. The lead was cut in half with just one out and two in
scoring position for Bogaerts. The Red Sox shortstop has killed the Rays all
year, and he kept on keepin’ on here in the first, smashing a two-run double to
give Boston a lead, and he’d come around to score right after that when Rafael
Devers drove him in. Just like that, the Red Sox erased Tampa’s two-run lead and
took their own.
The offense didn’t
stop in the second, as the Red Sox once again had no trouble getting on base
against the Rays starter. This time, Faria did get a quick first out before
walking both Betts, Benintendi and Martinez to bring Bogaerts to the plate with
the bases loaded and two outs. Xander did a very
mean thing to this baseball. He got a fastball down the heart of the plate in a
full count and he sent it over everything in
left field.
After that, the Sox bats quieted down for a few innings, but in the seventh they woke
back up and kept the dingers comin’. First was Martinez, who got a fastball on the inner part of the plate
(maybe even off the plate), and he just turned on it and sent it 420 feet out to
left field for his first dinger as a member of the Red Sox. That inspired Devers,
who came up next and took a slider down and in and sent it over the right field
wall to give the Red Sox two more runs and back-to-back homers.
Meanwhile, during this offensive explosion from the Red Sox lineup, Rick
Porcello was settling down in a big way. In the second he allowed a one-out single to Joey Wendle and that was it.
Following that single the next, the next 17 Rays batters would be set down, a
streak that ended when Wendle hit a double to lead off the top of the eighth.
Tampa would get one more off Porcello on a Denard Span single before the righty
was taken out of the game. Overall, Porcello went 7 1/3 innings with seven strikeouts and no walks while allowing
three runs on six hits. This was the worst start by a Red Sox starter so far
this year, but clearly that says a lot more about the kind of performances
they’ve gotten in 2018 than it does about Porcello’s day.
Marcus Walden came in with
the hopes of finishing off this blowout, and he finished the eighth easily with
a comebacker that was turned into an inning-ending double play. Walden came back
in the next inning to set the Rays down in order and close out this blowout
victory. It was a nice little recovery after Walden’s last outing went poorly.
As a final note,
with the Rays burning through four relievers through the first seven innings and
they turned to infielder Daniel
Robertson for the bottom half of the eighth. And, wouldn’t you know it, he set
the side down in order.
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