Welcome back baseball, indeed!
On an absolutely GLORIOUS day in Cincinnati, the Red Sox took down the Reds by a final score of 3-0. This box score somehow feels earned despite the way the game went? Let me explain.
The Red Sox offense got the better of Andrew Abbott but couldn’t push a run across the plate until the 7th inning. 10 men left on base feels like the boys are picking right back up where they were last year—lots of bark, no bite to get multiple runs.
Thankfully, squeaking one out with a Ceddanne Rafalea RBI single in the 7th seemed to bring the game itself back to life, and then pouring on hits and walks in the 9th gave myself and hopefully everyone a little sigh of relief with insurance runs driven in by Trevor Story and Jarren Duran.
Crochet was Crochet. Exactly the workhorse ace you need him to be but not overextending him early on. Slaten, Whitlock, and Chapman were almost as clean as you can be, giving up only two baserunners total in the final three frames. For game 1 of 162, this was a decent start and showing signs of what should be coming in the 2026 season.
Take the night to soak in the win—the opening series off day is tomorrow so the Sox aren’t back until Saturday afternoon at 1:40pm!
Garrett Crochet (6 IP, 0 ER, 3 H, 2 BB, 8 K)
After a rocky final start in Spring Training, the Pig showed everyone why it’s all just practice until the games count. Starting off with a four pitch first inning, he was a dominant force in Cincinnati on Thursday afternoon.
Roman Anthony (3-for-4, 1 BB, 1 run, 1 K)
The youngest Red Sox EVER with multiple hits on his first Opening Day, three singles, a walk created by a successful ABS challenge. Welcome to your first full season, Roman!
Marcelo Mayer (2-for-2, 2 runs)
Marcelo didn’t get the start today against a lefty starter, but he made an immediate impact upon coming in with a single, a double and two runs scored. I’m really intrigued to see how he fares at second—but his bat had a great start on Opening Day.
The ABS Challenge System (4 challenges, 3 successful overturns)
Today might be the day I realized how pivotal the ABS system is going to be to the success of baseball. Carlos Narváez did a phenomenal job with challenges behind the plate, going 2-for-3 on the day. That also includes turning an Eugenio Suárez walk into a strikeout to end the 4th inning. It was Roman Anthony’s challenge in the 9th that should be talked about the most. A strikeout to end the inning and leave Marcelo on base turned into a walk that sparked some insurance runs to seal the game is absolutely the kind of result ABS should be producing, Reward catchers for making good calls for their pitchers and getting them out of innings. Reward batters for making good calls by extending innings and starting rallies. I really enjoy this balance—I think full on robo-umpires is against the spirit of the game, but I appreciate the chance for in-game policing and taking that calculated risk to have an accurate call.
Caleb Durbin (0-for-3, 1 BB)
The lack of hits isn’t great…the error at third was egregious. It was a grounder he should be able to handle pretty easily. Thank the baseball gods they didn’t get burned for it.
Isaiah Kiner-Falefa (0-for-2, 1 K)
Wilson Contreras (0-for-4, 1 BB, 1 K)
I’ll say the same thing for IKF and for Willy…eh. Tepid and inoffensive debuts for each of them to the Red Sox faithful.
In an absolute pitcher’s duel where neither offense could figure out the starter for long, Garrett Crochet working himself out of this bases-loaded jam proved to be absolutely pivotal.
