After a memorable ring ceremony and opening day festivities, there was baseball to be played at the new look Fenway Park as Daisuke Matsuzaka took to the hill for the Boston Red Sox. Dice-K was outstanding on the mound as his arm and the bat of Kevin Youkilis helped the Red Sox beat the winless Detroit Tigers 5-0 in front of 36,567 at the Fens. The win was the Red Sox fourth in the last four Fenway Park openers.
Dice-K (2-0) went 6 2/3 innings, giving up 4 hits, 4 walks while striking out 7. Six of his 7 strikeouts came on his fastball, something we have seen now in his last two starts. Manny Delcarmen rebounded from his bad outings in Toronto giving up 1 hit and had 2 strikeouts in 1 1/3 innings. Hideki Okajima threw a perfect 9th inning adding two strikeouts to the 11 total strikeouts of Detroit (0-7) hitters today.
Offensively, the Red Sox (4-4) were paced by the bats of Youk and Pedroia. Youk was 3-for-3 with a walk and 2 RBIs while Pedroia was 2-for-5. The Captain, Jason Varitek, and Julio Lugo were both 2-for-4 as well.
The Red Sox threatened in the first off of Tigers starter Kenny Rogers “Roaster”. Pedroia led off with a ground out and Youk followed that up with a single. Big Papi worked a walk and both runners moved up 90 feet when Manny Ramirez hit a cue shot down the first base line. Rogers escaped the jam by getting Mike Lowell to fly out to right.
Through the first two innings, Dice-K was throwing the ball well as he allowed just one hit and had 2 strikeouts.
J.D. Drew led off the 2nd inning with a single and went to second on a balk from Rogers. Tek singled moving Drew to third and Drew came home to score on a Coco Crisp sacrifice fly to put the Red Sox on top 1-0. Rogers then got Lugo to fly out for the second out. Pedroia followed that with a single and Youk worked a walk to load up the bases for Big Papi. Rogers got out of the bases loaded situation when Big Papi’s fly ball fell into the glove of Magglio Ordoñez 10 feet in front of the right field wall.
The Sox added another run in the 3rd inning of the bat of Manny who crushed a ball to the triangle for a triple. And yes he was actually running out of the box. He scored when Placido Polanco’s relay throw went into the dugout.
Meanwhile, Dice-K had pitched a perfect top half of the 3rd and gave up a lead-off walk to Polanco in the 4th. The defense helped out Dice-K as Gary Sheffield hit into a 5-4-3 double play.
The local nine added another run in the 4th inning. After a Crisp out, Lugo reached on an infield single and went to second on a throwing error by Miguel Cabrera. Pedroia moved him a base with a single and Lugo came around to score on a sacrifice fly from Youk, giving the Red Sox a 3-0 lead.
The Tigers had chances to score in the 5th and 6th inning but both times Dice-K was able to pitch out of trouble. He got out of a bases loaded jam in the 6th by getting Carlos Guillen to line out to center.
Boston added a 2 more runs in the 6th inning off of Tigers reliever Jason Grilli. Lugo led off with a single followed by a Pedroia strikeout. Youk drove in Lugo all the way from first with a long double to left field.Big Papi worked a walk and both base runners moved up 90 feet on a Manny ground out. Grilli then got wild as he walked Lowell to load the bases for J.D. Grilli walked in a run when he issued a free pass to Drew giving the Red Sox their final run (5-0) of the day.
Jon Lester will be on the bump for the local nine tomorrow and he will be opposed by Jeremy Bonderman.
Notes and musings:
With the Bruins playing on Thursday night in the NHL playoffs, The Red Sox are being bumped to the NESN plus channel. To find the NESN Plus channel in your area, click here.
Steven Tyler performed “God Bless America” and was absolutely amazing.
Neil Diamond performed “Sweet Caroline” taped on the jumbotron in the bottom of the 8th inning.
The famous hawk made an appearance during the game and had a rat in it’s mouth.
Polanco’s error in the 3rd inning was his first since July 1st, 2006 ending his MLB record (for second baseman) at 186 games. He handled the ball 911 times perfectly before the error.
That was Manny’s first triple since he hit one last year on May 26th.
HEY!!! I thought that NESN was going to rebroadcast the ring ceremony????
It’s supposed to be on right after this is over. The game went long. They are about a half hour behind schedule right now.
Oh thank you….I got nervous.
Actually, I wasn’t nervous…I wanted to cry!
Beautiful day in CT, isn’t it??
It did appear to be a nice day out. What part of CT? i wouldn’t know lol. Actually I went out in the morning.Yeah they cut the post game crap short so they wouldn’t fall too behind schedule. And here it is starting up for you right now.
It was a great day for baseball with the win too.
I live in Branford…I didn’t see too much of it either..but it was still nice even after I got out of work!
So glad they are doing this again. I actually am crying….good grief!
Ahhhh you’re my neighbor. I’m in West Haven.
I’m watching it as well again.
I thought they might at least announce their names???
Daisuke looks fabulous. This is the guy everyone thought we were getting.
I think we could all do without the 4 walks but yes, this is the Dice-K that was advertised. I like the fact that he’s relying on his fastball for the strikeout much like they said he did in Japan.
Also good to see him not get flustered when he did get in trouble.
I am still shocked Manny ran out of the box on the triple. He must have realized where it was going to land and said oh shit, I better run. Good throw and he may have been out.
Also nice to see Manny D. rebound although he didn’t have to face the Big Hurt.