The last time that Scott Kazmir faced the Boston Red Sox, he staked his team to a big lead. Tonight was no different as he gave them 6 strong innings and the bullpen held the lead for him as the Tampa Bay Rays went on to win 7-2 in front of 37,552 cold fans at Fenway Park.
Jon Lester wasn’t great for the Red Sox in his first start of the season although home plate umpire Bob Davidson wasn’t doing him any favors. Lester allowed 5 runs on 8 hits and 2 walks while striking out 5.
Manny Delcarmen and Ramon Ramirez both worked perfect innings with Ramirez adding a strikeout. Takashi Saito made his Red Sox debut and gave up a run on a hit. Javier Lopez worked the 9th allowing a run on a 4 hits.
Kazmir gave up 1 run in 6 innings on 5 hits and 3 walks while striking out 4.
Kevin Youkilis was the man at the plate for the Red Sox going 3-for-4 with an RBI. Jason Bay had the other RBI for the Red Sox and added a double while Jacoby Ellsbury, Dustin Pedroia, David Ortiz and Rocco Baldelli had the other hits.
Lester worked around an Evan Longoria double in the 1st and he struck out the side in the 2nd inning. It was the 3rd inning when things started to go south.
Akinori Iwamura led off with a double and then Jason Bartlett reached on an infield single with Iwamura holding put at second. Carl Crawford followed with a shot between first and second that was gloved by Youkilis but his throw to second went into the outfield and allowed Iwamura to score to give the Rays a 1-0 lead. That would be all the damage though as Lester got Longoria to ground into a double play and Carlos Peña to ground out to second, his first out that wasn’t a strikeout (struck out in 1st).
Ellsbury popped out to start the bottom half of the inning and the reigning AL MVP followed with a double. Kazmir got the second out with a strikeout of Big Papi but Youk singled in Pedroia to tie the game at 1. Youk was thrown out trying to get back to the bag when Peña cut off the throw.
Former Red Sox outfielder and minor league manager Gabe Kapler worked a walk to start the 5th and went to third on a Iwamura single. Bartlett then laid down a safety squeeze that Lester could only weakly throw to Jason Varitek as Kapler crossed the plate to make it 2-1 Rays. Crawford followed with a single to load up the bases for Longoria who ended up grounding into a double play that saw Iwamura score. Peña then finally came through with first hit of the season and it was a big one as he crushed a Lester offering for a 2-run homer to center making it 5-1 Rays.
Longoria pushed the lead to 6-1 when he led off the 8th with a solo home run off of Saito.
The Red Sox had a chance to tie the game up in bottom of the 8th but only came out of the inning with a run.
J.P. Howell started the inning with a strikeout of Pedroia and then allowed back-to-back singles by Big Papi and Youk. Howell struck out his former teammate Baldelli for the second out but a Bay double knocked in Papi to make it 6-2. Howell then hit Mike Lowell in the elbow to load up the bases for Jed Lowrie. Grant Balfour took over for Howell and struck out Lowrie to end the threat.
The Rays would add an insurance run off of Lopez in the 9th and Balfour sent the local nine down in order in the 9th to preserve the win for the Rays.
These same two teams are back at it again at 1:35 PM in the rubber match of this three game series. Daisuke Matsuzaka starts for the Red Sox and will be opposed by Matt Garza.
Notes and musings:
Tampa Bay Rays @ Boston Red Sox 4.8.09 box score
Of Boston’s 7 minor league affiliates including the DSL Red Sox, 4 begin regular season play this Thursday, April 9. Triple-A Pawtucket starts at Buffalo with the home opener on April 17 vs. Lehigh Valley. Double-A Portland opens at home vs. Connecticut. Single-A Salem will play its first game as a member of the Red Sox organization at home vs. Frederick. Single-A Greenville opens at Greensboro, with the first home game on April 13 vs. Hickory.
NESN’s coverage of yesterday’s Red Sox Opening Day win garnered a 17.9 average household rating in the Boston DMA, passing the previous best Opening Day rating of 17.6 on April 3, 2005, a game that aired in primetime against the Yankees on WSBK-TV.
The game was the top rated program in the market beating every primetime show including American Idol. NESN also set a network record Opening Day pre-game show rating of a 4.3 for the debut of NESN’s reintroduced 1-hour pre-game show Olympia Sports presents The Boston Globe Red Sox Game Day LIVE.
Jason Varitek has now made 10 Opening Day starts for Boston, more than any other player on the roster, and the most ever by a Sox catcher. Overall, he is tied for 8th in club history with Wade Boggs and Dom DiMaggio. Harry Hooper ranks next on that list with 11 Opening Day starts.
Varitek hit his 2nd career Opening Day homer yesterday. In Red Sox history, only Carl Yastrzemski (6), Dwight Evans (5), Jim Rice (3) and Ted Williams (3) have more long balls in the first game of the regular season (Source: David Vincent – SABR).
Dustin Pedroia will receive his 2008 Gold Glove and Silver Slugger awards in a pregame ceremony tomorrow, April 9. Dwight Evans will participate in the ceremony and throw out a first pitch. Along with Pedroia, he is one of 4 Red Sox ever to win both awards in the same season (1981). Jason Varitek (2005) and Ellis Burks (1990) are the others.
Jon Lester’s 11-game home winning streak was snapped tonight.
