*Photo from NESN*
It may have took a few games longer than expected, but the Boston Red Sox are in the win column for 2021. It came in a big way too. JD Martinez homered, Xander Bogaerts had a 4 hit night, and the Red Sox routed the Tampa Bay Rays with a 11-2 victory Monday night. 8 of the 9 hitters in the Red Sox lineup got at least one hit in the victory, the one exception being Rafael Devers.
The Red Sox got on the board in the second inning, when Franchy Cordero hit an RBI double to make it 1-0. In the 4th, a Hunter Renfroe sac fly and a ground out from Cordero plated two more runs to make it 3-0. In the 5th, Xander Bogaerts hit an RBI double, but then scored on the same play thanks to a throwing error, making it 5-0 Boston. In the 6th, a sac fly from Alex Verdugo and an RBI double from Kike Hernandez made it 7-0 Red Sox. In the 8th, the Rays picked up two runs on bases loaded walks. In the bottom of the 8th, an RBI single from Verdugo and a 3 run homer from Martinez made it 11-2.
Xander Bogaerts talked about the late start for the offense to the season, saying that "You know, there's 159 games left before today, and you’ve just got to take it one day at a time. Sometimes it's the same as hitting. You want five hits in one at-bat. It's not going to happen. You might get five hits in one day, but not five hits in one at-bat, you know, and sometimes you want to make up for those losses that we got all at once."
Nick Pivetta got the win for the Red Sox in his first start of the season, improving to 3-0 since joining the team last year. Pivetta threw 5 shutout innings, allowing two hits and 4 walks, striking out 4 hitters. Matt Andriese came on and threw 2 1/3 innings of relief work after Pivetta left. Darwinzon Hernandez and Adam Ottavino worked 1/3 of an inning each, and Phillips Valdez worked a clean 9th inning.
Pivetta said of bouncing back that "You’ve just gotta keep it level the whole entire time. You can’t be worried about what happened the day before that or the day before that. It’s 162 games, right? You still have 158 to go now. So it’s just going out there with the same energy, same attitude every single day, keeping a level head and really just going out there and competing."
Michael Wacha was tagged with the loss for the Rays, throwing 5 innings in the defeat. Wacha allowed 5 runs on 8 hits and two walks, striking out 6 hitters. Chris Mazza then came on and didn't do any better, allowing 6 runs on 7 hits and a walk over 2 2/3 innings. Jeffrey Springs got the final out on the mound for the Rays.
Wacha said of his performance that "I was throwing strikes, but I wouldn’t necessarily say they were quality strikes. I felt like too many in the middle of the zone, pitching with a lot of traffic out there, was able to escape a couple times, but over the course of it, just too many balls over the heart of the plate there and too many hard-hit balls. I’ve got to be better than that."
The Rays and Red Sox face off for game two of a 3 game series tonight at 7:10, with Tyler Glasnow taking the mound for the Rays, and Martin Perez starting for Boston.
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