G1: Yankees 6, Red Sox 5 (11)

Red Sox - 300 001 000 10 - 5  9  2
Yankees - 200 100 010 11 - 6  9  0

After taking a 3-0 lead in the top of the first before making an out, the Red Sox spent the rest of Friday afternoon doing a whole lot of nothing, watching the Yankees come back and win the opening game of the season in 11 innings.

Over a span of eight innings (from the second to the ninth), Boston got a man past first base in only one frame. Meanwhile, Alex Cora made some questionable decisions:

After the Yankees tied the game in the bottom of the eighth, he brought Matt Strahm out of the bullpen. The hirsute lefty finished the inning unscathed, but he threw only six strikes in 15 pitches.

When Xander Bogaerts came out of the game with a possible hamstring injury, after his bloop single gave the Red Sox a 5-4 lead in the 10th, Cora put Jonathan Araúz at shortstop instead of moving Trevor Story to his natural position (shortstop) and having Araúz at his natural position (second base) (rather than risk starting an X-or-Story-At-Shortstop debate?). Araúz then erred in going for a ground ball when he should have been covering second for a possible double play, and that mistake helped the Yankees tied the game in the 10th.

For the bottom of the 11th, Cora felt Kutter Crawford was his best option. Crawford lost the game in three pitches.

By the time Josh Donaldson singled off K-Craw, bringing in Extra-Runner Fuck You Rob Manfred ("ERFURM") Isiah Kiner-Falefa (and giving the Yankees their sixth walkoff in a season-opener and first since 1957*), the fun of the first inning seemed far more distant than the 3:56 time of game.

*: The Red Sox have not had a season-opening walkoff win since 1941, the longest drought of any major league team.

Gerrit Cole's first four pitches of the season were wide of the zone and Kiké Hernández walked. Rafael Devers took a strike before banging a two-run homer into the second deck in right field. Bogaerts followed with a line drive to the base of the wall in left; he was slow out of the box (on your first at-bat of the season?) and had to stop at first. J.D. Martinez doubled into the right-field corner and Bogaerts scored. 3-0 and no outs.

Allow Raffy to welcome you to the 2022 season! pic.twitter.com/ie6v3oJ76s

— Red Sox (@RedSox) April 8, 2022

Then the offense went into a coma (it was serious). Cole (4-4-3-1-3, 68) got three weak outs (1-3, PF5, K) and then cruised through the next three innings. He hit Christian Vázquez with one out in the second, but Hernández hit into a first-pitch double play. A leadoff single in the fourth led to nothing.

Nathan Eovaldi (5-5-3-1-7, 76) nearly gave back the entire lead in the bottom half of the first. With one out, Aaron Judge dropped a single into right and Anthony Rizzo homered to right-center. He allowed a game-tying, cheap-ass dong by Giancarlo Stanton that barely cleared the wall in right-center.

In the fifth, New York had runners on first and second with two outs. D.J. LeMahieu lined a ball to left and Alex Verdugo made a diving catch to his right to end the threat (and Eovaldi's day).

Boston took the lead in the sixth off Clay Holmes. Bogaerts lined the ball down the left field line, hustling (this time) for a double. He took third on Martinez's groundout and scored on Verdugo's single to right-center. Story forced Verdugo at second and Bobby Dalbec singled. Miguel Castro relieved Holmes and walked Jackie Bradley, loading the bases. But Vázquez struck out.

The Red Sox went in order in the seventh and eighth innings on 16 total pitches. Garrett Whitlock relieved Eovaldi. He struck out three in the sixth, got the MFY in order in the seventh, and began the eighth by striking out Stanton. Then LeMahieu homered to right-center, another cheap-ass shot that (like Stanton's solo in the fourth) would not have been a home run in any of the other 29 major league parks.

Aroldis Chapman's first pitch of the ninth sailed to the backstop. Sadly, he did not, as he often does, pull a choke-job against the Red Sox. Dalbec popped to third and Bradley and Vázquez fanned.

Hansel Robles got the first two outs of the bottom of the ninth, but Judge doubled and Cora decided to intentionally walk the lefty Rizzo and have Robles (a righty) face the righty Stanton. The MFY's clean-up hitter must have been anxious because the first pitch was so in the dirt, it was practically underground, and he waved at it. After a foul, he chased another low pitch for an inning-ending K.

My hopes had been up for the ERFURM to be gone this season, but #FireManfred changed his mind and the Union agreed. My limited viewing of the 2021 regular season allowed me to never see a tenth inning. I was not so lucky in 2022.

Araúz began the top of the tenth at second. Hernández struck out and Devers was put on first. Bogaerts's flair dropped into left and Joey Gallo made a terrible throw to the plate. The run scored and Boston had a 5-4 lead. (Bogaerts was slow to run on this too, but it was likely his hamstring, as he also grabbed at it after sliding into second base when Martinez GIDP.)

Jake Diekman got the ball for the bottom of the tenth. He plunked LeMahieu and after a groundout, walked Aaron Hicks intentionally. That left the bases loaded for pinch-hitter Gleyber Torres. Ryan Brasier made Torres look horrible on a couple of swings (and fouls) at outside stuff before he lifted a fly to center. The runner tagged and scored. Brasier battled Kiner-Falefa for 10 pitches before striking him out (csffbbbffs).

King's second inning of work, the Boston eleventh, passed without incident. Verdugo struck out. Story struck out. Dalbec grounded to short.

Crawford threw a ball and a called strike to Donaldson in the home eleventh and then Donaldson grounded a ball up the middle to the left of second base. Araúz dove to his left but it went between him and Story for a game-winning single.

MLB continues to employ Laz Diaz.

Umpire: Laz Diaz
Final in 11: Red Sox 5, Yankees 6#RepBX // #DirtyWater#NYYvsBOS // #BOSvsNYY pic.twitter.com/56aJBMRL85

— Umpire Scorecards (@UmpScorecards) April 9, 2022

Other Stuff:

The Yankees flew the Ukrainian flag and had a Ukrainian woman sing before the game. Why do they have to cram politics down our throats when all we want to do is relax and watch a game? Why can't they "stick to sports"? Oh, right, it's not political when it's the culture's dominant view. . . . Yes, the gesture is nice. I fully support the Ukraine people against this genocidal mass murderer (who tens of millions of Americans support (or, at the very least, who worship a guy who worships the mass murderer)). But the gesture is also off-the-goddamn-charts hypocritical and stupendously galling because, holy motherfucking drone strike, Batman, the horrific pictures of Ukraine streets strewn with dead bodies that have rightly disgusted a large majority of Americans and the US media could have been taken by photographers in Iraq at any time in the last 20 years. (I'm somewhat surprised there was not a military jet flyover after the Ukrainian women finished singing.) For all intents and purposes, no one in the US gave a single fuck about the US's war crimes in Iraq for two decades (and the numerous war crimes Joe Biden is committing right now in Syria (and the war crimes in so many countries during the US's entire existence (including the seven countries Barack "Cool" Obama was at war with at the same time))); in fact, they cheered the murder of innocents. It turns out it never really mattered to those millions of innocent dead people down through the ages whether they were murdered by a Democrat or a Republican.

Why did Yankees management play the "Evil Empire" theme as the Red Sox roster and lineup was being announced and the players lined up along the third base line? The Yankees used to play that music for themselves, gladly accepting the label Larry Lucchino put on them way back in December 2002. Google "yankees evil empire" and you'll see hundreds of examples of the MFY's idiot fans (and media) embracing the sobriquet. Are the Yankees now saying the Red Sox are the Evil Empire?

NESN's Dave O'Brien was in mid-season form when it came to saying stupid things and making mistakes. Which i expected. The first words I heard him say this season was this opening: "The Opening Week is brought to you by FTM, Major League Baseball's official crypto-currency exchange." That's not his fault; he had to read the commercials, but there are many things wrong with that sentence, the least of among them being that Opening Week is not a thing.

T2: O'Brien was saying good things about Cole' strikeout totals and ERAs, but then said that because he hasn't won a Cy Young, he has not started an All-Star Game, and he has not won a World Series game, there are "holes in his resume". He names three things that Cole cannot control at all and calls them holes in his resume.

T3: When Devers batted for the second time, O'Brien said he "hit the first pitch he saw for a home run". Actually, Devers homered on an 0-1 pitch in the first inning and O'Brien had noted the called strike because it was Cole's first of the game, coming after four balls to Hernández.

T4 & T6: O'Brien told us twice that Story "hits well against the Yankees". In fact, he has "hit nearly .400 for his career" against the Yankees. Story has played a grand total of seven games against the MFY and his batting average is .393. Four games in 2016 and three games in 2019. On June 14, 2016, he homered off Nathan Eovaldi, so that should help . . .. oh, wait. On July 20, 2019, Story had two hits off Masahiro Tanaka, who is no longer a major leaguer. I am afraid that OB thinks what Story did six years ago against someone with absolutely no connection to the 2022 Yankees is actually relevant and can predict what he will do this summer.

O'Brien asked Dennis Eckersley if Bogaerts's contract situation would be a "distraction" this season if Cora was not the manager. Has the Boston media acted any differently with Cora in the dugout? Did the media run roughshod all over Francona or Farrell? It's a stunningly stupid question.

Early in the game, Eckersley pointed out that you "don't see a lot of ground balls up the middle for hits". You don't? I am somewhat amused by the fact that the hit that won the game was . . . a ground ball more or less up the middle.

I had to work in the middle of the sixth, so I muted NESN. I'd prefer not un-mute it for the rest of the season. .  .. Why oh why are we cursed with Dave O'Brien and how long must our suffering last?

Finally (and please understand that this last comment has absolutely nothing to do with the outcome of today's game):

I FUCKING HATE HATE HATE MANFRED'S STUPID GODDAMN EXTRA-INNING RUNNER WITH THE HEAT OF 10,000 FUCKING SUNS!!! CHRIST! MANFRED! WHY ARE YOU SO INTENT ON RUINING EVERYTHING ABOUT BASEBALL, YOU USELESS FUCKING ASSHAT? 

Nathan Eovaldi / Gerrit Cole

Hernández, CF
Devers, 3B
Bogaerts, SS
Martinez, DH
Verdugo, LF
Story, 2B
Dalbec, 1B
Bradley, RF
Vázquez, C

Happy Opening Day!

The Red Sox's 122nd season begins in the Bronx – with the pitchers from last season's Wild Card game facing off again.

The Red Sox and Yankees last began the season playing each other in 2013. (That season ended well.) It was Jackie Bradley's major league debut and Boston won 8-2.

Rafael Devers was hotter than a two-peckered billy goat this spring (10-for-27, .370/.438/1.074 for a 1.512 OPS), with six home runs, three singles, and a double. He led the Red Sox in dongs, runs scored (8) and runs batted in (12). Bobby Dalbec also had a great spring (.333/.385/.667/1.052).

MLB teams will start the season with a 28-man roster and no limit on the number of pitchers. Rosters will shrink to 26 players on May 2 (about 3.5 weeks into the season). Alex Cora is carrying 15 pitchers on his Opening Day roster:

Starting Pitchers: Nathan Eovaldi, Nick Pivetta, Tanner Houck, Michael Wacha, Rich Hill

Relief Pitchers: Matt Barnes, Garrett Whitlock, Ryan Brasier, Kutter Crawford, Hansel Robles, Hirokazu Sawamura, Jake Diekman, Austin Davis, Matt Strahm, Phillips Valdez

Catcher: Christian Vázquez, Kevin Plawecki

First Base: Bobby Dalbec, Travis Shaw
Second Base: Trevor Story
Shortstop: Xander Bogaerts
Third Base: Rafael Devers
Outfield: Alex Verdugo, Kiké Hernández, Jackie Bradley
Designated Hitter: J.D. Martinez
Utility: Christian Arroyo, Jonathan Aráuz

Chris Sale begins the season on the injured list (for the third consecutive year). A stress fracture in his right rib cage will keep Sale out until at least June. (Also, let's hope he doesn't get Covid for a third time.) James Paxton is also out until June (TJ surgery). Reliever Josh Taylor is on the 10-day IL, retroactive to April 4.

More than 12,000 fans voted in The Athletic's Hope-O-Meter ("Are you optimistic about your team's chances in 2022?") and Stephen J. Nesbitt ranked teams by how many of their fans were optimistic. The Yankees ranked 21st (48%) and the Red Sox were 11th (88%). . . . In other words, 12% of Red Sox fans were pessimistic about this season versus 52% of MFY fans.

There's a bit of pressure on Cole today.

When we last saw "The Anti-Dent" . . . 

Yes, he does. It's Red Sox 6, Yankees 2!

Carlos Beltrán: The Cheating Was Working! Did You Truly Expect Us To Just Stop?
Kelsey McKinney, Defector, April 3, 2022

To me, the most embarrassing part of the 2017 Astros cheating scandal is how bad they were at hiding it. . . . Banging on a trashcan to communicate what pitches are coming in real-time during home games is…not subtle? How embarrassing, I thought, to cheat and get caught! But somehow this whole scandal has become even more of an embarrassment a full four years later. . . .

Beltrán [now an employee of the YES Network] has been lying since the beginning of the investigation. . . . Beltrán still believes that this whole scandal wasn't fair, that they weren't doing anything wrong. The reason he can't seem to apologize earnestly for his role in the scandal is because he clearly doesn't believe he needs to. So far, that's worked out fine for him. None of the 2017 Astros players received a suspension from MLB.