Opening Day: In Through The Cellar Door
Royals 7, Red Sox 1
Take a deep breath. Exhale. It’s OK. The season is a marathon, yadda yadda yadda.
Before we start with the hyperbolic panic, here’s some perspective. The Opening Day results for last 3 years the Red Sox made the playoffs:
2003 — lost 6-4 to Tampa Bay
2004 — lost 7-2 to Baltimore
2005 — lost 9-2 to New York
Now that my calming prelude is out of the way, let’s discuss how the Boston Red Sox were taken behind the woodshed by a team that just about every baseball pundit has penciled in for last place in 2007.
The afternoon started off just fine, with a David Ortiz (who else) RBI double in the top of the first inning. They should be able to steamroll the overpriced Gil Meche and this fledgling Royals team, right?
Wrong.
Curt Schilling, our new blogging colleague (“blogeague”?), wasn’t right from the start. The man with the best K/BB ratio in modern baseball history was alarmingly ineffective against this Royals lineup, including yielding a rare bases-loaded walk in the first inning. His velocity was noticably down, hovering in the mid-to-high 80′s, and his command was shaky throughout his outing. He did strike out five batters, including prospect Alex Gordon twice, but the veteran lasted only four innings, giving up five runs on eight hits. On the bright side, only two of the hits were of the extra-base variety, including a triple from Tony Pena Jr. (the son of the cannon-armed catcher).
After lefty Javier Lopez retired the Royals in order with the help of a double play in the 5th, Japanese import Hideki Okajima had a rather inauspicious bullpen debut, yielding a homer to John Buck with his very first major league pitch. Okajima did have 2 Ks in 1 2/3 innings, and Brendan Donnelly struck out the only hitter he faced.
Newly converted reliever Joel Pineiro also fell victim to Tony “The Triple Machine” Pena, as the baseball purebred launched his second three-bagger of the game in the 8th inning, scoring KC’s 7th and final run of the game.
On the offensive side, well, the Sox made Gil Meche look like 1985 Bret Saberhagen. The big money pitcher went 7.1 strong innings, giving up only one run on six hits. Half of his six strikeouts were at the expense of new Red Sox shortstop Julio Lugo. Meche was basically untouchable after the first inning, not yielding any extra base hits after the Ortiz double. Right-hander Joel Peralta was dominant in relief of Meche, striking out four hitters before getting Jason Varitek to fly out to end the game.
A few positives to glean from this opening day debacle:
1) Dustin Pedroia looked good in the field at the plate, with two singles (but he did have a gaffe on the basepaths, trying unwittingly to stretch his first hit to a double).
2) The bullpen, forced to enter the game earlier than expected, was decent. No walks allowed. Okajima looked good despite his 1st pitch gopherball. Brendan Donnelly still appears to have the intimidating swagger and the ability to miss bats.
3) J.D. Drew gave us a taste of what he brings to the table: a quick bat and excellent plate discipline.
Of course, I’m probably grasping for straws. The Sox were dominated in every aspect by one of the worst teams in baseball; I couldn’t put a positive spin on today’s game with a centrifuge. We should tip our hats to Kansas City, who executed in virtually every department. It was good to see some enthusiasm in Kauffman Stadium, which was louder than I’ve ever remembered it.
When all was said and done, Monday was a typical Red Sox Opening Day: highly anticipated, but packing a painful aftertaste.
The result notwithstanding, it was a beautiful sight to behold.
Welcome back.
Seeing Drew do well really was heartening. I’m terrified that his power’s been wrecked by his shoulder problems and we’ll get, like, 290/380/450 this year 270/360/430 next year and then right into the toilet as pitchers notice they don’t need to fear his power anymore.
Thanks for the tip of the hat. From a Royals perspective, the day couldn’t have been more perfect. And don’t lament your team’s four-game losing streak at the K too much: the Yankees never play well in KC either.
It’s actually a six game losing streak at the K, dating back to 2005. [Sigh]
I have nothing but respect and admiration for true blue Royals fans. KC is a great baseball town. The standing O Meche got yesterday was well deserved; ditto the reception for wunder kid Alex Gordon.
That said, I hope tomorrow goes a heck of a lot better for the Sox than yesterday. I’d already like to throttle some of the Boston talking heads for the Chicken Little act; a win tomorrow would shut them up for at least 24 hours.