With the team off to such an unexpectedly positive start to the 2021 season, there really haven't been too many players to truly despise so far on the Red Sox (15-9 overall, 7-1 away). However, starting pitcher Garrett Richards (1-2) definitely got off to a rocky beginning to his stay in Boston but all of that was forgotten for at least one night as helped the Sox beat the Mets (9-9 overall, 6-3 home) 2-1 tonight at Citi Field. The veteran righty had two disastrous outings sandwiched around two decent performances but nobody could have expected what he did tonight in 93 pitches: 7 innings, one earned run, seven hits, 10 strikeouts and no walks. Haha who the hell was that guy?
New York's lefty starter-something called David Peterson (6 IP, 2 ER, 4 hits, 3 Ks, 2 BBs)-was pretty good too but Boston's offense squeezed just enough out of their five hits to get the win. Richards' only mistake was a hanger that Mets second baseman Jeff McNeil hit to the second deck in right field for a solo home run (his 2nd of the season) in the second inning. The Red Sox answered in the next inning as rookie first baseman Bobby Dalbec finally connected on his first longball of the season to tie it at one. In the sixth inning, center fielder Kike Hernandez doubled and came around to score on a bloop RBI single from third baseman Rafael Devers.
You figure that any start by Richards is going to be a bullpen game but not this time as it only took two Boston relievers to finish the job for him. Matt Andriese pitched a 1-2-3 eighth inning with a strikeout to get his second hold of the season which paved the way for lights out closer Matt Barnes who pitched a clean ninth inning (1-2-3 with two strikeouts) for his fifth save of the season. This is only a two-game series and winning the opener was very important for the Sox since tomorrow night (6:40, NESN), New York's ace Jacob deGrom (2-1, 0.31 ERA, 50 Ks, 0.55 WHIP) gets the ball against Nick Pivetta (2-0). deGrom has won two Cy Young awards (in 2018 and 2019) and at the moment, he is pitching as well as he ever has in MLB which is crazy to think. In other words, if you like baseball, you'll have to tune in to see him do his thing tomorrow (since let's be serious, you never watch the Mets otherwise).
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