Our world is still nothing like it was in pre-pandemic times but at least in terms of sports, we are slowly getting back to a sense of some normalcy. Patriots' Day is typically a sacred holiday in Massachusetts: the Boston Marathon starts in Hopkinton that morning and ends in downtown Boston that afternoon while the Red Sox always play a game at Fenway Park with an early start time of 11:10 a.m. In 2020, the Boston Marathon was virtual and MLB's regular season didn't start until July (mostly with empty stadiums) so you had to smile today when it was a sunny April day in the Bay State and the Red Sox (11-6 overall, 5-5 home) hosted the White Sox (8-9 overall, 5-6 away) in their four-game series finale. After getting swept 3-2 and 5-1 yesterday in a doubleheader, Boston bounced back with a resounding 11-4 win to gain a split of the series. The end result was never in doubt since the home team scored six runs in the first and led 10-2 by the fourth inning to cruise to the easy victory.
White Sox starter Lucas Giolito (1-1) is a good pitcher, not that you would get that impression today if you watched the Red Sox run him over. In one plus innings, he allowed eight runs (7 earned) on eight hits with two walks and zero strikeouts. Is that bad? Things got so hopeless for Chicago that manager/your drunk grandpa Tony LaRussa used not one but two position players (Yermin Mercedes and UMass Lowell's Danny Mendick) to close out the last two innings. In situations like that, MLB should adopt some type of pseudo-Little League mercy rule. On the other side, Red Sox starter Nathan Eovaldi (3-1) had a better outing: 6.1 innings, four earned runs, nine hits, 10 strikeouts and zero walks. He threw exactly 100 pitches before being lifted for ace reliever Garrett Whitlock who was able to get the last eight outs (including 2 strikeouts) without allowing a hit or walk. How impressive has he been so far this season?
The Red Sox had 17 hits and six guys put together multi-hit performances, in fact first baseman Bobby Dalbec was the only Boston hitter to finish without a hit. DH J.D. Martinez (3-for-5, 2 RBIs, 2 runs), center fielder Alex Verdugo (3-for-4, 2 RBIs, BB) & second baseman Kike Hernandez (2-for-6, 2B, 2 runs) all hit solo homers. Catcher Christian Vazquez was 3-for-5 with two runs scored, third baseman Rafael Devers was 2-for-3 with two RBIs, two walks and two runs scored while left fielder Franchy Cordero was 2-for-4 with two RBIs and one walk. The only White Sox hitters to show up after their early morning wake-up calls were shortstop Tim Anderson (3-for-4, 2 runs, 2B) and right fielder Adam Eaton (2 2Bs, 3 RBIs).
Chicago actually led for a very brief moment in time when center fielder Luis Robert doubled in Anderson in the first inning. Hernandez tied it with a lead-off home run (his 3rd HR of the season) that sneaked just over the line above the Green Monster. Devers and shortstop Marwin Gonzalez each added an RBI single before another run scored on a groundout then two more runs scored following a single by Cordero and a fielding error by left fielder Leury Garcia. Martinez crushed a homer to left in the second (his 6th HR of the season) and right fielder Hunter Renfroe drove in Devers with a sacrifice fly.
Eaton's RBI double in the third scored second baseman Nick Madrigal and cut it to 8-2 Red Sox but Verdugo answered in the bottom of the frame with a blast to right (his 3rd HR of the season). The Red Sox increased their lead to eight runs when Vazquez scored on Cordero's infield single in the fourth inning to make it 10-2 in favor of the home team. Eaton wasn't giving any at bats away as he notched another RBI double in the fifth that scored Anderson and the final White Sox run came in to score on a groundout in the seventh. Martinez provided the last run with an RBI single in the seventh that scored Hernandez.
Toronto (7-9 overall, 4-6 away) visits Fenway the next two nights for the first meetings of the season between the AL East rivals. Eduardo Rodriguez (2-0) faces Blue Jays ace Hyun Jin Ryu (1-1) tomorrow night (7:10, NESN) in a battle of quality lefties. On Wednesday night (7:10, NESN), it'll be the immortal Garrett Richards (0-1) vs. TBA. Toronto is tied with Baltimore (7-9) for third-place in the AL East, 3.5 games behind the first-place Red Sox but at least they are still 1.5 games ahead of the awful Yankees (5-10). The Red Sox lead MLB in runs scored (96) and they have the best run-differential in the American League (+28) so it would be nice if Rodriguez could give them a little more than the five inning outings that he's posted in his first two starts of 2021.
