Boston won the last Opening Day meeting, 7-1, on April 5, 1979.
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Ortiz, 40, has the third most home runs among active players behind Alex Rodriguez (687) and Albert Pujols (560). Rajai Davis led off by hitting a line drive that appeared to be hit over Betts’ head in right field for least a double, if not a triple.
The opener will be made up Tuesday with the first pitch scheduled for 1:10 p.m. The forecast is for partly cloudy skies and a high temperature of 36. In the other eight innings, Price and three relievers combined to hold the Indians scoreless on one hit.
Francisco Lindor was the only Cleveland batter with more than one hit for the Indians. Holt wasted no time driving in his first run of the year with his second single of the game. Because of the last two season being considered bad years the Red Sox were able to play their young players to get experience and they all have showed potential. But once the games started counting for real, Ortiz delivered, going 2-for-4 with a double, a walk, and a long fly-out to the warning track in right on a ball Ortiz just missed. It has been a few years since they have won the World Series and this being the last season for David Ortiz, they want nothing more to give him a World Series ring as a going away gift.
His manager said his spring work pointed toward further departure from that anomaly, culminating with a run and two hits allowed in four innings of his final start on Thursday.
The Cleveland Indians second attempt at an Opening Day, after Monday’s failed due to awful weather, did not quite go as planned. “A very good camp”. “We have 161 more games to go”. In the second inning, he got Juan Uribe to swing through a changeup to escape a two-on, none-out jam. When he lost the feel for his fastball in the middle innings, he never panicked, realizing he could rely on his off-speed stuff. “So that’s been good”. For the new Boston southpaw, Progressive Field continues to be a priceless commodity, improving to an unbeaten 5-0 and a 2.27 ERA in seven starts at the corner of Carnegie and Ontario in his career. 163 opponent batting average, including three nine-inning efforts.
The right-hander finished the season 14-12 with a 3.63 ERA. The Venezuela native turned 29 last month and is expected to take another step forward after finishing behind only Clayton Kershaw, Chris Sale and Max Scherzer in strikeout rate last season. His WHIP (1.07) was 11th, and he was one of 16 pitchers with an opponent OPS (.646) under.650. “Everything changed for Danny (Salazar), everything changed for (Carlos) Carrasco”.
“I’ve been doing this for quite a while now”, Price said. Boston got six strong innings from free agent extravagance David Price and hitless relief from the reworked bullpen trio of Junichi Tazawa, Koji Uehara and Craig Kimbrel in the 6-2 win on Tuesday. The Sox offense gave Price a lead in the 3rd inning when Jackie Bradley Jr. hit a single and then Mookie Betts hit a 2 run homerun. Travis Shaw and Brock Holt hit singles in the second to prove they deserved their starting spots, but weren’t driven in.
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“That’s why he’s got Jordans on his feet”, a thankful Price said. “I know what he did at the end of the season”. He’s saving it all for the season. “That’s what we always see from him”.
