The Red Sox fell to the Orioles on Easter Sunday, in a game that had nearly all of the 4,458 fans in attendance booing for the majority of the game.
“Are you throwing BP?!!” one fan even yelled in the midst of Josh Taylor’s relief appearance.
The Red Sox were poor in almost all areas Sunday, as Richards would allow 3 runs to start the ballgame. Richards would get out of a jam in the 2nd inning, but the 3rd inning would open the floodgates of a disastrous O’s downpour.
Richards would load the bases, and Josh Taylor would come in to relief. But Taylor could not stop the onslaught, as he would start out surrendering a four-pitch walk to let in the first run, and after that the downpour continued. The boos would get louder and louder as Taylor let in all of the runners that Richards put on base, as well as 4 runs of his own to make it a 7-run 4th inning for the Orioles.
“Get it together” a fan yelled from his seat.
“A tough one,” Alex Cora said. “There’s nothing else you can say. We got beat in every aspect of the game. First two games we didn’t play good defense, we didn’t swing the bat, and today we didn’t pitch. Off to a rough start.”
The Red Sox would pick up runs in both the bottom of the 3rd and 4th inning, with a Hernandez sac fly in the 3rd, and a JD Martinez solo shot in the 4th. Martinez, who’s coming off of a down 2020, is off to a very hot start in 2021. He’s 6-for-12 with a home run to start the 2021 campaign.
Martinez would also add a run-scoring double in the 5th.
To add to the positive side of Sunday, Garrett Whitlock had a very impressive performance in his major league debut, going 3.1 innings allowing just 3 hits.
“A dream come true,” Whitlock said postgame. Whitlock, a Rule 5 pick by the Red Sox from the Yankees, is the Red Sox in team history to allow no runs and no walks with five or more K’s in his debut.
Sawamura, Barnes and Ottavino would all add scoreless frames.
Bruce Zimmerman went 6 innings for the Orioles, allowing 3 ER off of 4 hits. Cole Sulser would go two, and Tyler Wells would finish off the ballgame in his Major League Debut and would pitch a scoreless frame.
For the first time since 1948, the Red Sox are 0-3 to start the season at Fenway.
“Games like this are going to happen,” Cora said. “You hate them, of course. But I think it magnifies early in the season and all of a sudden we’ve got another series coming… There were some positives, but I think overall we weren’t proud of what happened this weekend. We talk about playing good baseball against the division, playing good baseball at home and we didn’t this weekend.”
The Red Sox hope to rebound from the series sweep, as they take on the Rays Monday through Wednesday for a three game split, before going to Baltimore to take on the O’s again for another three game split.
“I do believe that it’s still three games, but obviously you look around, you see the numbers,” Cora said. “You don’t see numbers with some of them, you look at the scoreboard, you look at the standings, there’s no wins, you know? … We know where we’re at. It wasn’t a good weekend, but at the end of the day, it’s only three games. We have a chance to come tomorrow and do it again. We have to be better. We have stuff to work on. I still feel the same way about the team five days ago as right now. We have a good team, but we still have to work for our stuff.”
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