The lone umpire was Jason Varitek. One of the teams had no one stationed in left field. First base coach Tom Goodwin was the final arbiter on check-swing appeals. J.D. Martinez served as the ultimate universal DH -- hitting for both teams, while opting to wear a long-sleeve undershirt instead of a uniform top.
Foul balls rattled around the upper level, with no one to race after them and retrieve them. The sounds emanating from the field could be heard clearly throughout the park, mostly because those in attendance numbered, maybe, 25 -- a collection of grounds crew workers in Section 10 and a smattering of Baseball Operations scattered throughout, properly socially distant.
Some relievers warmed up on the warning track, while other pitchers got their running in at the same time. Varitek wore two masks -- the standard one for umps to protect him against foul tips and a second underlying one to protect him from the coronavirus.
So, yes, as baseball returned to Fenway Park for the first time in 2020, it was ... different.
But an intrasquad matchup of two Red Sox teams was, at the very least, a step forward as Major League Baseball makes its first tentative steps toward the start of the regular season in another two weeks.
As befits a more standard spring training, the pitchers were apparently ahead of the hitters as the game was scoreless for the first four innings. Finally, in the final inning, the home squad managed to push across four runs for a 4-0 victory.
Starter Nathan Eovaldi looked sharp, going four scoreless innings while allowing one hit. He threw 58 pitches, 34 of them strikes.
Massachusetts native John Andreoli supplied a three-run homer in the fifth inning off Brandon Workman and when he reached home plate, we got a sneak peek of what celebrations are going to look like: Andreoli pantomimed a high-five with the two teammates who scored ahead of him, then engaged in a shoe-tap with a hitter waiting on deck.
It was all very novel.
"It seems like everything's just a little bit off,'' said Ron Roenicke. "But I thought it was pretty good for what we did. Varitek looked just like a regular umpire. I forgot (that he would be behind the plate), actually, and then I saw it was him and he actually did a nice job umpiring.
"It was quiet today. And it was different. But everything's a little different. I didn't want to sit where I usually sit (in the dugout) because there were so many people there, so I kind of moved to the side where I could see. I think we're constantly adjusting things and trying to figure things out.''
In a nearly silent ballpark, players had to provide their own energy, but that came easily enough.
"Any time you have hitters step in the box,'' said Eovaldi, "you're going to have that adrenaline going. I feel like this is going to be the closest thing we have to simulate games -- facing our guys, having the defense behind you. The biggest difference was how definitely how quiet it was in the stadium. We had a little bit of music going on in between innings, but it's just so quiet in between, when you're out there competing.
"That was definitely the biggest difference for me.''
When the Sox play their second intrasquad game Friday at noon, they will experiment with some artificial crowd noise pumped up via the public address system to help simulate a more conventional environment.
Nathan Eovaldi, Breaking Ball & Fastball, Overlay w/ Tails. pic.twitter.com/cbsabwd0ep
— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) July 9, 2020
