It was more of the same at Fenway Monday night: early-inning stumbles by the pitching staff leading to a pretty lopsided loss -- this one, an interleague defeat to the New York Mets, who managed more runs in the first four innings than they had in their first three games en route to a 7-4 thrashing of the Sox, who lost their third straight.
Opener Josh Osich and Jeffrey Springs combined to get the Mets off to a 7-0 start, allowing three homers in the process.
The Sox chipped away after that, getting solo homers from Mitch Moreland and Xander Bogaerts, then scored twic more in the eighth but never got any closer.
WHO: Red Sox (1-2) vs. New York Mets (1-2)
WHEN: 7:30
WHERE: Fenway Park
STARTING PITCHERS: LHP Josh Osich vs. RHP Michael Wacha
TV/RADIO: NESN; WEEI 93.7 FM
LINEUPS
RED SOX
Benintendi LF
Martinez DH
Devers 3B
Bogaerts SS
Moreland 1B
Vazquez C
Verdugo RF
Bradley CF
Peraza 2B
METS
Rosario SS
Alfonso 1B
McNeil 3B
Davis LF
Conforto RF
Ramos C
Cano 2B
Smith DH
Nimmo CF
IN-GAME OBSERVATIONS:
10:21 A couple of garbage-time runs for the Red Sox here in the eighth as Bogaerts delivered one with a groundout and Moreland singled home another, all of Jeurys Familia. Bogaerts and Moreland have combined to drive in all four of the Red Sox runs.
9:44 Xander Bogaerts smacks a 1-1 fastball into the Red Sox bullpen. Second solo homer by the Sox tonight. In fact, every one of their five homers this year have come with the bases empty.
9:33 It's far too late to matter tonight, but Godley has actually pitched pretty well.
9:06 It's just like the first few weeks of last year: lousy starting pitching and Mitch Moreland the only doing any damage at the plate. His second homer of the season produces the first Red Sox run of the night.
8:51 Dominic Smith drills a pitch into the home bullpen -- a line drive that got out in a hurry off Springs. Worse, it came on a 1-and-2 pitch.
8:39 Red Sox had first-and-second with no outs in the third, but got nothing out of it, with a double-play by Martinez ending the inning.
8:25 Low throw from Rafael Devers can't be scooped by Mitch Moreland and McNeil is safe at first. That's three errors in four games for Devers.
8:22 Springs fell behind 3-and-0 to Pete Alonso and came in with a meatball of a changeup -- directly over the heart of the plate. Alonso nearly took the head off one of the cutouts on the Monster Seats, with an exit velocity of 116 mph.
8:18 Jeffrey Springs takes over as the "bulk'' guy behind Osich, which is strange since it was expected that would be Zack Godley.
8:04 In each of the last three games, the Red Sox have trailed by multiple runs in either the first or second inning. Tonight, that comes thanks to a two-run homer into the RF bleachers by Michael Conforto.
7:56 Josh Osich is back out for a second inning as the opener, having thrown just nine pitches in the first inning.
7:46 Andrew Benintendi's first hit of the season....is a bunt, to the left of the pitcher's mound.
7:44 Mets help out the Sox by making two of their three outs on the bases, with Jeff McNeil picked off by Josh Osich and throw out at second.
7:40 Red Sox' first challenge of the year is success. Ball clanged off the glove of Rafael Devers, caromed to Xander Bogaerts, who had a foot race with Rosario headed to third. Looked like Bogaerts got the tag in from behind and replay confirmed it.
7:36 Hard-hit ball handcuffed Jose Peraza, but looked like he still had time to recover and throw out Amed Rosario. Throw, however, didn't have a lot of zip and Rosario beat it out with Peraza charged with his first error of the year.
PRE-GAME NOTES
- The Red Sox held a Zoom call Monday afternoon with players, led by chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom, team physician Dr. Larry Ronan and head athletic traitor Brad Pearson concerning health and safety protocols in the wake of the outbreak suffered by Miami Marlins. "This was scheduled a few days ago, knowing that we were going to travel (to New York Tuesday night) and we wanted to touch base on it,'' said Ron Roenicke. "With Dr. Ronan, with Brad, with Chaim and myself, just going over the points again (about) trying to follow the protocols, to make sure that this doesn't happen to our team. We've been really good so far. I love what we've done here, but we are going on the road. We need to be careful with what we do.''....Roenicke said the outbreak with the Marlins could serve a purpose. "I'm hopeful that it scares then a little bit,'' he said, ''into, 'Hey, I know we've been good at this, but we can be better.' We can stop fist-bumping, we can stop doing the things that the protocols are trying to get us not to do. I realize the emotions that come into play when you score a run or hit a home run or get a big strikeouts, I understand all those thing. but we have to keep reminding guys to stay with the things that our medical department will keep us safe and hopefully that continues and we're able to go on the road and do the right things.''
- LHP Matt Hall will get the start for the Sox Tuesday night, the first of his major league career. "Ever since I've signed with the Red Sox, Day One, it's been all about bettering myself as a player and a person,'' Hall said. "First day of camp, they were showing me things and I just bought into it and I'm just continuing to work on it every day.'' Hzll will be part of a "piggy-back'' start Tuesday, with the Sox looking for him to go four innings. Hall said he was intent on going as long as he could in the start and said he thought he was stretched out enough to provide five innings.