Final: Baltimore Orioles 3, Red Sox 0

Limited to two hits -- the first in their first at-bat and their second with two outs in the ninth -- the Red Sox were blanked by the Baltimore Orioles, 3-0 in their 2021 season opener.

Baltimore starter John Means allowed two baserunners over seven innings --  Kiké Hernández singled to lead off the first and Xander Bogaerts reached on an infield error to open the second -- and earned the win.

It was the first shutout loss for the Red Sox in their season opener since 1976 -- also a loss to Baltimore.

Nathan Eovaldi allowed just one run over 5.1 innings but suffered the loss. Baltimore scored two in the sixth when reliever Matt Andriese issued a walk, had a runner reach on an error and allowed a two-run double to Ryan Mountcastle.

The Orioles added an insurance run off Josh Taylor in the eighth.

WHO: Red Sox (0-0) vs. Baltimore Orioles (0-0)
WHEN: 2:10 p.m.
WHERE: Fenway Park
SEASON SERIES TO DATE: 0-0
STARTING PITCHERS: RHP Nathan Eovaldi vs. LHP John Means
TV/RADIO: NESN; WEEI-FM

LINEUPS

ORIOLES

Mullins CF
Mancini 1B
Santander RF
Mountcastle DH
Ruiz 2B
Hays LF
Franco 3B
Galvis SS
Severino C

RED SOX

Hernandez 2B
Verdugo CF
Martinez DH
Bogaerts SS
Devers 3B
Renfroe RF
Gonzalez LF
Vazquez C
Dalbec 1B



IN-GAME OBSERVATIONS:

T8: Josh Taylor's 2021 debut is a poor one. He allows three straight hits and an insurance run to the O's.

B7: Verudgo is robbed of a hit on a diving play by Rio Ruiz at second. Means has retired 16 straight.

B6: Appeared that Bobby Dalbec just got underneath that one, resulting in a fly ball to the warning track in left. Off the bat, looked like it might have a chance to get out.

T6: Ryan Mountcastle scrapes the wall with a double, scoring two.

T6: That's all for Eovaldi, who allows four hits and a walk over 5.1 innings, striking out four. He threw 89 pitches and leaves a runner at first for Matt Andriese, making his Red Sox debut.

B5: Red Sox haven't done much with Means.  He's set down 11 in a row and hasn't allowed a hit since Hernandez led off the game with a single. Just two baserunners through 5 IP.

T3: Nicely turned double play as Hernandez ranges behind the bag, flips to Xander Bogaerts who fires to first to complete it.

T3: Hunter Renfroe makes his first foray into the tricky corner in RF and hauls in a fly ball from Cedric Mullins.

T2: Nathan Eovaldi gets out of a first-and-second jam, but it takes 28 pitches, driving his pitch count up to 39 after just two innings.

T2: Rafael Devers can't scoop a slow roller past the mound and it's scored as a single for Maikel Franco.

B1: It also didn't take long for Hernandez to get picked off. Scrambled back in time, but foot came off the bag for an instant as the tag was applied.

B1: Doesn't take long for Enrique Hernandez to collect his first hit with the Red Sox, lining a single to right leading off the home half of the fiirst.

T1: Nice moment as Trey Mancini, who missed all of last year with cancer, steps into the box for the first time since 2019 and gets a hug from Christian Vazquez.

 

PRE-GAME NOTES: This is the 121st Red Sox season...The Red Sox are 59-60-1 all-time on Opening Day and this is the 44th time the Sox have opened at Fenway. They're 25-18 in those games...But this is only the sixth time the Sox have opened at home in the last 26 seasons...The Sox haven't been shut out on Opening Day in the last 44 years, the second-longest ongoing streak in the big leagues...The last team to do so was Baltimore, in 1976....This is the second straight season the Sox have opened against the Orioles and 13th time overall...It's the fourth time the Sox have hosted Baltimore at home....Last year's 13-2 win over the O's was the largest margin of victory in an opener....Nine players on the Sox Opening Day roster weren't part of the organization in 2020...Six players are on an Opening Day roster for the first time: Bobby Dalbec, Darwinzon Hernandez, Tanner Houck, Hirokazu Sawamura, Josh Taylor and Garrett Whitlock...Whitlock is the first Rule 5 pitcher to make an Opening Day roster since Vaughn Eshelman in 1995...This marks the fourth straight Opening Day lineup to feature Xander Bogaerts at shortstop, Rafael Devers at third base, Christian Vazquez at catcher and J.D. Martinez at DH....This marks the eighth opener Bogaerts has been the starting shortstop for the Sox...Today he ties Everett Scott (1914-1921) for the most consecutive Opening Days at short...This will be Nathan Eovaldi's second straight Opening Day assignment...Freddy Galvis is 3-for-5 and Austin Hays is 4-for-8 against Eovaldi while Rio Ruiz is 0-for-8 and Pedro Severino is 1-for-8....Bogaerts is 6-for-14 lifetime against John Means while Vazquez is 2-for-11...

NOTES: Tanner Houck, who will start for the Sox Saturday, will have family members present to watch him -- a feature that was unavailable to him last September when he made his major league debut and no fans were allowed.

"They've done everything in their power to help me get to this point,'' he said, noting that his girlfriend, mother, sister and grandmother will be in attendance. "I also have some friends who ended up finding some tickets on-line and they all decided to fly up here. Unfortunately, because of (COVID protocols), I'm not going to be able to hang out with them. But to know they're in the stands and will share this moment with me, it's something special. It's the first one of many I plan on in the future. It's something that will be amazing and I'll have in my memory for the rest of my life.''

Houck fared far better in his final start in spring than the earlier ones and ascribes to that to a timing issue in his delivery.

"It was getting my delivery back under control,'' he said. "It was a little tweak here and there I made throughout spring training, to clean up my timing. My hands weren't moving. I started getting some movement and rhythm back and all of a sudden, things started clicking a little bit better. That's part of the reason I think we had so much success at the end there.''

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Pitcher John Schreiber, whom the Red Sox claimed from Detroit during spring training only to designate him for assignment to make room for Franchy Cordero on the 40-man roster earlier this week, cleared waivers and was assigned to the alternate sire in Worcester.

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