A couple of things from Thursday's loss:
1) Sure, the walks were troubling in the Red Sox' 10-9 setback to the Orioles. Nine walks is unacceptable, especially for a staff which has supposedly been focused on better strike-throwing from its bullpen. The Sox spent money to shore up the back end of the pen and wanted to correct a weakness from a season ago, when their relievers walked almost one of every 10 batters they faced.
But equally ominous -- if not more -- were the five stolen bases from the Orioles. And these weren't just five steals -- these were five steals, none of which drew a throw. So it's not as if these were your typical bang-bang plays at second (or third) in which the baserunners just barely manages to slide in ahead of the throw.
There were not throws. At all.
Now, a few of those came with runners on third, and catcher Reese McGuire might have been under orders not to throw through, for fear that the Orioles were planning a double steal, with the lead runner breaking for the plate as soon as the throw heads down to second.
But some weren't. McGuire had no chance at all on these attempts. And that falls on the pitchers.
A certain amount of adjustments are to be expected under the new rules. It's going to take a while for teams to figure out how to combat the uptick in stolen base attempts. Pitchers are now permitted just two pickoff attempts per at-bat, enabling baserunners to run with impunity once a couple of throws have been made to first.
But here's the other worrisome fact: the Sox picked over just once all afternoon. The Orioles weren't waiting out Red Sox pitchers by forcing two pickoffs; they were running unchecked. McGuire has a plus arm behind the plate -- his career caught-stealing rate is 30 percent, well above the league average of 24 percent.
Some of that, obviously, has to do with the pitch clock. Alert baserunners know that as the clock in winding down, pitchers are focused on delivering the ball to the plate, and runners can use that to their advantage.
It should also be noted that the Orioles are one of the AL's most aggressive baserunning teams. They're young and athletic and intent on taking advantage of those skills. Last year, they were in the top third in the league in bases stolen (95). Not every club is going to be that aggressive.
Then again, the Red Sox had better work on holding runners better, or else every opponent will run like the Orioles, unchecked.
"There were a few times when the (pitch) clock was winding down and they were using that to their advantage to kind of time it up,'' said McGuire. "It's definitely (something) we'll look back on and make adjustments on and we'll try to control the clock more. It's definitely an advantage (for pitchers) to come set (early) and hold the ball.
"It's something we're going to learn and figure out what's going to be best. But when you've got aggressive runners on base, you either have to hold the ball and change your timing to kind of keep them stagnant over there. Or come set and make a quick delivery to the plate, almost quick-pitch, or slide step. We got exposed a little bit (Thursday). But I think it's something we're all going to take pride in and get better at. It's only Day 1, but it was shown right away, teams are going to be aggressive and we have to have an answer for that.''
2) Fans seem ready to embrace newcomer Masataka Yoshida.
When Yoshida came to the plate in the ninth inning -- he would reached on a fielder's choice and take second on a throwing error as the Sox rallied -- fans chanted "Yoshi! Yoshi!'' and the outfielder heard the support.
Said Yoshida: "It was very cold, but my heart was burning.''
Some scouting reports from Japan had Yoshida struggling against elite velocity, and at times, that was evident in the WBC. But manager Alex Cora noted that Yoshida saw plenty of 95-mph-plus pitches in Japan, too, and fared well.
And it's worth noting that Yoshida, facing some hard-throwers out of the Baltimore bullpen -- including closer Felix Bautista, who routinely throws in the upper 90s -- Yoshida had no difficulty making contact. And not just regular contact, but hard contact.
In his five plate appearances, resulting in four official at-bats Thursday, these were the exit velocities of balls he put in play: 108.4 mph;; 97.9 mph; 100.5 mph; 99.8 mph.