It was a good day for Felix Doubront, and a terrible one for Alfredo Aceves, as the Sox ended up splitting a pair of games that may have gone a long way to deciding the rotation the Sox open the season with.
If that ends up being the case, Felix Doubront will be awfully happy. While the day started shakily for the lefty, with the Marlins threatening in the first, scoring on an Austin Kearns homer in the second, and then threatening to do still more damage before the inning ended, Doubront settled down quickly. Generally keeping the ball on the ground and adding in a pair of strikeouts, Doubront would finish the day with six innings of one-run ball, giving up five hits and a walk in the process.
Things would not go nearly so well for Alfredo Aceves against the Phillies in Ft. Myers. Surrendering two runs in the first even with a smart play from Adrian Gonzalez to catch Juan Pierre at home, Aceves would fall apart even worse in the second, allowing back-to-back homers to start the inning. Two more runs would come across before the second was over as Aceves failed to keep the ball low and left it time-and-again over the middle of the plate. By the time his day was done, Aceves had allowed nine runs in three innings of work--hardly a strong performance with opening day less than two weeks away.
Back in Jupiter, the Boston lineup had already provided Doubront with enough support offensively in the first, with three runs scoring on hits by Pedro Ciriaco, Cody Ross, Ryan Lavarnway, and Jason Repko. They would add another in the sixth thanks to Lavarnway, Ryan Sweeney, and David Ortiz to make it 4-1. With three scoreless innings forthcoming from the bullpen, that's where the score would stay.
The Boston lineup would also be somewhat active in Ft. Myers. But for a wind-assisted triple from Jacoby Ellsbury that scored two runs, however, most of the production would come from the backups, with Josh Kroeger bringing a third run across in the sixth, and Pete Hissey making it five for the Sox in the eighth. Franklin Morales, Andrew Bailey, and Vicente Padilla would all pitch scoreless outings after Michael Bowden allowed a run in cleaning up the rest of Aceves' intended innings, but the damage had already been done, leaving Boston 10-5 losers.