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Sox Bats and Mets Defense Sink New York

The Red Sox spent the offseason improving their defense and aiming to prevent runs. Maybe the Mets should have as well. While the box score only reads 3 errors, the whole day was an adventure for the Mets infield that, combined with a strong day for the Sox at the plate, left 8 runs on the board.

The defense came through behind Red Sox pitchers, though. Despite only recording 3 strikeouts on the day, the Sox held the Mets to only 2 runs, and those came on Home Runs, which obviously the defense can do nothing about. Those bombs came from back-to-back lefties off of LHP Fabio Castro, whose chances to make the pen out of spring training just took a big hit. John Lackey pitched 3 scoreless, allowing 3 hits and no walks. His fastball was a little slow, but he didn't get in trouble and was inducing plenty of ground balls. Felix Doubront had 2 strong innings, as did Junichi Tazawa who had his off-speed pitches working today and recorded two of the Sox' strikeouts.

At the plate, the Sox recorded 15 hits, scoring 8 runs. They scored 3 in the first inning off Mets starter Mike Pelfrey as Scutaro, Pedroia, and Martinez loaded the bases with 0 outs in the first allowing Drew, Cameron, and Hermida to drive in a run a piece. Otherwise, the day was carried by a few veteran AAAA players, and once again, the young Red Sox prospects. Darnell McDonald and Yamaico Navarro had particularly good days, going 3-3 and 2-3 respectively.

Some notes:

  • The two guys on bounceback watch in Lars and Ortiz continued to struggle, and posted a combined 0-7 with 5 strikeouts.
  • The Sox reunited with Jason Bay for the first time today. The outfielder received a smattering of boos from the Sox contingency in the crowd, and went 0-2 on the day. In this blogger's opinion, there's no call for booing a guy who did nothing but rake for us. I was as against signing him as anyone this offseason, but there's no call for boos.
  • The Sox also reunited with Chris Carter, who went over to the Mets in the Billy Wagner trade last year. Tazawa made him look bad swinging at breaking balls.
  • There was a pretty lengthy rain delay after the 4th. Wholesale substitutions followed as could be expected.