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.