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Happy Sale Day! The Red Sox have been waiting for their ace to return to the rotation since he left in 2019. Now, in 2023 that time may have finally arrived. While he didn’t resume starting Opening Day, Chris Sale is here for the second game of the season and wants to look more like his career self than Corey Kluber did. To be fair to Kluber, he started last season with sort of a bust as well and then returned to his late-career norms.
While the Orioles moved a few guys around in the batting order, Alex Cora kept his 1-9 the same and it’s hard to argue. This team did score nine runs!
There’s still the chance of a delay but the rain isn’t quickly heading out of town so we should get this one in.
Game 2: Orioles at Red Sox
| Lineup spot | Orioles | Red Sox |
|---|---|---|
| Lineup spot | Orioles | Red Sox |
| 1 | Ramón Urías, 3B | Alex Verdugo, RF |
| 2 | Adley Rutchman, C | Rafael Devers, 3B |
| 3 | Ryan Mountcastle, 1B | Justin Turner, DH |
| 4 | Anthony Santander, DH | Masataka Yoshida, LF |
| 5 | Austin Hays, RF | Adam Duvall, CF |
| 6 | Gunnar Henderson, 3B | Triston Casas, 1B |
| 7 | Jorge Mateo, SS | Christian Arroyo, 2B |
| 8 | Cedric Mullins, CF | Reese McGuire, C |
| 9 | Ryan McKenna, LF | Kiké Hernández, SS |
| SP | Dean Kremer, RHP | Chris Sale, LHP |
Let’s hope for Sale to start racking up those strikeouts, maybe go 5 or 6 innings, and show the Baltimore Orioles he’s back.
His opponent, Dean Kremer, is a bit of a throwback in terms of strikeouts: just 17% of batters struck out agains the righty in 2022. Facing the Sox in 2022, over three games, Boston hit a combined .293/.364/.552 so here’s hoping for more of the same.
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