By DJ Harding –
The Boston Red Sox started the season on the wrong foot dropping their home opener. But after an Adam Duvall walkoff home run and a 9-5 win on Sunday Boston improves to 2-1 and wins their first season series.
Tanner Houck would get the start for the Red Sox while Cole Irvin would get the call for Baltimore.
Houck would pitch five innings striking out five batters and allowing three runs along with five hits on the day. Irvin would pitch four innings collecting four strikeouts in his first start of the year. Irvin would also give up six runs and allow eight hits.
The game would start with the Orioles going down three in a row with a Cedric Mullins Flyout, Adley Rutschman strikeout, and a Anthony Santander Flyout.
The Red Sox would start their hitting with Rob Refsnyder hitting a lead off single in the bottom of the first. Rafeal Devers would then hit a single of his own before Justin Turner would get walked to load the bases with no outs.
Masataka Yoshida would get up to bat and ground out advancing both Devers and Turner. Refsnyder would score the first run of the game while Yoshida would give the Red Sox their first out of the inning.
Adam Duvall and Christian Arroyo would both strikeout to end the inning. Alex Verdugo walked in between both strikeouts.
The Orioles would get two more outs as Houck would retire five straight batters to start the game before Terrin Vavra would hit a single to end that streak.
Vavra single wouldn’t amount to much as Adam Frazier would ground out after Austin Hayes walked leaving the Orioles scoreless.
With a one to zero lead going into the bottom of the second inning Enrique Hernandez would hit a lead off home run to extend the lead to two runs.
Boston would get three straight outs to end the second inning after the Hernandez home run.
The Orioles would go down three straight in the top of the third, while Boston would see its first two batters fly out and ground out before an Adam Duvall double and an Alex Verdugo single would give the Red Soxs their third run of the game and their third straight inning with a run.
Both Teams would go quiet in the fourth inning. But then the Orioles would wake up in the top of the fifth.
Baltimore’s lead off hitter for the fifth would fly out. Then Austin Hayes would get on base with a single before Adam Frazier would hit his first homer of the season to bring the lead within one run.
Cedric Mullins would come up after a groundout would give the Orioles their second out. Mullins would tie the game up at three runs a piece as he would hit a home run of his own which was the second of the inning.
Boston would see Houck strikeout the next batter and give them a chance to regain the lead and break the tie at three runs.
The Red Sox in the bottom of the fifth would hit three straight singles from Rafael Devers, Justin Turner, and Masataka Yoshida. Devers would score which caused the Orioles to then Sub in relief pitcher Bryan Baker which ended the day for Cole Irvin.
Adam Duvall would single and score Turner and Yoshida to give Boston six runs and another three run lead.
Both teams would go quiet in the sixth inning before both teams would score two runs each in the seventh inning.
The Red Sox would tack on their ninth and final run in the bottom of the eighth inning before putting the game away at the top of the ninth.
Boston would go on to win 9-5 with its top performers being Adam Duvall who went three for five with two doubles, two RBIs, and two runs. While Yoshida went two for four with two RBIs, three runs, and a stolen base.
Boston now has a record of 2-1 and will stay at Fenway for their next series against the Pittsburgh Pirates starting on Monday April 3rd.
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