Regardless of outcome, I think we can all agree that Opening Day should be a holiday. Honestly, even more so when you have to swallow spirit-crushing late-innings losses like the Red Sox coughed up yesterday afternoon.
But with the first loss of the season behind us, we can all relax into baseball's wonderful routine: we get to watch our team play 162 times over the course of six months - and then hopefully reset the standings and watch them compete well into October.
Baseball fans are truly #blessed.
I won't waste your time opining about the bullpen: we all know the Red Sox need to improve in that area. But there is one small silver lining. Remember the nightmare that was Matt Barnes on the road last season?
| Split | W | L | W-L% | ERA | G | IP | H | R | ER | HR | BB | SO | WHIP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Away | 2 | 2 | .500 | 5.28 | 33 | 30.2 | 23 | 18 | 18 | 4 | 20 | 29 | 1.402 |
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 3/30/2018.
Barnes tossed a completely clean inning yesterday! At the Trop! Hopefully he's turned a corner, and the rest of his bullpen cohort can learn from his example.
Bullpen aside, Chris Sale was as spectacular as ever. Six shutout innings, nine strikeouts - Sale was betrayed by his own bullpen, but I'm sure he doesn't look at it that way.
A throwback who berates himself for anything less than a complete game, Sale is likely back in the weight room, vowing to go the distance in his next outing, or at the very least, hand the ball directly to Craig Kimbrel.
In other positive news, Eduardo Núñez's knee looks like it's just fine, which is a huge relief after we watched him be carried off the field in Houston last October, and then saw him spend spring training treating the questionable joint with kid gloves.
Lastly, I think a lot of us came into the season underestimating what kind of factor Xander Bogaerts is going to be at the plate. An injury last season saw him underperforming, but there was no sign of that yesterday, as the shortstop clubbed two doubles against Chris Archer (whose line yesterday certainly doesn't reflect his skill).
The Red Sox are going to be fine. The bullpen will get better - and if they don't, I'm fully confident that Dave Dombrowski will make the moves necessary to avoid another catastrophic meltdown like the one we witnessed yesterday.
The beautiful thing about baseball is that you never have time to dwell on a loss, even one as gruesome as yesterday's. David Price takes the mound today, and I fully expect him to set the tone for what should be a huge year for him - and for the Red Sox.
Buckle in, fellow Red Sox fans: the season's just begun, and we've got (at least) 161 more games to watch. What could be better?
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