The first game of the season for the Boston Red Sox was like a shiny new car. You take it for a test drive, it handles beautifully, it's got some great fancy new features you've never seen before, and hey, you're sold. The second game of the season reminds you that while it still may be a good buy, any car depreciates in value the minute you drive it off the lot. The Red Sox suffered their first loss of the season, dropping a see-saw affair to the Cleveland Indians 7-6 last night, showing along the way some of the flaws that could be troublesome if they linger well into the year.
For starters, the starter: Clay Buchholz only made it to the fourth inning before getting yanked, giving up five runs, all earned, four of them in the first inning, inlduiding a three run homer to Carlos Santana. But the Sox battled back, and signs that the vehicle may be sturdy for a good long run included back to back home runs by David Ortiz and Hanley Ramirez in the sixth inning. It was Big Papi's second home runs in as many games to start the season, and with that homer Ortiz moves past Eddie Murray into 26th place on the all-time home run list, and, as the Elias Sports Bureau points out, he joins Ted Williams as the only players over 40 to homer in each of their team's first two games. But ultimately it was a former teammate who did the Red Sox in, one of the heroes from the 2013 World Championship squad, Mike Napoli, who homered deep to left off reliever Junichi Tazawa in the seventh inning to break a six-all tie and give the Indians the victory. Tazawa left a hanging split fingered fastball over the middle of the plate that Napoli did not miss, and you can't help but notice that if he wasn't on the disabled list to start the season, the newly acquired late inning specialist and flame thrower Carson Smith likely would have been on the hill instead of Tazawa, so until he gets back, the Boston bullpen will need to be better in those close game. late inning situations to get to new closer Craig Kimbrel. The rubber game of the series is tonight with Joe Kelly getting his first start of the season for the Red Sox.
The NY Yankees shrugged off their first loss of the year to the Houston Astros on a controversial error call, and walloped the 'Stros 16-6 at the Stadium last night. New Yankees second baseman Starlin Castro homered, a three-run shot, and drove in five runs to lead the rout. Mark Texiera also had a three-run blast for the Yankees, who made it an easy night for Michael Pineda to pick up his first win of the year, even though he struggled, giving up all six runs on a grand slam to George Springer and two solo shots to Carlos Correa. But when your offense puts up a football score, those things tend to get overlooked. Nathan Eovaldi gets his first start for the Yankees this season in the rubber game tonight. The NY Mets were off and don't play again until Friday when they face the Tigers in Detroit.
And the San Diego Padres have made history, but not the kind they'll want to brag about. The Padres have lost the first three games of the 2016 season, all to the L.A. Dodgers, which isn't that big of a deal, but San Diego failed to score a single run in any of those three losses, becoming the first team in Major League history to go scoreless in the first three games of a season.
To the NHL, and tonight in Boston, the Bruins, on the precipice of a second straight late season collapse of maddening proportions, will try to salvage their playoff hopes in a game they absolutely have to win to have even a glimmer of hope, and where have you heard that before? The Detroit Red Wings come to town on the heels of an impressive 3-0 shutout over the Philadelphia Flyers last night, a win that vaults the Wings over Boston by two full points for third place in the Atlantic division, which is the safe place for post-season play. Both teams have two games left on the schedule, so Boston would have to beat Detroit tonight, then beat Ottawa in the final regular season game, and hope the Wings falter in their final game. Oh, but hooray, there's another path for Boston to get in, but boo, it's highly unlikely. With the loss to Detroit last night Philly remains tied with Boston, 91 points each for the final wild card berth should the Wings pull away, so Boston could get in if they win their last two games, and Philly falters. The only problem there is that the Flyers have three games left in their season to Boston's two, so they have a far greater opportunity to finish with more points than Boston. The prediction here is that the Bruins will do just enough to miss out on the post-season by a single point as they did last year, watching in helpless futility as the Flyers get in on the last game of the season by picking up a single point in a regulation tie, but that's just me steeling myself for the reality of yet another underachieving Bruins team that tanked down the stretch when the games mattered most.
