The big concern for the Boston Red Sox heading into the 2019 season was the arms in the bullpen.
Losing Joe Kelly and Craig Kimbrel in the off-season prompted questions about whether the middle or end of games would be a weak spot for Boston, but the starting rotation was supposed to be the team's strength.
Well, April Fools. The problem has been those starters, with not one of them turning in a decent performance to start the year, and in fact most have been downright awful, including Rick Porcello yesterday, who never made it out of a third inning in which the Seattle Mariners scored seven runs en route to a 10-8 win.
Porcello yielded a three-run homer to Omar Navaez and also issued four walks in his outing, blowing a 3-0 lead the offense handed him after two innings, and even though the Red Sox made a game of it later with JD Martinez hitting a three run bomb and Mookie Betts smacking his first home run of the year, it wasn't enough.
So the Red Sox turn to David Price for some kind of relief from the top five against the A's tonight. He's the only starter who hasn't taken the hill yet, and maybe this is just a World Series hangover but the defending champs are 1-3 to start their title defense.
But hey, it's not just the Red Sox off to a disappointing start. Last week I made all sorts of fun of the Baltimore Orioles, who lost 115 games last year and were the worst team in baseball, and I suggested the NY Yankees could show up in their pajamas, check their email, and eat a hot dog while playing the O's and still win every game.
April Fool's again, because the Orioles took the opening series against New York, in Yankee Stadium no less, winning 7-5 yesterday in a game that was delayed up to three hours by rain. But it was the O's who rained on the Yankees parade, with Renato Nunez, Trey Mancini and Joey Rickard all going yard in the win.
Tough start for JA Happ, who lasted just four innings and gave up four runs for the Yankees, who had a chance to win when they put two on with two out in the 9th but Paul Fry struck out Troy Tulowitzki to end the threat and the game and yes it's like pre-dawn early in the season, but the Orioles are 2-1 and in second place, the Yankees are 1-2 in fourth, just ahead of the last place Red Sox.
The NY Mets suffered their first loss of the season 6-5 to the Washington Nationals yesterday. Trea Turner hit a walk off homer in the bottom of the 9th off Justin Wilson to add to the three run homer he hit earlier in the game.
To the NHL and Anthony Mantha scored his first career hat trick against the Boston Bruins in a 6-3 win for the Detroit Red Wings, a win a lot of Wings fans wish had gone to Boston. Detroit is a rebuilding playoff no-show this year and a lot of fans would rather they finish with the league's worst record to have a better shot at landing Jack Hughes in the draft lottery, a player many believe will be the league's next young superstar. But the Red wings are now winners of five straight and Gordie Howe would be proud they're not tanking to end the year.
The Bruins, meanwhile, should be resting their best players for the post season but as losers of four of their last five they can't, because they're still fighting to lock down second place in the Atlantic division to secure home ice advantage against Toronto in the first playoff round. Not a good time for the Bruins to be playing bad hockey. They took a 3-2 lead in the third period last night before the Wings scored four unanswered to win. Brad Marchand did score a shorthanded goal for Boston to pass Rick Middleton for most short handed goals in Bruins history.
Bad news for the Montreal Canadiens as the Columbus Blue Jackets beat the Buffalo Sabres 4-0 and now have leapfrogged Montreal and Carolina for sole possession of the first wild card playoff spot. The Habs are now chasing the Hurricanes for the last one, trailing by one point with three games left in the regular season.
