BOSTON -- It had been a gloomy first week of baseball on the road for the Red Sox, and it was cloudy and cool outside when Fenway Park opened its gates for a 115th season on Friday.
But by the time the pregame ceremonies started, honoring Boston’s pennant-winning squad of 1986, the sun hovered over the venerable ballpark on Jersey Street, the temperatures climbed, and perhaps it was a symbol that home cooking was about to change the fortunes for a team that lost five of its first six games.
A little while later, the Red Sox pulled out a much-needed 5-2 victory over the Padres.
All in all, the day really did turn out to be Good Friday -- a feel-good day for a group of players who might have been pressing and a fanbase that never minds panicking even at such an early stage of the season.
Though the Red Sox themselves weren’t panicky, manager Alex Cora admitted the tough start wasn’t easy to digest.
“It's very hard, I’ve got to be honest,” said Cora. “You see it, and you see the numbers and the narrative and all that. You’re like, ‘It would be good to start winning a few games.’ But today was a good day.”
Sonny Gray was first to shift the energy, as the team’s new pitching acquisition fired six strong innings (four hits, two runs, no walks, three strikeouts).
While run prevention was the buzzword that surrounded the Sox during an offseason that turned out differently than many people expected, the rotation struggled in four of the first six starts through Cincinnati and Houston.
“The offseason -- with everything that happened, I believe when we pivoted to [Ranger] Suarez [after Alex Bregman left] -- it kind of let everybody know we’re going to pitch [this season]. Sonny in the trade, [Johan] Oviedo in the trade,” said Cora. “The first time through, it didn’t look great. Today, Sonny was really good. That's what we expect. Go out there, pitch, play decent defense, and timely hitting.”
Gray was the first to struggle, with a sluggish start in the second game of the season that started a five-game losing streak following Garrett Crochet’s dominant effort on Opening Day.
Perhaps, then, it was only fitting that Gray helped get his team back on track. The 36-year-old craftsman was brought in as a stabilizing force, and that’s what he was on a day his team needed him to be.
“It's a team effort, for sure,” said Gray. “But I do think it’s the starting pitcher’s job to come out and attack, put zeros on the board and give your team a chance. That's just kind of what my mindset was today -- to just attack early, get back to being you. And we had a good game plan going in.”
Thanks to Gray’s four goose eggs at the start, the offense had a chance to do what had been a rare occurrence of late -- play with a lead.
Marcelo Mayer snapped an 0-for-12 drought by going to the opposite field in left for a double that set up Ceddanne Rafaela to bring him home with the first run at Fenway Park this season.
Mayer is part of the young core the Red Sox are building around, and taking his game up a notch from his injury-abbreviated rookie season is a key to the team's success. Mayer looked even more poised to play that part when he belted a two-run homer into the visitors' bullpen to increase his team’s lead to 5-2 in the sixth -- three batters after Willson Contreras' first Red Sox homer gave Boston the lead.
“A long offseason, and you dream about those moments to feel that rush again,” Mayer said. "I’m happy I got to have it at home.”
Speaking of droughts, nobody was feeling it more than Caleb Durbin, the scrappy third baseman who was acquired right before Spring Training but started his season 0-for-19.
In the fourth, it was Durbin who smacked an RBI single up the middle, erasing the sour taste of hearing some boos when he tapped into a double play in his first at-bat.
“That’s Boston, right? You want fans that are poured into it,” said Durbin. “When you’re not going good, when it’s bad, you’re beating yourself up more than anything. You definitely don’t take it personally. It’s honestly a good thing, because you want the fans to be on you, and that’s what makes Boston special.”
Gray could feel what makes Boston special before he even stepped on the mound.
“I noticed [the vibe in the stands] when I was warming up in the outfield playing catch,” Gray said. "It was like, ‘Oh, there's a little buzz in the air. That's nice.' Yes, it was great.”
And if Cora wasn’t great before the festivities started, one of those Red Sox legends from 1986 gave him some welcome assurance.
“Dwight Evans came down, and he said, ‘We’re going to be OK,’” Cora said. “I said, ‘Thank you. I needed that.'”
For sure, this was the therapeutic day Red Sox Nation needed.