March 30, 2018: After Opening Day defeat, Red Sox rebound with first of nine consecutive wins

On their way to the World Series championship in 2018, the Boston Red Sox won more than 50 regular-season games at home (57) and more than 50 on the road (51). They won precisely twice as many games as they lost, 108-54. The 108 victories were the most in franchise history; the prior high had been 105 wins in 1912, the first season in which Fenway Park had served as their home.

The Red Sox’ 2018 season began with a loss to the Tampa Bay Rays at Tropicana Field on March 29, despite 2017 American League Cy Young Award runner-up Chris Sale throwing six innings of one-hit ball.1 Sale’s pitching and second baseman Eduardo Núñez’s two-run fourth-inning inside-the-park home run paced Boston to a 4-0 lead. But that lead was upended by an eighth-inning bullpen implosion, marring Alex Cora’s debut as the Red Sox’ manager. Reliever Joe Kelly walked a batter, gave up a double, then walked two more, and was replaced by Carson Smith, who also walked the first batter he faced. Denard Span’s bases-loaded triple gave the Rays a 5-4 edge, and they added another run when the next batter singled. The final score was Rays 6, Red Sox 4.

A day later, Blake Snell started the season’s second game for manager Kevin Cash and the Rays.2 David Price took the mound for Cora and the Red Sox. The Friday evening matchup offered the potential of being a pitchers’ duel between two left-handers – the 25-year-old Snell, who had impressed the Rays mightily during spring training and represented their hope for a future ace, and the 32-year-old Price, who had spent his first seven seasons with Tampa Bay and won the AL Cy Young Award in 2012.3

Neither team had a man reach base in either the first or second inning. In the top of the third, Boston catcher Christian Vázquez lined a two-out single into left field but was erased on an adept play by catcher Wilson Ramos, who picked up a pitch in the dirt and fired to second base to throw out Vázquez. Price set down the Rays in order once more in the bottom of the third.

The Red Sox had two two-out runners in the fourth – a single by first baseman Hanley Ramírez and a walk to designated hitter J.D. Martínez – but shortstop Xander Bogaerts flied out to left. In their half, the Rays got their first baserunners – the first on a one-out single by center fielder Kevin Kiermaier and the second on a two-out single by designated hitter C.J. Cron. Neither scored.

Snell set down the Red Sox in order in the fifth. Tampa Bay’s Brad Miller singled to start the bottom of the fifth, but two infield grounders produced a force out at second and then a 6-4-3 double play.

There was still no score in the game. Both pitchers were faring well.

With one out in the top of the sixth, Red Sox right fielder Mookie Betts walked. After the second out, Hanley Ramírez singled to right field and Betts took third. Chaz Roe relieved Snell and – on his eighth pitch – struck out J.D. Martínez.

Price struck out the first two Rays he faced in the sixth and then got Kiermaier to fly out to right field.

Leading off the top of the seventh, Bogaerts doubled to left against Roe, the ball one-hopping the wall. Cash summoned left-hander José Alvarado to face left-handed-hitting third baseman Rafael Devers,4 who bounced a single through the infield to the right of second base and into center field, driving in Bogaerts. The Red Sox took a 1-0 lead.

They aimed to add more after Núñez’s infield single put runners on first and second. But center fielder Jackie Bradley Jr. hit into a 4-6-3 double play and Alvarado struck out Vázquez.

Price pitched around Ramos’s two-out single for a scoreless seventh. He had thrown 76 pitches and hadn’t walked a batter in the game.

Matt Andriese became the fourth pitcher of the game for Tampa Bay in the eighth. He got a groundout, a foul popup to third base, and a strikeout.

Cora turned the game over to the bullpen in the bottom of the eighth. Matt Barnes, who had led Boston in relief appearances in 2016 and 2017, relieved Price. Barnes struck out the first Ray, then walked the second, but pinch-hitter Joey Wendel lined out to Devers and third baseman Matt Duffy popped up to first base,

After eight innings, the score remained Red Sox 1, Rays 0.

Andriese held the line in the top of the ninth, yielding a one-out double to center by Bogaerts, but no more.

Alex Cora called on his closer – Craig Kimbrel – to hold the one-run lead. Kimbrel had appeared in 67 games in 2017, closing 51 of them, with a 5-0 record and an ERA of 1.43. He did not disappoint in this game, either.

Kimbrel threw 15 pitches. He struck out Kiermaier – swinging – on four pitches. It took him five pitches to strike out Carlos Gómez, finishing off the Rays’ right fielder with a called strike three. On his sixth pitch to Cron, on a full count, he completed the trifecta, striking out the side, on a swinging third strike.

Snell had pitched exceptionally well, allowing just three hits in 5 2/3 innings of shutout ball.5 Though he had no decision in this game, at season’s end, his 21 wins led the majors; he finished 21-5 with a league-leading 1.83 ERA and won the AL Cy Young Award.

It was Alex Cora’s first win as a Red Sox manager.6 He had earned a World Series championship ring with the 2007 Red Sox. He earned another ring at the end of the 2018 season.

The Red Sox went on to win their next eight games in a row, setting them at 9-1. The ninth game in the streak was a 14-1 win over the New York Yankees at Fenway Park on April 10. Two more lengthy winning streaks followed in 2018. After dropping the April 11 game to the Yankees, the Red Sox reeled off eight wins, taking them to 17-2 for the season. They later won 10 consecutive games from July 2-12, a streak that put them in first place in the AL East to stay.

The Red Sox finished eight games ahead of the second-place Yankees.7 They dropped just one game in the AL Division Series, one in the AL Championship Series, and one in the World Series. David Price, whose Opening Day win was the first step to a 16-7 season record, beat the defending World Series champion Houston Astros in the deciding Game Five of the ALCS, then won both Game Two and the clinching Game Five in the World Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Troy Olszewski and copy-edited by Len Levin.

Photo credit: David Price, Trading Card Database.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com, Retrosheet.org, and You Tube.com. Thanks to Wes Singletary for access to the Tampa Bay Times.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/TBA/TBA201803300.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/2018/B03300TBA2018.htm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RaS_ajzjzg0

Notes

1 Corey Kluber of the Cleveland Indians won the AL Cy Young Award in 2017. Sale finished sixth or higher in Cy Young Award voting seven times before winning the NL Cy Young Award in 2024 with the Atlanta Braves.

2 In his final 10 starts in 2017, Snell had held opponents to a .197 batting average and had been 5-1 with a 2.84 ERA.

3 Price had come to the Red Sox in 2016 and had been 17-9 in his first season, with a 3.99 ERA. He missed much of 2017 due to elbow problems. This was his first start since July 22 of that year. Before the game, he had said, “I expect good things from David Price.” Dan Shaughnessy, “Price Makes Good in His Season Debut,” Boston Globe, March 31, 2018: C4.

4 Devers broke in with the Red Sox in 2017 and hit .284 with 10 homers and 30 RBIs in his first 58 major-league games.

5 Kevin Cash said, “We talked about how excited we are to see Blake coming out of spring training. He definitely lived up to that.” Roger Mooney, “No Fault of Snell’s,” Tampa Bay Times, March 31, 2018: 1C.

6 Kimbrel had worked only two innings in all of spring training; his five-month-old daughter Lydia was in Boston’s Children’s Hospital recovering from heart surgery. Kimbrel had had exceptional success against Tampa Bay, In 10 appearances spanning all of 2017 and this first game in 2018, he had thrown 10 no-hit innings with just one walk, while striking out 26. Kimbrel recovered the ball on which he had struck out the final batter, had it authenticated, and presented it to Alex Cora. Peter Abraham, “Formula works this time for Sox,” Boston Globe, March 31, 2018: C1.

7 The Rays finished third in the AL East at 90-72 and did not make the postseason.