April 6, 2015: Dustin Pedroia and Hanley Ramírez both homer twice in Red Sox’s Opening Day win

The 2015 Major League Baseball season opened on Monday, April 6. The San Francisco Giants were the reigning world champions.

Opening Day games included the Philadelphia Phillies hosting the Boston Red Sox at Citizens Bank Park. In 2014 the Phillies, three seasons removed from the last of five consecutive National League East Division titles, had finished last in the division, 23 games out of first place. The Red Sox – defending World Series champions going into 2014 – had come in last in the American League East Division, 25 games out of first.

Ryne Sandberg was back as manager of the Phillies, and John Farrell returned as manager of the Red Sox.

Sandberg’s pitcher for the afternoon game was 31-year-old left-hander Cole Hamels, who had compiled a 9-9 record in 2014 even though his 2.46 earned-run average ranked fifth in the NL and he had given up no more than three runs in any of his last 23 starts of the season.1 He was beginning his 10th season in the majors, all with Philadelphia, but he hadn’t won his first start of the year since 2010.

On Hamels’ second pitch of the game, center fielder Mookie Betts popped up to the shortstop. On his fifth pitch, second baseman Dustin Pedroia homered to straightaway left, caught by a fan in the first row of the seats, and the Red Sox had an early 1-0 lead. Four more pitches and the top of the first was complete.

Farrell’s starter was Clay Buchholz. It was his ninth year in the majors, all with the Red Sox.  The right-hander had been 8-11 with a 5.34 ERA in 2014 – though in Boston’s world-champion 2013 season, he went 12-1 (1.74 ERA). Only one of the Phillies reached base in the bottom of the first; second baseman Chase Utley was safe a two-out error when Buchholz failed to pick up his soft dribbler cleanly. First baseman Ryan Howard then grounded out, 4-3.

Hamels pitched a scoreless second but labored through 33 pitches, with a walk, a balk, a stolen base, and then another walk. Buchholz – the third batter of the inning to push Hamels to a full count – grounded back to the pitcher to strand Red Sox on the corners.

“He was throwing 94 (mph), he had his fastball,” Sandberg said of Hamels after the game. “He just seemed to have long counts. They fouled off a lot of balls, extended at-bats. … He really didn’t get into a rhythm of getting ahead of the hitters and putting them away.”2

In the bottom of the inning, Buchholz recorded a strikeout, a groundout, and another strikeout.

Leading off for Boston in the third was Betts, who had hit five home runs as a rookie after his June 2014 promotion to the big leagues. The 22-year-old Betts hit Hamels’ first pitch into the seats, maybe 10 rows deep, for a 2-0 lead. Two outs later, left fielder Hanley Ramírez – back with the Red Sox, his original organization, after signing a four-year, $88-million free-agent contract in November 2014 – worked a nine-pitch walk but advanced no further.3 Buchholz retired the side in order in the bottom of the inning.

The fourth inning was relatively uneventful. Boston’s two-out single was harmless. Buchholz struck out the first two Phillies, then gave up a double to Ryan Howard and walked the next batter, but nothing came of it.

In the top of the fifth, Red Sox batters alternated strikeouts and home runs. Betts struck out on seven pitches. Pedroia homered on a 1-and-1 pitch – his second of the game – to left-center, in almost the same location as his first but a few rows deeper. It was the fourth time in Pedroia’s career that he had hit two or more homers in a game.

Hamels struck out David Ortiz, but Hanley Ramírez homered to left-center on a one-strike pitch, to almost the same spot as Pedroia’s but maybe 20 feet more toward center field. Boston’s fourth solo home run of the game made it 4-0. Pablo Sandoval struck out, the sixth K of the game for Hamels.

The configuration of Citizens Bank Park helped the visitors. Both of Pedroia’s line-drive homers “were likely singles or doubles back at Fenway.”4

It was 1-2-3 for Buchholz in the home half of the fifth, with César Hernández batting for Hamels and flying out deep to right-center for the third out.

Luis García was the next pitcher for the Phils. After a leadoff walk, he secured outs from the next three batters to close out the top of the sixth. Buchholz put up another zero, as left fielder Ben Revere lined out to Ortiz at first base and the next two Phillies struck out.

Philadelphia’s Jeanmar Gómez took the mound in the seventh. After back-to-back singles by Betts and Pedroia, he struck out Ortiz and got Hanley Ramírez to hit into a double play. The Phillies got a pair of one-out singles off Buchholz but couldn’t produce a run. Freddy Galvis’ inning-ending strikeout was Buchholz’s ninth of the game. The score remained Boston 4, Philadelphia 0.

Justin De Fratus relieved Gomez in the eighth. He got two groundouts, walked Xander Bogaerts, and then got another groundout.

Buchholz was done after seven innings and 94 pitches, and Farrell called on Junichi Tazawa. Eleven pitches later, Tazawa had a scoreless inning. The second out, Revere’s flyball to shallow left, was the only chance of the day for Hanley Ramírez, who was making his big-league outfield debut after appearing exclusively at short or third throughout his career.

In the top of the ninth, left-hander Jake Diekman took over pitching for the Phillies, and the Red Sox made it a rout. Pinch-hitting for Tazawa, Allen Craig singled between third and short. Betts walked on four pitches. Pedroia, who already had two homers and a single, struck out. Diekman then walked Mike Napoli, who had replaced Ortiz at first base in the seventh.

Hanley Ramírez followed with a grand slam, breaking his bat but reaching the left-field pole for an 8-0 Red Sox lead. Ramírez’s sixth career slam capped his 17th lifetime two-homer game. Boston’s five Opening Day home runs matched the franchise record, set in 1965.

Tommy Layne was asked to close things out. Utley grounded out to Napoli, unassisted. Howard lined out to third. Carlos Ruiz watched four pitches and drew a base on balls. Pinch-hitter Jeff Francoeur grounded out, third to first, and the game was over.

The Boston Globe’s Peter Abraham wrote, “On a day when Dustin Pedroia and Hanley Ramírez each hit two home runs, Buchholz was the star.”5 In what turned out to be the only Opening Day start of Buchholz’s 13-season career, he limited the Phillies to three hits and a walk. The Red Sox had their first season-opening shutout since Pedro Martínez and Derek Lowe combined to two-hit the Seattle Mariners in 2000.

The Phillies were three-hit on Opening Day for the first time since Rick Mahler of the Atlanta Braves blanked them in 1987.6  It was their first scoreless opener since a 1-0 loss to the New York Mets in 14 innings in 1998.

Philadelphia sportswriters were not optimistic about the team and the season to come. Ben Revere was quoted as saying, “It’s not how you start, it’s how you finish,” but Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Bob Brookover wrapped up his remarks by writing, “There will be other nice days and nights at the ballpark, but the great fear is that good baseball will be played by the visiting teams, and that’s a sad state of affairs in this place that was so happening just four years ago.”7

Diekman had a 108.00 ERA after the opener, but he went on to have a good year by working in 67 games for the Phillies and the Rangers. As it happened, he and Hamels were both traded to Texas on July 31 (netting the Phillies six players). He wound up with a 4.01 ERA. Hamels bore the loss on this Opening Day but ended the season 13-8 (with a 3.65 ERA).

Dustin Pedroia was reportedly “the only Red Sox player of the last 100 years who has hit safely in each of his first nine Opening Days.”8

Pedroia lost six weeks due to a strained right hamstring on July 22 but hit 12 homers in all, and for a .291 batting average. Hanley Ramirez hit 19 homers and drove in 53 runs.

Buchholz ended the 2015 season with a 7-7 record and 3.26 ERA.

The Red Sox finished the year in last place (78-84) and 15 games behind Toronto in the AL East. The Phillies also finished last again, 27 games behind the Mets.

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Harrison Golden and copy-edited by Mike Eisenbath.

Photo credit: Hanley Ramírez, Trading Card Database.

Sources 

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org, and the telecast of the game on YouTube.com. 

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/PHI/PHI201504060.shtml 

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/2015/B04060PHI2015.htm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32kItBhxXD0

Notes

1 Nick Cafardo, “Powerful statement by Pedroia,” Boston Globe, April 7, 2015: D5.

2 Ryan Lawrence, “Four-Gone Conclusion,” Philadelphia Daily News, April 7, 2015: 54.

3 Ramirez signed with the Red Sox at age 16 in 2000 and reached the majors with Boston in 2005. During the 2005-06 offseason, he was traded to the Florida Marlins in the six-player deal that brought Mike Lowell and Josh Beckett to Boston. He was named NL Rookie of the Year for the Marlins in 2006, and he had made three All-Star teams and received two Silver Slugger Awards in nine seasons with the Marlins and Los Angeles Dodgers.

4 Michael Silverman, “Pedey second to none,” Boston Herald, April 7, 2015: 54.

5 Peter Abraham, “Arm strength,” Boston Globe, April 7, 2015: D1.

6 Mahler also three-hit the Phillies on Opening Day 1985. Through 2025, Philadelphia’s franchise record for fewest hits on Opening Day was two, against the Brooklyn Superbas in 1910.

7 Bob Brookover, “Perfect day, until the game,” Philadelphia Inquirer, April 7, 2015: D2.

8 Cafardo.