April 1, 2013: Red Sox begin journey from worst to first with Opening Day win at Yankee Stadium

The 2013 Boston Red Sox season got underway with a road game against the New York Yankees on April 1. In 2012 the Yankees (95-67) had finished first in the American League East, 26 games ahead of the cellar-dwelling Red Sox (69-93).1 Boston’s .426 winning percentage was its worst since 1960. The Red Sox had lost 12 of their final 13 games, including three straight in New York to end the season.

Boston Globe columnist Dan Shaughnessy wrote of the 2012 team, “The worst Red Sox season in a generation angered and alienated a large, loyal fan base.”2 And 2012 had followed a 2011 season that had seen the team go just 7-20 in the month of September, missing the postseason on the last day of the season, while pitchers “[John] Lackey, [Jon] Lester, and [Josh] Beckett [were] swilling beer and inhaling fried chicken in the clubhouse as the pennant race went upside down.”3

Red Sox fans didn’t know what to expect in 2013 but were “ready to relish any improvement.”4

Opening Day 2013 turned out to be Boston’s first chance to show something different was in store under new manager John Farrell, with Bobby Valentine having been let go after just one year.

The Yankees had won their last 11 home openers, dating back to 1986.5 Joe Girardi, in his sixth season as Yankees manager,6 named CC Sabathia as his starter. The big left-hander had averaged more than 18 wins each of the four previous seasons. Since 2007, his 110 wins ranked tops in the majors, as did his total of 1,399 innings pitched.

Farrell, who had been Red Sox pitching coach from 2007 through 2010, was brought back after two seasons managing the Toronto Blue Jays. He selected left-hander Lester to start the Monday afternoon opener at Yankee Stadium. It was Lester’s eighth season with the Red Sox, and his third Opening Day start in a row.

The assignment put the 29-year-old Lester in distinguished company; the only two left-handers to have opened three seasons in a row for the Red Sox were Mel Parnell and, before him, Babe Ruth. Lester had pitched well for Boston, averaging more than 16 wins from 2008 through 2011, but suffered a down year in 2012, when he was 9-14 with an ERA of 4.82, more than a full run over any of the prior four seasons.7

Both lineups were missing significant star power. New York’s Derek Jeter (broken ankle during the 2012 AL Championship Series), Alex Rodríguez (offseason hip surgery), Curtis Granderson (broken forearm from spring training hit-by-pitch), and Mark Teixiera (wrist injury during World Baseball Classic) were sidelined. Boston’s David Ortiz was rehabilitating from a 2012 Achilles tendon injury, and new shortstop Stephen Drew was recovering from a spring-training concussion.

Dustin Pedroia singled off Sabathia in the first, the only Boston baserunner. The only New York baserunner in the bottom of the inning was their second baseman, Robinson Cano, who reached on a two-out strikeout – thanks to a wild pitch.

In the top of the second, the Red Sox scored four runs. Catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia walked with one out. DH Jonny Gomes singled off the glove of a leaping Jayson Nix at third. Jackie Bradley Jr., playing left field in his major-league debut, walked, loading the bases.

Shortstop Jose Iglesias singled to shortstop Eduardo Nuñez, who had to lunge deep and to his right to catch the ball; his throw to second was too late to beat the hustling Bradley, and one run scored.

Jacoby Ellsbury grounded to first baseman (and former Red Sox star) Kevin Youkilis, who threw home for a force out.8 Shane Victorino singled past Nuñez and into left, driving in two more. Pedroia singled to right-center, driving in Ellsbury with the fourth Boston run. 

Lester walked one in the second but kept the ball in the infield for each of the three outs.

In the third, the Red Sox went down in order. The Yankees got their first hit, a Brett Gardner single; he took second on another wild pitch but advanced no farther.

The Red Sox singled twice in the fourth, but the score remained 4-0 until the Yankees got a pair of runs in the bottom of the inning. Youkilis led off with a double over third base and into the left-field corner, which turned out to be the only extra-base hit of the game for New York. After a walk to Vernon Wells and a foul popup, Ichiro Suzuki dropped a single into center to load the bases.

Lester struck out Nix, but catcher Francisco Cervelli singled down the left-field line, scoring Youkilis and Wells.

Though Boston loaded the bases in the fifth on a two-out double by Saltalamacchia and two walks, Iglesias popped up to first for the third out. Cano singled in the bottom of the inning, but Lester struck out two and got Youkilis to fly out to center.

Sabathia had thrown 102 pitches in five innings, and right-hander David Phelps relieved him in the sixth. Though Ellsbury led off with a triple to the wall in right-center, Phelps frustrated the next three Boston batters and the score remained 4-2. Pedroia’s one-out grounder to Nix saw Ellsbury thrown out at the plate.

Lester was done after five innings and 96 pitches, and the Red Sox put in Koji Uehara, in his first season for Boston. He retired the side in order in the one inning he pitched.

Phelps was back on the mound in the seventh, but two eight-pitch walks put Will Middlebrooks and Saltalamacchia on base. After Gomes flied out into the right-field corner, Middlebrooks tagged and took third, and Girardi brought in left-hander Boone Logan.

Bradley slapped a ball that caromed off Logan’s glove to Cano, who threw Bradley out at first, but Middlebrooks scored on the play. It was 5-2, Boston.

The Yankees brought the tying run to the plate in the seventh when Andrew Miller replaced Uehara and walked the first two batters he faced – but then struck out the next two. Farrell had Andrew Bailey replace Miller, and Bailey struck out Youkilis for the third out. After the three strikeouts to end the threat, the New York Times reported “an eerie silence, reminiscent of the one in the next-to-last game at the Stadium last October when Jeter broke his ankle.”9

Neither team scored in the eighth, Shawn Kelley pitching for New York and Junichi Tazawa pitching for Boston. Travis Hafner, who had entered the game to pinch-hit in the sixth (but popped up to short), singled with one out, but Tazawa turned Ichiro’s comebacker into a 1-6-3 double play.

A strong wind began to pick up, and a bit of very light rain began to fall. Fans were seen departing in droves as early as the seventh.10 The Stadium was more than half-empty when Joba Chamberlain took over in the top of the ninth, kicking off his seventh season with the Yankees.

He struck out Middlebrooks, then gave up a walk, a single to left by Gomes, and another walk. One out later, Ellsbury reached on an infield single (the ball took a hop and then was bobbled by Cano) that scored two runs, Gomes hustling and scoring from second.

Victorino singled to right field, driving in Bradley and making it 8-2, Red Sox.11 Cody Eppley, the Yankees’ sixth pitcher of the game, replaced Chamberlain and got the third out when Pedroia grounded out, short to first.

Joel Hanrahan, Boston’s sixth pitcher, retired the Yankees in order in the ninth.

The Boston Globe’s Nick Cafardo was effusive: “To a man, and that includes players, manager, coaches, general manager, equipment manager, trainers, you name it, the Red Sox executed perfectly Monday.”12

Winning pitcher Lester gave a lot of credit to manager Farrell: “He’s a very positive, upbeat guy. He’s always prepared, always full of information if you need [sic]. That trickles down to the coaching staff and to us. I think a lot of us felt embarrassed about what happened to us last year. We’re busting our butts to try not to let that happen again.”13

As the 2013 Red Sox season played out, Lester and his teammates gave their city a wire-to-wire performance far removed from last-place 2012.They took two of the three games in New York to start the season, then the home opener back in Boston on April 4. At no time in 2013 did the Red Sox have a losing record.

They finished 97-65, winning 28 more games than in 2012 and taking the AL East by 5½ games over the Tampa Bay Rays. (The Yankees were third, 12 games back.)

Boston won the ALDS against the Rays, the ALCS against the Detroit Tigers, and the World Series against the St. Louis Cardinals. It proved to be a worst-to-first season. In 2013 exultant Red Sox fans saw their team win the World Series at home, celebrating on the Fenway Park field for the first time since 1918.

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Bruce Slutsky and copy-edited by Len Levin.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org for pertinent information, including the box score and play by play. He also reviewed highlights of the game on YouTube.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/NYA/NYA201304010.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/2013/B04010NYA2013.htm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mn-w_6_wu0

Notes

1 New York beat Baltimore in the AL Division Series, but was swept by the Detroit Tigers in the ALCS.

2 Dan Shaughnessy, “As Season Opens, Rookie Bradley Gives Sox a Ray of Sunshine,” Boston Globe, April 1, 2013: A1.

3 Kevin Paul Dupont, “In Other Words, Au Revoir,” Boston Globe, January 13, 2012: C2. 

4 Brian McQuarrie, “Pragmatic Red Sox Fans Ready for a Fresh Start,” Boston Globe, April 1, 2013: B1.

5 Overall, the team was 35-14-1 in home openers.

6 Girardi’s teams had three first-place finishes in the preceding five years, and a World Series championship in 2009.

7 This was the first opener Lester won. The Boston Globe’s Julian Benbow devoted a column to Lester and his successful performance. Julian Benbow, “Lefty Able to Make It All Right,” Boston Globe, April 2, 2013: C6. After the game, Lester said, “It’s just nice to get that first one off our back. Guys can kind of relax a little bit and go out there and play on Wednesday and we’re not chasing that elusive first win. So that’s big for us.”

8 Youkilis was one of six players on the team who made their Yankees debuts in the game. Ben Francisco, Travis Hafner, Shawn Kelley, Lyle Overbay, and Vernon Wells were the others. There were “dark forecasts that the injury-depleted Yankees will join their forever rivals at the bottom of a talent-endowed division.” Harvey Araton, “For Yankees, Uncertainty Is Yet Another Newcomer,” New York Times, April 2, 2013: B8. Neither team finished at the bottom. The Yankees finished tied for third; the Red Sox won it all. Araton quoted Andy Pettitte saying, “I don’t know if we’ve ever had the kind of turnover we’ve had this spring.”

9 David Waldstein, “For Yanks, a Chill in the Air and in the Stands,” New York Times, April 2, 2013: B11.

10 After the game, Vernon Wells said, “At the end, it was ugly out, on the field and off. I don’t blame them for heading home a little early.” See Waldstein. It had been 62 degrees at first pitch and attendance was reported as 49,514, the largest home opener since the new Yankee Stadium opened in 2009.

11 It was newcomer Victorino’s third RBI of the game. Bradley went 0-for-2 in his first major-league game, but walked three times, scored twice, and drove in a run with his grounder in the seventh. The New York Times ran a nice feature on him the following day. Tim Rohan, “Red Sox Phenom Arrives Before His Time, as Good as Hoped,” New York Times, April 2, 2013: B13. Dan Shaughnessy devoted a full column expressing his own appreciation. Dan Shaughnessy, “It’s a Show-Stopping Beginning by Bradley,” Boston Globe, April 2, 2013: C1. Saltalamacchia also walked three times. Yankees pitchers threw 190 pitches in all. Sabathia’s fastball topped out at 91 mph.

12 Nick Cafardo, “Things Being Done Differently, It Seems,” Boston Globe, April 2, 2013: C1. “The only thing they didn’t do was hit the ball out of the park.”

13 Peter Abraham, “Quality Start,” Boston Globe. April 2, 2013: C1, C5. Farrell said he’d seen the chemistry of the team in spring training. “Wins certainly are the biggest factor with chemistry and how we jell as a unit. These guys, their priority is the game. They’ve got a strong passion for it, they love to work, and that was evident throughout an entire spring training. Today is Day 1, but I think that showed in the intensity and mentality of this group.”