April 8, 2013: Boston Red Sox win ninth consecutive home opener

In 2005 the Boston Red Sox were defending World Series champions for the first time in 86 years when they beat the New York Yankees in their Fenway Park home opener. The Red Sox won the next year’s home opener, and the next. By 2012, their winning streak in home openers was eight years in a row. This win over the Baltimore Orioles made it nine.

Given that the 2013 Red Sox were following up on two dispiriting seasons—a late and utter collapse in 2011 and a last-place finish in 2012—winning their first two road series against the Yankees and Toronto Blue Jays, then returning home with a 4-2 record and pleasing the sold-out crowd of 37,008 on Monday afternoon, April 8, was a good way to start the season.

The 93-win Orioles had finished in second place in the American League East in 2012, edged out of the playoffs in the AL Division Series by the Yankees. They arrived in Boston with a 3-3 record after winning two of three from the Tampa Bay Rays and losing two of three against the Minnesota Twins.

Opening ceremonies featured a celebration of the 60th year of the Red Sox’ support for the Jimmy Fund and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, fighting cancer in children.1

New Red Sox manager John Farrell had Clay Buchholz start. The 28-year-old right-hander was in his seventh season in Boston. He’d had an exceptional 2010 season (17-7, 2.33), in which he’d made the AL All-Star team, but two less-stellar seasons since. He’d had a winning record each year, despite the team having a losing record in 2012, but his ERA had climbed more than a full run each year—to 3.48 and then 4.56. He had won his first start in 2013, allowing just one run in seven innings against the Yankees on April 3.

Starting for Buck Showalter’s Baltimore Orioles was a left-hander, Taiwan native Wei-Yin Chen. At 27, Chen was in his second year in the majors, and he had been 12-11 (4.02) as a rookie, finishing fourth in the AL Rookie of the Year voting.2 He’d had a no-decision against the Rays in his first 2013 start, on April 3.

Neither team scored for the first six innings.

Leading off the first for the Orioles was left fielder Nate McLouth. He singled up the middle but never got as far as second.

Buchholz walked Chris Davis to lead off the second inning.3 The Baltimore first baseman likewise advanced no farther.

In the third, Buchholz gave up back-to-back two-out singles to Manny Machado and Nick Markakis but struck out Adam Jones to strand them.

The only Boston baserunner off Chen in the first three innings was left fielder Daniel Nava, who walked in the second.

Davis again worked a walk off Buchholz to lead off the fourth, but he was forced at second and then J.J. Hardy hit into a 4-6-3 double play. In the bottom of the inning, Shane Victorino singled to left off Chen, Boston’s first base hit, but he was caught stealing. After Dustin Pedroia walked, Mike Napoli—who had homered and driven in four runs in the previous day’s 13-0 rout of the Blue Jays—hit into a 4-6-3 double play.

McLouth drew a walk in the top of the fifth. Nava singled in the bottom of the fifth. Neither got as far as second base.

Each pitcher retired the side in order in the sixth. Chen hadn’t allowed a Red Sox runner to get past first base.

Matt Wieters walked to lead off the Orioles’ seventh, but a strikeout, groundout, and another strikeout—Buchholz’s eighth of the game—kept the Orioles off the board.

The game was still scoreless at the seventh-inning stretch. Pedroia started the bottom of the seventh with an infield single to short. Napoli doubled off the wall in left-center, and the Red Sox had runners on second and third with nobody out for Will Middlebrooks, who had hit three home runs a day earlier. But Chen fanned Middlebrooks for the first out.

Then, on a 1-and-1 count, Nava hit a three-run homer over the Green Monster in left field—“so far out of the old ballpark that it crossed Lansdowne Street,” reported the Boston Globe.4 Suddenly it was 3-0, Red Sox. Nava had signed with Boston for a bonus of just one dollar in 2008.5 He’d hit a grand slam in his first big-league at-bat, on June 12, 2010, and his home run off Chen was his second in two days.

Showalter summoned Tommy Hunter to relieve. Hunter got the final two outs.

Farrell turned to his bullpen, too, calling on Andrew Bailey, who got two strikeouts and a fly out to center in the top of the eighth. Hunter put the Red Sox down one-two-three in the bottom of the inning.

It was the top of the ninth, and Farrell turned to the pitcher he’d planned as closer—newcomer Joel Hanrahan, acquired in an offseason trade with the Pittsburgh Pirates and two saves shy of 100 for his career. Hanrahan had recorded saves in both of his first two save opportunities of 2013.6   

First up was Adam Jones, who broke the shutout with a long home run over the wall in left-center. Davis grounded out to first, Hanrahan taking the feed from Napoli. Wieters struck out.

With two out, Hardy kept the visitors’ hopes alive with a double to center. On a 2-and-0 count, though, second baseman Ryan Flaherty fouled out with a popup to Middlebrooks at third base.  

The game was over. The Red Sox had won their ninth consecutive home opener.7 They were 5-2 in 2013, their best start since 2007. The Red Sox had not committed an error in any of their first seven games, setting a team record.8

“You can’t say enough about what Clay did for us,” enthused Farrell. “The way Chen was pitching it was a classic pitchers’ duel and one swing of the bat becomes the difference.”9

The Globe’s Dan Shaughnessy devoted a column to how loyal Red Sox fans were, even to a team that had just come off its worst season in 47 years. Loyal, perhaps to a fault. “Just give us some crumbs. Just give us a reason to believe.”10

The Orioles’ record was now 3-4 in 2013—the first time they’d had a losing record since 2011—but they knew the season was young. Adam Jones sarcastically said, postgame, “We might spend … all day tomorrow crying as a team, holding each other’s hands, just walking through the Prudential Center, just crying.” He continued, “It’s seven days into the season. It’s not like we just got blown out. We got beat.”11

Chen hadn’t won a game since August 19, 2012, but the Orioles had averaged only 1.7 runs per game while he was the pitcher of record.12 Showalter praised Chen’s work: “He gave us a good chance to win. I wish we could have gotten one for him. He deserved a ‘W’ today.”13 Chen finished the season 7-7.

The 85-77 Orioles finished third in the AL East, six games out of a wild-card slot. The Red Sox went on to win the World Series. Buchholz’s record was 12-1 with a 1.74 season ERA.

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Laura Peebles 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. Thanks to Malcolm Allen for supplying access to Baltimore newspaper coverage.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/BOS/BOS201304080.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/2013/B04080BOS2013.htm

Notes

1 Michael Vega, “Pregame Festivities a Winner, Too,” Boston Globe, April 9, 2013: C3.

2 Mike Trout of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim won the 2012 AL Rookie of the Year Award.

3 Davis had homered in each of Baltimore’s first four games of the season and already had 17 RBIs after just the first week. Indeed, he had driven in 16 runs in just those first four games, obliterating the old major-league record of 12. He was named AL Player of the Week for the first week of play. Eduardo A. Encina, “Davis Named AL Player of the Week,” Baltimore Sun, April 9, 2013: D1.

4 Peter Abraham, “Right at Home,” Boston Globe, April 9, 2013: C1. Abraham explained that Nava had been surprised to be in the lineup against the left-handed Chen because even though he was a switch-hitter, he hit much better against right-handers. He had hit just .185 when batting right-handed in 2012.

5 For more background on Nava, see Nick Cafardo, “Having a Blast,” Boston Globe, April 9, 2013: C2.

6 Indeed, the Red Sox had any number of pitchers in the bullpen who could have closed for them, including Bailey, who had closed 133 games in his first three seasons, with Oakland. His 26 saves in 2009 had earned him AL Rookie of the Year honors. After this game, Bailey remarked of Boston’s bullpen, “We’ve got seven closers down there.” Julian Benbow, “They’re Happy to Work Late,” Boston Globe, April 9, 2013: C2. In early May, after working in just nine games, Hanrahan suffered season-ending tendon damage in his right elbow. Boston’s closer for 2013 came to be Koji Uehara, who closed 40 games in the regular season with seven saves in the postseason.

7 The streak ended at the 2014 home opener, a 6-2 loss to the Milwaukee Brewers on April 4. By then, the Red Sox were the reigning World Series champions, so perhaps that was forgiven by their faithful fans.

8 The eighth game of the year, though, had two Red Sox errors, both by outfielders. Peter Abraham cited the errorless streak. Peter Abraham, “Lackey Decision Delayed,” Boston Globe, April 9, 2013: C4.

9 Christopher L. Gasper, “Buchholz Is Happy to Hand O’s Zeroes,” Boston Globe, April 9, 2013: C1, C5.

10 Dan Shaughnessy, “Bonding Experience Endures for Fans,” Boston Globe, April 9, 2013: C1. Interestingly, despite this win on Opening Day, the very next Red Sox home game attracted “only” 30,862 fans—the first Fenway Park game since May 2003 that was not sold out. Beginning on May 15, 2003, through this date—April 8, 2013—the Red Sox sold out 794 consecutive regular-season games. See Jason Mastrodonato, “Red Sox Sellout Streak Comes to an End,” MLB.com, April 10, 2013. https://www.mlb.com/redsox/news/red-sox-sellout-streak-comes-to-an-end/c-44449444. Accessed December 4, 2022.

11 Eduardo A. Encina, “‘One Mistake’ Is Too Costly for Scuffling O’s,” Baltimore Sun, April 9, 2013: D1.

12 Apparently the Orioles found their bats only after he’d left the game—in addition to his four 2012 losses after August 19, he had four no-decisions. The Orioles rallied to win all four.

13 Encina, “‘One Mistake’ Is Too Costly for Scuffling O’s.”