By Tiffany Williams –
After a home opener, 7-1 loss to the Baltimore Orioles on Tuesday, the Red Sox will host the Orioles Wednesday for game two of their three-game homestand against the Orioles.
The Sox have lost two of their last 3 games following a five-game winning streak from March 31 – April 54, and with Tuesday’s loss, the Sox have now lost each of their last 4 home openers.
In 2023, the Sox began their regular season on March 30, in a home game against the Baltimore Orioles, and lost 10-9. However the Sox beat the Orioles 9-8 in game two and grabbed a 9-5 win in game three to win the 2023 home opener series 3-1. Overall in 2023, the Sox were 6-7 against the Orioles.
Brayan Bello in his opening Day start on Tuesday threw 89 pitches and 58 were strikes. Bello allowed four hits, three runs and walked two. At the top of the third he struck out Tony Kemp. Top of the fourth struck out Anthony Santander, and top of the fifth struck out Adley Rutschman.
Tyler O’Neill in the bottom of the first connected with an 81.5 mph curveball from Corbin Burnes to collect his sixth homer of the season. to give the Sox a 1-0 lead.
O’Neill became only the second player in Red Sox history to hit six homers in their first ten games with the team. Bobby Dalbec became the first to do it in 2020 from August 30 – October 20.
Brayan Bello following Wednesday’s loss said, “Yeah, they’re a very good team, they have very good batters and yeah, of course, I was trying to be aggressive but when you give extra outs to them, it’s very hard, but yeah, they scored three runs, two unearned, but the one that earned run was a mistake on my side.”
When asked how special it was to start at Fenway Park, Bello said, “It was special, very special to start here, it’s a very special place.” Bello added that he hopes to start at Fenway a lot for the rest of his career.
Alex Cora following Tuesday’s loss said “Defensively, it wasn’t a good game, but we’re going to have some of those.” Cora, speaking on defense also said, “For us to get our goal, we have to play good defense. We’ve been playing like this the whole time. We’re going to make a play, just for two. After that, we’re going to have to try to stay at third. We’ve got to be better than that. We’ve got to keep pushing, keep working, and keep doing the things that we’re supposed to do. We should be better defenders.”
Wednesday afternoon the Sox announced that they have signed Ceddanne Rafaela to an eight-year contract extension that spans the 2024-2031 seasons, with a club option for 2032.
Rafaela, who is 23, is the youngest player on the Sox’ active roster. He was signed by the Sox as an international free agent on July 2, 2017. In 2023 he played with Double-A Portland and Triple-A Worcester before making his major league debut with the Sox on August 28, 2023, becoming the 17th player in Major League history born in Curaçao, and joined Kenley Jansen as the only players from the island to play for the Red Sox.
The Sox also announced Wednesday, “Left-handed pitcher Chris Murphy today underwent a successful reconstruction of the left ulnar collateral ligament (elbow). Dr. Keith Meister performed the surgery at Texas Metroplex Institute for Sports Medicine & Orthopedic Surgery in Arlington, Texas.”
On Tuesday the Sox announced that Right-handed pitcher Nick Pivetta was placed on the 15-Day Injured List, retroactive to April 6, with a right elbow flexor strain. The Sox said, “To fill Pivetta’s spot on the active roster, the club recalled left-handed pitcher Brennan Bernardino from Triple-A Worcester.”
The Sox, also on Wednesday, recalled Romy Gonzalez from Triple-A Worcester a day after optioning infielder/outfielder Bobby Dalbec to Triple-A Worcester.
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