The Red Sox hit the cellar early this season.
The already-dour weekend became worse Sunday as the Red Sox were thumped by the Orioles, 11-3, leading to a sweep and an 0-3 start to the season.
Garrett Richards didn’t have a feel for his pitches in a forgettable start, particularly his slider. He yanked a decent number of them in the dirt, enabling the Orioles hitters to eliminate that pitch entirely, and instead zero in on his fastball, which wasn’t all that competitive either. His four-seamer average was just 93.8 miles per hour on the day, which was roughly 2 m.p.h. slower than his average (95.5 m.p.h.). Ultimately, those issues led to the Orioles tagging Richards for seven hits, with five of them coming on his fastball.
Richards lasted just three batters in the third inning, which has become somewhat of a trend for the righthander. Dating back to last year, three of Richards’s last six starts have been two innings or fewer.
After Richards, manager Alex Cora summoned Josh Taylor from the bullpen with the bases loaded and nobody out in the third. That’s when the game quickly spiraled for the Red Sox, who at the time were down just 3-0. But Taylor failed to get out the inning as well, surrendering five hits and a walk while just recording two outs. By the time it was over, the Red Sox’ deficit had ballooned to 10-0.
The Sox scored their first run on a Kiké Hernández sacrifice fly in the bottom of the third inning. Then J.D. Martinez’s homer in the fourth and double in the sixth each plated a run. But other than that, the hits for the Sox once again were hard to come by. They recorded just six hits on the day and 15 in three games.
The Red Sox start a season with three consecutive losses for the first time since 2012. This is also just the second time they have opened a season with three consecutive home losses, the other being 1948.
Julian McWilliams can be reached at julian.mcwilliams@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @byJulianMack.
April 05, 2021 at 04:00AM
https://www.bostonglobe.com/2021/04/04/sports/garrett-richards-hit-hard-first-start-red-sox-swept-by-orioles-fall-into-0-3-hole-open-season/
Garrett Richards hit hard in first start as Red Sox swept by Orioles, fall into 0-3 hole to open season - The Boston Globe
https://news.google.com/search?q=hard&hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US:en
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