BOSTON — Because of the fact that they enter the game 0-6, this home opener is a bit different than some others for the Red Sox.
Not that extreme desperation has set in just yet, but the team knows that it needs a victory and needs it soon. Strictly focusing on all the bells and whistles that come with the opener is not possible.
"It takes some of the fun out of the pageantry," said Terry Francona. "It would be more fun if you were on a roll."
Francona said that by the time the flyover, conducted this year by the Green Mountain Boys of Vermont, is done, he just wants to get going. Once that moment arrives, it will be business as usual for some in the Boston dugout.
For others, however, it's a whole new experience.
Adrian Gonzalez and Carl Crawford, the two high-profile additions this offseason, will be playing their first game here as members of the Red Sox. To his credit, Gonzalez, who will be playing his first game ever in Fenway, is not going to let the pomp and circumstance get in the way of what needs to be done.
He, of course, didn't want to lose his first six games in a Boston uniform, but Gonzalez sees the return home as a chance for a real springboard to success.
"It's going to be great that we're going to be able to get our first win here at Fenway, in front of [the fans]," Gonzalez said.
It wasn't so much a Joe Namath-like prediction that the Sox will defeat the Yankees on Friday, but a pretty safe assumption that a win will come at some point on this 10-game homestand, and when it does, the tide could shift.
Crawford, who has played 76 games in his career at Fenway Park, agreed.
"Things are always better when you play at home," he said.
