It might not be the regular season, but this certainly isn’t how the Red Sox wanted to start things off after Major League Baseball’s 2020 season was delayed due to COVID-19.
Boston played the first of two summer exhibition games Tuesday, falling to the Toronto Blue Jays 8-6 at Fenway Park following a ninth-inning meltdown courtesy of Ryan Brasier. The righty gave up three runs before earning a single out, allowing Derek Fisher to launch a two-run blast that gave the Jays the lead for good.
There were some bright spots to Boston’s game, however. Ryan Weber looked solid despite giving up a two-run homer of his own to Rowdy Tellez in the sixth, striking out six men and giving up just one free pass across six innings of work.
J.D. Martinez did his thing as well, popping a two-run blast over the right field wall in the fifth, extending Boston’s lead to four in the process.
Feels like home with this one 🥰@RedSox | @JDMartinez28 pic.twitter.com/aLO9OwctoE
— NESN (@NESN) July 22, 2020
Though the outcome wasn’t what Boston wanted, manager Ron Roenicke thought “it was a good day” for the Sox.
“I thought it was good — especially that first inning offensively, to come out like we did — really good,” Roenicke said, as seen on NESN’s postgame coverage. “We kind of tinkered with the lineup a little bit with moving J.D. (to) second, (we) wanted to see what it’d look like and I talked to him about it before the game, and that looked good.
“So I thought it was a good day. I know it didn’t finish well, but I thought it was good.”
As for playing without fans, Roenicke left reporters and fans with a few words of encouragement.
“I think this is going to be OK,” he said.
And with one more exhibition game and 60 regular-season games ahead of Boston, there certainly still is room for improvement. After all, it’s only Night 1.
Here are some more notes from Tuesday’s exhibition game against Toronto:
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— For some reason, Tellez has the Red Sox’s number. And Boston cannot seem to defeat him.
Tellez homered off Boston on Tuesday, further adding to his success against the Red Sox. Tellez did damage to the Sox in 2019 as well, making Tuesday’s outing even more frustrating for Boston.
Roenicke said he and the team still are stumped by his success, but noted the team plans on addressing the issue.
“We don’t get him out very well, that’s for sure,” he said. “So, we’re going to have to figure out how to get him out and pitch him different or something because this guy last year, he hit us pretty hard. So, we’ll get the guys upstairs to try and figure out some kind of pitching to get him out.”
— Weber wasn’t perfect, but his game certainly had its bright spots.
The 29-year-old allowed six hits and four earned runs in six innings, striking out six and walking one in the process. The only major blip on his radar was Tellez’s two-run blast in the sixth.
Rowdy sent this one to the moon ? #BlueJays pic.twitter.com/BNgtrzpbNX
— Toronto Blue Jays (@BlueJays) July 22, 2020
In the end, however, Weber was pleased with his performance. And while it wasn’t an official game, he sure treated it that way.
“At the end of the day, the games count and my competitive juices were flowing out there, that’s for sure,” Weber said after the game, as seen on NESN’s postgame coverage.
— The Red Sox have one more exhibition game against the Jays ahead of them before they kick off their regular season Friday against the Baltimore Orioles.
