Conditions were less-than-ideal Friday night when the Miami Marlins came to Fenway Park to take on the Boston Red Sox.
In fact, things got so bad the two teams only could play six innings before the series opener was called. The Red Sox ultimately won 5-2 for their second straight win, but it didn't come easy thanks to the pouring rain.
MartÃn Pérez lasted just five innings before his night ended. It was enough to earn his third win of the season, but the left-hander couldn't even feel the ball at times.
"It was hard. I was just trying to go out there and throw the best I can," the lefty said over Zoom postgame. "It's hard when you have the rain. It was a lot of water. I couldn't feel the ball in my hands."
Bench coach Will Venable, who will serve as Boston's manager Saturday while Alex Cora watches his daughter, Camila, graduate from high school in Puerto Rico, noted the baseball became quite the issue throughout the game.
"It was tough. The ball became an issue," Venable said. "His grip became an issue. It just never stopped, the rain, but I thought (Pérez) did a great job battling it. He was able to overcome some harsh conditions, and did a great job for us."
The field was looking quite messy as the night went on. The grounds crew was out between innings in order to maintain it as much as possible.
"It was no secret how the field was looking toward the end of that game," Alex Verdugo said. "The plate was actually not too bad. It's more when you'd look up toward the sky and you'd have all the rain coming into your face."
Boston still was able to get it done regardless of how messy it was.
Here are some other notes from Friday's Red Sox-Marlins game:
-- Adam Ottavino clearly was unhappy with the conditions in the sixth inning.
The pitcher recorded two quick outs, but then walked three straight batters to load the bases. Ottavino was struggling with control due to the ball being wet, but he bounced back and struck out the final batter of the inning to limit any damage.
The right-hander was credited with the save.
-- Verdugo made all the difference when he broke the tie with a three-run home run into Miami's bullpen.
"It just was one of those things, man, right out of the hand I just had a good look at it," Verdugo said. "Just saw it well out of the hands, stayed on it and didn't try to get too big, and was able to hit one out and put us up."
That he did. But did the round-tripper feel a bit like a walk-off home run?
"It did kind of feel like that," Verdugo said, "because, as players, we knew that there was no way were gonna keep going with this game. It just was getting dangerous. ... My biggest goal was just to hit something not on the ground .... and got a perfect pitch to do it.
-- For those keeping track of the leaderboard at home, the Red Sox currently are a half-game back of first place in the American League East.
The Tampa Bay Rays hold on to that top spot after having an off-day Friday.
