In 1999, the playoff-bound Red Sox, led by Pedro Martinez and Nomar Garciaparra, somehow lost nine of 13 games to the hapless last-place Tampa Bay Devil Rays, led by Jose Canseco and Fred McGriff.
Over the next nine seasons, the Red Sox avenged that humiliation, winning 98 games against the Devil Rays and losing just 46.
But this is a new era, one in which the "Devil" is no longer in the details, in which the team from Tampa is the defending American League Champion, and in which even the postseason magic of the Boston Red Sox could not keep us from losing in seven games to the upstart devil-less Rays.
The Rays have won 14 of these teams' last 25 meetings. When last we saw these clubs, Matt Garza and David Price were shutting down an injury-plagued and listless Red Sox lineup. Though efforts to boost the lineup fell short in the offseason, the Sox are looking at a healthy David Ortiz, Mike Lowell and Jed Lowrie all in the lineup together for the first time, with a healthy Josh Beckett on the mound.
With the Yankees idle, the Sox have an opportunity to move one game up on both their likely challengers for the AL East crown. Is it too early to track the standings? Naw. There's only 162 games left!
Lineups post-jump, with 2008 line and OPS+.
Rays
1. Akinori Iwamura, 2B — .274/.349/.380, 92
2. Carl Crawford, LF — .273/.319/.400, 87
3. Evan Longoria, 3B — .272/.343/.531, 125
4. Carlos Pena, 1B — .247/.377/.494, 127
5. Pat Burrell, DH — .250/.367/.507, 125
6. Matt Joyce, CF — .252/.339/.492, 116
7. Dioner Navarro, C — .295/.349/.407, 98
8. Gabe Gross, RF — .242/.333/.434, 100
9. Jason Bartlett, SS — .286/.329/.361, 82
— James Shields, SP — 3.56/1.15/.254, 125
Red Sox
1. Jacoby Ellsbury, CF — .280/.336/.394, 87
2. Dustin Pedroia, 2B — .326/.376/.493, 122
3. David Ortiz, DH — .265/.369/.507, 123
4. Kevin Youkilis, 1B — .312/.390/.569, 143
5. J.D. Drew, RF — .280/.408/.519, 137
6. Jason Bay, LF — .293/.370/.527, 128
7. Mike Lowell, 3B — .274/.338/.461, 103
8. Jed Lowrie, SS — .258/.339/.400, 90
9. Jason Varitek, C — .220/.313/.359, 73
— Josh Beckett, SP — 4.03/1.19/.256, 115
Go Rays!!!!
Yes, go, Rays … with your tail between your legs after the three-game whippin’ the Sox put on you. :-)
The postponement means I actually get to watch this game live, as opposed to staring at Gameday at work. I’ve got my Beckett jersey on, my lucky torn-up jeans (that I’ve worn for every major sporting event I’ve attended in the last 5 years), some hotdogs ready to be grilled and some cold beer. It may be cold and windy in Boston but it’s warm here in VA, and that’s good enough for me.
Happy Opening Day, everyone!
Alas, it’s Gameday for me, and I have to bail for class from 2:30-4. But still, baseball! :D Keep me apprised as to the introductions, etc.?
Gameday for me for the first two hours, and if it’s a close game, I won’t want to leave work. If that doesn’t suck, I don’t know what does.
wwwwwwwwwwoooooooooooohhhhhhhhhhhhooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
since canseco was referenced in the post, is anybody else interested that he’s naming manny as a PED user? the man has dead on about everyone else.
Is he really? Where at, Rod?
Why is there no sound? WHY IS THERE NO SOUND?
This is an atrocity. I have mlb.tv streaming in HD, Beckett is on the mound, and the sound isn’t working for this game? Fuck that noise.
Beckett’s in the mid 90s to start.
And a strikeout of Iwamura to open the game! Awesome.
Why hello there 2007-form Josh Beckett. It’s nice to see you today!
In the past, Canseco has at least implied that he had direct knowledge that certain people were users. In this case, he is speculating that Manny is on the list of 104 positive tests because no teams were showing any interest in him as a free agent. It’s not an unreasonable conclusion to draw but it’s also possible that teams consider Manny more of a pain in the ass than he’s worth.
the LA Times had a piece as well as the Globe.
LA Times article.
Great (lucky) no-look scoop by Lowrie; the ball took a weird hop.
Beckett just hit 97 on that first fastball to Longoria. Hells yeah.
And Longoria with the K! 1-2-3 inning and Beckett looking good!
Oh my god that curveball to strikeout Longoria was beautiful. Perfect location, tons of movement… I know it’s only been one inning, but Beckett looks fantastic.
Beckett’s thrown the fastball mid 90s for strikes and also just got a looking and swinging strike on consecutive curveballs to Longoria. Very good signs.
My fantasy team and I are very pleased with Beckett so far. (And also Gil Meche, but that is a different story.) Great to see his velocity up and his curve curving.
That last pitch to Ellsbury was really low, surprised it got called a strike. He didn’t argue it though.
Now instead of no sound there’s just a high-pitch beeping noise.
PEDROIA!!!!!
Woo, Pedroia!!!
Elf!!!
Motherfuckin MVP. And Ortiz golfs one into center field.
I was reading Rod’s LAT link. Blast you, Rod! Youk with the weak fly out for the second out.
Good to have that first run on the board. Scoring first in Fenway, I wonder what the Sox’ winning pct was last year.
Drew crushes one off the monster! I like the way this season is starting off.
And DREW with the double!!!
If healthy, I don’t think any other team has a 2-6 to match Pedroia-Ortiz-Youkilis-Drew-Bay.
Can you imagine how much Pedroia is jawing in the dugout right now?
i’m gonna send you twenty links if thats all it took.
Bay walks. Time for Mike Lowell to show how healthy he is.
//Can you imagine how much Pedroia is jawing in the dugout right now?
I told you guys I was shredded and jacked. Did you see me crush that motherfucker? Yeah that’s right.
Pop out on a pitch out of the zone. Not a fan of that at bat. Not a fan of leaving the bases loaded in the first either.
uhg. that’s normally a pitch lowell handles. youk to third and carter at first everyday. let it be tito.
I told you guys I was shredded and jacked. Did you see me crush that motherfucker? Yeah that’s right.
Laughing really hard now.
One run may be enough the way Beckett is pitching. Pena out on strikes, and a one-pitch out to Burrell, who flies to center.
Wow, a five-pitch inning. Beautiful.
Pena tries bunting on the first pitch. Beckett promptly says “STFU Pena” by striking him out.
16 pitches through 2 for josh. complete game in the making.
Holy jesus the bat got destroyed on that last pop-up, it went ROCKETING into the crowd. There’s a blonde woman who looks hurt.
GameDay’s replay of the Pedroia homer includes the awful high-pitched whine for audio.
Problem spot again? Five of the Sox’ six outs have been made from the 7-1 spots in the order.
MLBtv offically signed up! Woohoo!
I am still coming to grips with this being baseball season, though.
Hallelujah, we have sound!
Varitek made good contact there. That’s promising.
Nearly forgot what an ace does on opening day:)
Yeah, I would assume the 7-1 guys are not going to get on base at all this season, based on the first two innings. ;)
Beckett’s lost the zone in the third a little bit. Walked Gross after running the count to 3-1, and now it’s 3-1 to Bartlett. These are the hitters he needs to be blowing away.
Booo Beckett squeezed on that ball 4.
for iPhone users….
the MLB At Bat app comes with mobile gameday audio. you can choose between home and away broadcasts as well. it’s pretty damn sweet.
Interesting strategy, nibbling on the corners to the #8 & #9 hitters.
Josh missing with the hook after a couple of fastballs miss the plate, barely. In a jam, 1st and 2nd, one down.
Pedroia: “Oh, I’m sorry, I was polishing my MVP trophy…how many MVP’s do you know that don’t hit opening day HR’s?
Sorry..horribly joke and use of the apostrophy there.
Updates folks! come on!!
Well, Longoria is a big one here…
Guess he’s going to have to hit another one.
And that lead was short lived. I hate squanders anyway, but leaving the bases loaded in the first just galls me.
Beckett entered this inning having thrown just three balls in 16 pitches. He’s now thrown 21 pitches this inning, of which 12 have missed the zone.
Another 2-0 count.
Nah, Ath, it was off the plate. Josh is WILD right now.
Well, only one run. Thank God. I had visions of Beckett after the game talking about “failure to execute” on one pitch to Longoria in a 4-1 loss.
Way to go, getting Longoria. Oh those bases on balls, though. Josh earned that run!
maybe he needs a heating pad on his gut to get warm again?:)
Okay bats.
Lets get back on top here.
I was talking about the ball 4 during the first walk. My internet’s lagging so I’ve got about 2-minutes of buffered video behind you guys.
over/under on Price making his first start for the Rays…. May 1st.
i’ll take the under.
Easy peasy, Pedro walks on four.
I have zero minutes of lagging internet as the State of Connecticut has officially blocked MLB on our computers.
Give us the lead and silence the doubters, Papi!
Thome w/a three-run bomb off “Crazy” Kyle Farnsworth in the bottom of the 8th, wasting a nice start by Meche. White Sox recover to beat KC, 4-2.
Farnsy’s line today: 1IP, 4H, 3ER, 0BB, 1K.
I’m gonna miss Head Case Kyle on the Yanks this year.
… or fly out to medium depth right field.
Wow, I can’t read you guys anymore cause you’re actually about FOUR minutes ahead of my mlb.tv video. Im still in a commercial break and you guys already know that Pedro walked!
Ortiz cans some corn.
Good battle from Youk ends with a liner for a single, Pedro to third.
Drew up with an RBI opportunity. Let’s cash this one in, guys.
very professional at bat by youk. the man is pure hitter.
Let’s go, JD. NOW we need that double off the wall.
Automatic ball? WTF?
Gameday says automatic ball.
Huh?
Drew ahead 2-0, and Pena makes a GREAT stab, diving down the right field line, touches the bag, but Pedroia broke home and there was no chance for Youk, 2-1 Sox.
Well, groundout to first. I’ll take it.
Bay flails at a Shields changeup, now the count at 2-2.
Ah, that’s the one thing you miss with GameDay is whether a play was routine or exceptional. Definitely changes the tenor of how you feel about a play.
J-Bay! 3-1.
yeah, what’s the automatic ball thingy on game day?
And Bay drives home Youkilis! Breathing room!
And Shields leaves one over the plate, and Bay slaps it to right past Pena and a hard shift towards the middle! 3-1 Sox. Superb hitting by Bay.
Ooh, Lowell behind on a pitch that looked off the plate. Where’s the consistency, Blue?!
Great diving catch by Pena. The run scores though, booya.
Lowell wall scraper! 4-1 Sox!
dw – apparently the ump had warned Shields about putting his hand to his mouth and he did it again. So they give him a ball.
MIKEY!
they’re playing a shift on Bay defensively?
LOWELL with the double!!! 4-1!
Lowell’s “hit” was the proverbial “popout in any other stadium”.
ok mike. we’ll hold off on giving carter your spot in the lineup for a week or two.
lowell!
Yes, Pena was a good 20′ off the bag, maybe even more.
Yay bats. :)
Now Lowrie with the dink into short left. Let’s see what Varitek can do here.
a guy without lead hips would have scored on that :)
Lowrie singles, but Shields is being a bit victimized here, Jed hit it about 115 feet off his hands over the shortstop. Not that I care.
//Lowell’s “hit” was the proverbial “popout in any other stadium”
Isn’t that true for at least 2/3 of his Fenway doubles?
Lowrie singles. 7 hits alread.
Jesus, if the boys can hit like this all year, I won’t complain.
Tek … What you got?
Ok, foul ball on an 82-mph change right down the middle. Sigh.
Wheat bread heated up until brown at the plate.
Thanks, rally killer.
But Shields at 67 pitches through 3.
Let’s just say that if this is Tek’s bat as fast as it gets then this is going to be one hideous season.
Honestly, I am thinking that if Tek can hit .220 this year with 45 RBIs it will be a victory.
I fervently hope that if Tek shows nothing for a month, we’ll start seeing Kottaras a lot more often than just when Wakefield pitches and the seventh inning on.
that’s our capatin! :) I have total confidence in everyone but Ells and tek.
Ells? What do we have against Ells?
rough day for pena. not sure you can trade 200+ strikeouts for 40 dingers, but the rays seem to love him.
I even have confidence in Ells. Just not Tek.
After a brief hiccup, Beckett is back to strike out Pena, who has seen six pitches and struck out twice.
I like this ‘more Ks, fewer BBs’ thing.
Nine-pitch inning with two strikeouts. Apparently Beckett has no problems with the heart of the Rays’ lineup. Just the bottom third.
Beckkkkkett!
Ells? nothing against him – I’m wondering if he’s able to fill in the hole in his swing.
Solid play by Longoria to shorthop a squib by Pedroia and gun him down.
Beckett is really having a superb performance. Seven Ks through 5 on only 62 pitches.
Bomb by Youk to the triangle! Double to lead off the fifth.
Now a walk to Drew.
I predict a three-run bomb by Bay here. Kind of a “Give me my money!” shot.
this has to be it for shields. he’s all over the place.
Drew walks. Time to push across at least one more run…
Youk forced at third by CRAWFORD, as he plays it safe on a sinking liner from Bay that the LFer can’t scoop. Should be plugged and nobody out. Damn.
That’s a new one. The old 7-5 groundout.
Do they basically have an Ortiz shift in reverse for Bay?
Oh, it was a liner that Youk had to hold up on in case it was caught, I guess. Damn, that’s just bad luck.
Lowell GIDP. Now THAT’S a squander. Shee-it.
Paul, you’ve got to read my uber-descriptive PbP!
Wow, that’s rough.
It’s just one game and all, but I’m not excited about Lowell right now.
Paul, you’ve got to read my uber-descriptive PbP!
I did! That’s why I corrected. :-) Another walk, this time to Iwamura. Three walks from Beckett, and they’re all to some of the lowest-OBP guys in baseball.
Leadoff walk follows the squander. Grrrr.
I used to like Carl Crawford until TB got good.
Great, and now the double to Crawford. 2/3, no outs.
Now would be a super time for the eighth strikeout.
Hey, a popup works. Longoria’s had a tough day.
Ok, NOW would be a super time for the eighth strikeout.
YEAH!!! Pena Ks for the third time!!
Burrell up, biggest moment of the game I would say.
Woohoo!!
Out of the jam!! Fantastic!
SF-Mom at the game, reports that Varitek struck out…as if we didn’t know! Tried sending a photo from her phone, to no avail.
A rally generated by the bottom of the lineup would make me feel sooo much better about the Sox’ long-term prospects right here.
Varitek hit a homer, I am on the phone with my mom as it just happened! Gameday behind by a bunch!
TEK!!!!
Paul – from your fingers to God’s eyes
So is that a sign of how Tek is going to be better from the left side — or a sign of just how crappy Shields is today?
That’s the last straw for the Tampa coaches.
The 95 pitches entering the inning? Not a problem. Give up a home run to Jason Varitek? He’s done.
TEK!
I knew he’d do that.
Reverse jinx is well oiled.
Bye bye shields. Hello Varitek!
Beckett into the seventh.
I should clarify, my Mom is at the game.
Get us through 7, Beck.
I am loving this 2009 BeKKKett
Two down, Navarro with a weak grounder to Pedro.
Watching the GameDay video highlight, Varitek really crushed that ball. Right down the line. Good to see him turn on an inside fastball like that, too.
GameDay says the ump squeezed Beckett on consecutive pitches to Gross.
BecKKKKKKKKKKett!
Josh! Standing O.
All right, running home on that note to catch the remainder of the game on XM.
10 Ks, thank you very much!
That, my friends, is how an ace pitches on opening day.
SFs up on YFs in the game thread comment head-to-head, so at least we’ve got that one in the bag.
I’m with Paul, out to the car to catch the rest of the game on XM.
pretty stoked josh isn’t one of those aces that doesn’t throw well in april or in october. no excuses, just a horse. what’s he making again?
um, mr. okajima have you met mr. saito, mr. rameriz, and mr. tawanza. they’ll be watching your every move.
Came back just to hear Oki walk Aki. At least he got Crawford so Masterson can try to induce an inning-ending double play.
Wait, wasn’t the bullpen supposed to be our strength this year? Now Pena is the tying run.
Yuck.
Wow, Pena’s having an awful day. Ok, let’s shut this down, Justin.
Wheeeeeew, got that one. Still a two-run lead with Papelbon presumably out for the ninth.
To the ninth. Forgive me if I have butterflies. I just can’t get THAT game out of my head. You know the one…
Relax, Papelbon’s in charge.
One out left. Let’s do it, Paps!
GOT HIM!!!!
Ellsbury and Oki are worrisome, but aside from that everything’s lookin good. Great first game.