Boston Red Sox’s Andrew Benintendi hits a three-run homer in front of Pittsburgh Pirates catcher Francisco Cervelli (29) during the fifth inning of a baseball game at Fenway Park, Monday, April 3, 2017, in Boston. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)
The Boston Red Sox opened up their 2017 campaign with a 5-3 victory in front of the Fenway Faithful on a sunny afternoon in Boston. Rick Porcello turned in a quality outing and the Boston bullpen did their part to secure the victory after rookie Andrew Benintendi cleared the right-field wall in the 5th inning with a three-run homer.
“That’s my job. That’s what I look to do every fifth day, give us a chance to win.” Porcello said following his quality outing after receiving the well-deserved nod on Opening Day. Porcello was cruising through the first six shutout innings, but ran out of gas in the 7th struggling with his command and surrendering a few hits. He left with two runners on that both scored when Matt Barnes came in. However, Boston escaped blowing the lead despite Barnes loading the bases after a tremendous running over-the-shoulder catch by the young phenom Benintendi. Porcello struck out five and walked over his 6 1/3 innings of work.
The Red Sox opened the scoring in the bottom of the 5th inning after with two down Jackie Bradley Jr. stroked a triple right field and subsequently scored on an infield single by Pablo Sandoval where he beat the throw on the back-end to pick up the RBI and extend the inning. Sandy Leon then alertly dropped down a bunt against the shift and got himself on base. The wily veteran Dustin Pedroia, starting his 11th consecutive Opening Day for the Sox, then drove in Sandoval with an RBI single back up the middle.
Then, with a 2-0 lead and two on and two down magic happened at Fenway. Andrew Benintendi the youngest left fielder to start Opening Day since Yaz himself, launched a three-run homer to right field into the bullpen over the head of Andrew McCutchen. The first Red Sox rookie to homer on Opening Day since Tony Conigliaro in 1965.
Robby Scott and Heath Hembree served as the bridge to closer Craig Kimbrel who struck out two and closed the door in the ninth inning. Boston is off tomorrow and will have Chris Sale throwing on Wednesday night opposed by Pirates Jameson Taillon.
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