Orioles' John Means Means Business In Opener, Beats Red Sox 3-0
BOSTON (AP) — John Means pitched seven innings of one-hit ball, allowing a single to lead off the game and retiring the last 18 batters he faced on Friday to lead the Baltimore Orioles to a 3-0 victory over the Boston Red Sox in their rain-delayed opener.
Means struck out five and allowed just two baserunners — the other on an error — earning the win when Ryan Mountcastle doubled in two runs in the sixth to break a scoreless tie. Anthony Santander added an RBI single in the eighth.
Cedric Mullins and Pedro Severino each had two hits for Baltimore, which finished fourth in the AL East last season, one game ahead of the last-place Red Sox. Tanner Scott pitched one hitless inning and César Valdez got the last three outs for the save.
Red Sox manager Alex Cora returned after serving a suspension last year for his role in the Astros cheating scandal. He received a big cheer when the teams were introduced before the game.
Means allowed a single to Boston leadoff hitter Kiké Hernández, then picked him off first. The only other Red Sox baserunner for him came when Xander Bogaerts reached on third baseman Maikel Franco's error to lead off the second; he was stranded there.
Boston put runners on first and second against Scott with two out in the eighth, but Bobby Dalbec struck out looking to end it. J.D. Martinez doubled and took third on a passed ball in the ninth before Valdez retired Bogaerts on a line drive to right.
Nathan Eovaldi scattered four hits and a walk over 5 1/3 innings for Boston. After Severino singled to lead off the sixth, Matt Andriese came in with one out and walked Trey Mancini.
Santander grounded a potential double-play ball to second base, but Hernández booted it, loading the bases. Mountcastle followed with a double off the Green Monster to make it 2-0.
A day after the season's first game was postponed because of rain and cold, the Red Sox and Orioles tried again in better weather -- sunshine and puffy clouds but still a first-pitch temperature of 37 degrees.
The crowd of 4,452 -- 12% of capacity, as allowed by the state -- huddled under blankets and winter coats at Fenway Park and had little for their gloved hands to clap for.
COMEBACKS
After hitting 35 homers in 2019, Mancini missed all of last season after having surgery for colon cancer. He got a hug from Red Sox catcher Christian Vázquez before his first at-bat, when he grounded into a double play. The 29-year-old first baseman went 1 for 3 with a walk.
EARLY ACTION
Both leadoff hitters singled, and both were quickly erased.
Mullins singled on a slow roller down the third-base line, but he was heading back to the dugout after Mancini's 5-4-3 double play. Hernández lined a single to right, but he was out on a pickoff attempt; despite beating the throw back to the bag, he couldn't hold his balance and the original safe call was reversed after a review of 2 minutes, 32 seconds.
Means did not allow another hit, and it remained scoreless until the sixth.
PREGAME
The socially distanced crowd was the first to take in a game at the 109-year-old ballpark since Sept. 29, 2019, when Rafael Devers singled off Orioles reliever Dillon Tate in the bottom of the ninth to score Mookie Betts in a 5-4, walk-off victory.
The pregame ceremony included a roll call of baseball greats like Hank Aaron and Tom Seaver who died in the past year. The Red Sox also remembered those who died of COVID-19: Gormer coach and Triple-A manager Ron Johnson was singled out before the team posted the number of pandemic deaths in Boston, Massachusetts, New England, the United States and the world.
The team also recognized those who worked through the pandemic, including doctors and nurses, vaccine researchers, other essential workers and the staff of the clinic at Fenway Park that administered more than 56,000 vaccines before team returned to the ballpark to start the season.
Mayor Kim Janey threw a ceremonial first pitch, and retired second baseman Dustin Pedroia and his three sons appeared on the scoreboard via Zoom to proclaim "Play Ball!"
TRAINERS ROOM
Hernández appeared to twist his ankle slipping off the bag in the first but he remained in the game. Boston LHP Eduardo Rodriguez pitched a simulated game at the team's alternate training site in Worcester.
UP NEXT
Rookie RHP Tanner Houck (3-0, 0.53 ERA last year) pitches for Boston, facing Orioles righty Matt Harvey (0-3, 11.57).
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