Two games into a very young baseball season, we can already say this much about the Red Sox – they fight.
They trailed the Orioles 8-2 in Thursday's opener before falling 10-9. On Saturday, Chris Sale put them in a 7-1 hole, but this time the Orioles couldn't put them away.
Gifted new life in the ninth inning when left fielder Ryan McKenna dropped Masataka Yoshida's potential game-ending pop-up, the Red Sox delivered the first dramatic win of the season on Adam Duvall's laser beam of a walkoff homer for a 9-8 victory.
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Two games, two comebacks, one win. Not necessarily how you'd draw it up, but while the Red Sox await the return of pitching reinforcements Garrett Whitlock and Brayan Bello, they've demonstrated how disinterested they are in accepting anyone's belief that they're once again ticketed for last place.
"It's the toughness," closer Kenley Jansen told reporters. "We showed that people can count us out, but we don't. Us here 27, and even more with the coaches, believe who we are. We just have to keep grinding it out and we're going to be good. If we keep believing in ourselves, it's going to be tough on our opponents."
Whatever we thought of the Red Sox from December through March during an underwhelming offseason, we can forget about it now and judge them on what we actually see. And what they've shown is that the experienced imports on the offensive side – Duvall and Justin Turner own World Series rings with the Braves and Dodgers, respectively – don't care about external narratives.
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Just weeks after getting drilled in the face, Turner went 2 for 4. Meanwhile, Duvall's arrival to play an everyday center field at age 34 was met with some skepticism, but a 4-for-5 day with a pair of homers and five RBIs has a way of silencing critics.
"It's a different dynamic," manager Alex Cora said. "But it's one that we feel is going to work."
The opening series is always about snap judgments, so here's one – the Red Sox can hit. With the wind blowing out and the air unseasonably humid, the Red Sox pounded Orioles pitching for eight extra-base hits, including the two homers from Duvall and one from No. 9 hitter Kiké Hernández. Duvall finished a single short of the cycle.
His monster day earned him some redemption for a mirror situation in Thursday's opener, when the Orioles couldn't turn a game-ending double play on Yoshida, giving Duvall a chance to be the hero before he struck out against flame-throwing closer Felix Bautista.
This time he timed up a 100 mph Bautista fastball down in the zone and lined it into the padding protecting the first row of Monster seats. Line drives starting that low almost never leave Fenway, but Duvall was not to be denied.
"He crushed that ball," Cora said. "I've never seen anything like it. Without the wall, that ball is at the (Hotel) Commonwealth. Free room for me. But you see him the last few years here at Fenway, he's been really good. Pulling the ball against us and now today."
Tomase: Jansen's encouraging postgame moment is cause for optimism
There are still problems, of course. Sale was abysmal in his 2023 debut, allowing three homers and seven runs in just three innings. The Orioles once again ran wild, with five steals in five attempts. Rafael Devers ran into an out on the bases.
But the Red Sox didn't allow a run over the final five innings, with Jansen escaping trouble in the ninth to give Duvall a chance to win it.
When he did, the Red Sox revealed a new Fenway Park light show that stopped one step shy of pyrotechnics. The lights flashed, the crowd cheered, and teammates piled on Duvall at home plate.
If the Red Sox are going to make a habit of coming back, it may not be easy on their manager's stomach, but they could actually give us a reason to watch.
"As a team, we're going to keep grinding, keep going and keep fighting until the end," Cora said. "Hopefully it doesn't have to take all this effort to get more W's."
