It was a battle of Opening Day starters in Fort Myers on Sunday, and the Red Sox and Garrett Crochet triumphed over the Minnesota Twins and Pablo López, 6-5.
One day after manager Alex Cora made the official announcement, his star left-hander went four innings (plus two batters in the fifth), and held the home team to one earned run on two hits, one walk, one hit batsman, and seven strikeouts.
López didn’t fare as well. The right-hander gave up four earned runs on seven hits, one walk, and eight strikeouts in his six innings of work. Though it was his fourth Grapefruit League loss (0-4), the two home runs – to Connor Wong and Ceddanne Rafaela in the fourth – were the first he allowed this spring.
Crochet faced the minimum through three, then struck out three batters to work around a leadoff hit-by-pitch in the bottom of the fourth. The southpaw was meticulous, his pitch count at 65 pitches after four, but he ran into trouble in the fifth. When he issued a leadoff walk to Ty France and gave up a single to former Sox catcher Christian Vázquez, Cora made his first pitching change of the day.
The Sox starter exited, having thrown 72 pitches (48 for strikes), with three groundouts, zero flyouts, and matched López’s 10 swings-and-misses. Crochet’s four-seam topped out at 98.5 mph, the fastest pitch in the game until Twins reliever Alex Speas reached 99 on the radar gun.
Zack Kelly allowed one of the inherited runners to score on an Austin Martin double, but the Twins did no further damage. When DaShawn Keirsey Jr. lined a ball to center, Vázquez decided to test Rafaela’s arm. He found himself thrown out at home by a wide margin for a double-play. Jair Camargo blasted one to the middle of the outfield, where Rafaela and his glove were waiting to end the inning. Kelly rounded out his appearance by striking out two in a scoreless 1-2-3 sixth.
Rafaela also had a huge day at the plate. He followed Connor Wong’s fourth-inning home run with a homer of his own, then led off the seventh with a walk and scored when Rob Refsnyder followed with a two-run blast (off a lefty, of course).
Boston collected 11 hits to Minnesota’s eight, including two-hit performances by Masataka Yoshida, Trevor Story – who added a fifth double to his team-leading total – and Refsnyder, who subbed in for leadoff man Jarren Duran in the bottom of the sixth. The Sox also struck out 15 times, only drew two walks, were 1-for-4 with runners in scoring position and left seven men on base.
In the later innings, Minnesota came close to overtaking their guests. They loaded the bases and scored two against Isaiah Campbell in the seventh. Martin, who’d driven in the Twins’ only run at that point, doubled his RBI total and their score with a sacrifice fly. Keirsey followed with an RBI single before Campbell could get the remaining two outs.
Minor league righty Zach Bryant got the leadoff man in the bottom of the eighth but couldn’t finish the frame. After a walk to Mickey Gasper, who debuted with the Red Sox last year, Bryant gave up a double, two-run single, and second single before recording the second out.
With runners on the corners and the Red Sox clinging to a one-run lead, Cora called for lefty Brendan Celluci, who needed three pitches to get an inning-ending strikeout. Celluci remained in the game for the ninth and capped off his strong 1-2-3 performance with a pair of strikeouts. All told, the underrated southpaw threw 13 pitches, 10 for strikes.
The Red Sox are 12-8 in Grapefruit League play, including 3-1 against the Twins. Boston has split-squad action at 1:05 p.m. on Monday, simultaneously hosting the Baltimore Orioles at JetBlue Park and visiting the Braves in North Port.
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