Red Sox find potential blueprint for success with Opening Day win in Seattle

The 24-year-old got himself into trouble in the fourth inning when he served up a two-run homer to Mitch Haniger on a 97-mph sinker. But the young right-hander was able to limit the damage at that and finished his day having tossed five innings of two-run ball with five hits allowed, no walks and a pair of strikeouts. 

Bello even tried to pull a fast one and avoid being taken out after the fifth, but his attempts to quickly sneak down the tunnel away from his manager and pitching coach failed and he begrudgingly shook hands in the dugout with a veiled grin that said “I know I can keep going” on his face…

“He was excellent. He can be better — we know that,” Alex Cora said of Bello. “We were joking, it looked like he was panicking (before the game). No, nothing like that. It was amazing. He showed up … he was very calm.”

Devers delivered the game’s opening salvo and the Sox’s first long ball of the year in the third, smoking an opposite-field, two run blast to make it 2-0. He followed that up with a fifth-inning double and finished the day 2 for 5.

“He had a disappointing season last year. He hit 30 (home runs) and drove in a hundred, but that’s not enough for some people,” Cora joked. “But I think he understands who he is in this lineup. He needs to make adjustments because the league is getting better.”

Both O’Neill and Rafaela flashed their bats and gloves with solid all-around days. O’Neill looked formidable at the plate, smashing a solo shot for his MLB record fifth consecutive Opening Day homer and also working a walk.

Both he and Rafaela tracked the ball well in center and right field, respectively. Rafaela went 1 for 4 with an RBI groundout and a run scored. His lone hit was a double he used his speed to turn into a triple, and he celebrated by rising up triumphantly and making a swimming motion to his teammates that appears will be the team’s new celebration this season… 

Overall, an 11-hit, two-homer performance in a game started by three-time All-Star Luis Castillo is something to write home about. What made the Red Sox so frustrating last season was the fact that they could definitely hit a little… but the pitching wasn’t able to pick up the hitting on a consistent basis.

We saw some of that again once Cora turned the ball over to the bullpen. Newly-acquired and former Seattle reliever Isaiah Campbell followed Bello and was charged with a run on one hit — but the run was a result of a two-run bomb to pinch hitter Dylan Moore given up by the team’s lone lefty pitcher Joely Rodriguez. 

(Seriously, why is Rodriguez still here?? How was Brennan Bernardino not a better option…?)

But Chris Martin and Kenley Jansen were able to come in and shut the door with shutdown eighth and ninth innings — with both recording a pair of strikeouts. If the Sox can figure out an effective way to get from their starters to Martin and Jansen on the back end, that could certainly be a winning recipe…

Giving up two homers and four runs isn’t ideal — I like to stick to a “5-3” principle, myself. You should strive to build a team that scores five runs a night and gives up no more than three — but the Sox's arms did have the strikeout pitch working collectively, totaling nine, and at the end of the day, it was good enough to beat a club that was the last team out of the American League playoff picture one season ago.

It wasn’t perfect. It got a little messy. But the Red Sox may have stumbled on a blueprint that could allow them to win some games this season. There won’t be much margin for error, as we saw in this one, but it might just be enough to keep them sniffing around a playoff spot.

Hey, with the way the offseason went, I think we'd all certainly take it…