Red Sox Bats Come Alive in 8-4 Win Over Orioles

The Red Sox’s bats have finally woken.

The Sox slugged three home runs, one apiece by Alex Bregman, Kristian Campbell and Tristan Casas to take the rubber game of a 3 game series with the Orioles 8-4 win.  over the Baltimore Orioles at Camden Yards 

The home runs were the first of the year for both Bregman and Casas who had both been scuffling at the plate to start the season. Bregman added two more hits, both doubles and another RBI to cap a 3-for-5 afternoon. 

The Sox 3rd baseman, who signed late in the offseason to a 3 year $120 million deal, had gone 6-for-26 to start the season entering Thursday’s game with no extra base hits, zero RBI and 6 strikeouts. 

“You start the season and you can be feeling great in spring training and swinging the bat well and then the season starts and you get that little bit of adrenaline that you don’t have during spring training,” Bregman said to reporters after the game. “Sometimes your swing gets a little big or sometimes your at-bats speed up on you a little bit.”

Bregman got things started quickly with a two-run homer in the first off Orioles starter Charlie Morton.

The Orioles got one back in the bottom of the frame when Cedric Mulins took Sox starter Tanner Houck deep for a solo shot to make it 2-1.

But Sox rookie Kristian Campbell extended the lead with a two run homer down the line in left, his second of the season putting the Sox up 4-1. Campbell, who signed a 6 year $80 million extension on Wednesday is batting .417 through 7 games this season with four doubles, two home runs, four walks and six runs scored.

“He’s electric… I can’t speak highly enough of what he’s doing…” teammate Tristan Casas said of the Sox rookie phenom. “He’s the real deal.”

Casas joined the home run brigade in the 7th. With the Sox now up 5-3 the Sox first baseman smoked a fastball from lefty Keegan Akin over the wall in left-center for a two-run homer that put the Sox ahead, 7-3. Coming into the game Casas had only 2 hits in 21 at bats with 9 strikeouts. After the game, Casas said he has maintained the same approach throughout his early season struggles.

“I’m in there thinking about nothing, and I’m thinking about thinking about nothing,” the ever philosophical and always eccentric Casas told WEEI after the game. “So sometime I get to that unconscious space you want to reach as a player and then I get there and I’m like ‘oh dang’ this is it. Its just early in the season still, I still got a lot of jitters going up there opening day opening week. You want to get off to a good start and obviously hasn’t happened but today was hopefully a sign of good things to come.”

Sox starter Tanner Houck has his second straight so-so start of the season. He allowed three runs on six hits and a pair of walks over four-plus innings. He was pulled after hitting a batter to start the 5th.

As has been the case all season long, the Sox bullpen locked things down from there. Four different pitchers pitched the final 5 innings allowing only 3 hits and one run to secure the 8-4 win.

The Sox return to Boston to play their home opener on Friday against the St. Louis Cardinals at Fenway Park. First pitch 2:10pm. Walker Buehler gets the ball for Boston against the Cardinals Erick Fedde.

“Now it’s time to go to Boston,” said Bregman. “It’s gonna be an awesome opening weekend…the place is gonna be rocking.”