Abreu Slams 2 Home Runs as Red Sox Defeat Rangers 5-2 on Opening Day

Spring Training couldn’t have possibly gone any worse than it did for Wilyer Abreu. And opening day could not have gone any better.

Abreu – who missed time and lost a significant amount of weight this spring due to a gastrointestinal virus – went 3-for-3 with a walk a singel and two home runs. Abreu’s second homer – a 3-run shot in the 9th snapped a 2-2 tie and gave the Sox a 5-2 opening day win over the Rangers in Arlington.

“A very special moment for me,” Abreu said via a translator. “Even better when you can start the season with a win like this.”

Red Sox pitchers kept the Rangers at bay for most of the game, holding them to 7 hits. New addition Garret Crochet got the ball to start. Crochet, who was dominant throughout spring training, struggled with his control some. He labored through the first two innings throwing 47 pitches. The big lefty settled down after that and ended the day allowing 2 runs on 5 hits with 4 strike outs over 5 innings of work. He left with the game tied at 2.

“It was a grinder day from the start,” Crochet told reporters after the game. “I felt like I struggled with consistent execution, maybe took a few too many shots in the first couple innings trying to get swing and miss. I dug myself into a hole with pitch count early. Later on in the game, I started trusting the defense and trusting everybody other than myself. I just tried filling up the zone as best as I could.”

“He [Crochet] was good, a lot of cutters, [velocity] was ok, I think he found his fastball halfway through the outing,” Alex Cora said. “Of course he wanted to keep going but we’re in the business of taking care of him.”

The Red Sox bullpen took over in the 6th, and did not did not allow a run the rest of the way. Garrett Whitlock, recently moved from the rotation to the pen, allowed only one hit in two scoreless innings. Newly acquired reliever Aroldis Chapman pitched a scoreless 8th. Justin Slaten came on the close things out in the 9th.

The Red Sox new look lineup did not get much going on the day mustering only 6 hits, half of them thanks to Abreu. The Sox 2-through-5 hitters (Rafael Devers, Alex Bregman, Tristan Casas and Trevor Story) went 0-for-15 with 8 strikeouts. It was a particularly tough day for Devers who went 0-4 with three strikeouts. Devers was informed earlier this week that he was moving off third base to DH, a decision he was not on board with.

Rookie phenom Kristian Campbell made his major league debut and got his first hit of his big league career in the 9th, a ground ball single off the glove of Rangers 3rd baseman Josh Jung. Campbell would later come around to score on Abreu’s game winning tank.

As Alex Cora said after the game…”We won. Everybody’s Happy.”

The Red Sox (1-0) and Rangers (0-1) will do it again Friday. Tanner Houck will face off against Jack Leiter, and first pitch is scheduled for 8:05 p.m. ET.