My initial reaction to the Red Sox 2015 season is one of “cautious excitement”. I am excited to get back into baseball, which is something I haven’t done in a few years, and the team’s opening day performance against Philly certainly gives me reason to be. I’m cautious, however, because I’m aware of the fact that it’s only one game, and there are still another 161 to go until all is said and done.

The middle 5 innings that I caught today (which is probably more than the entirety of my Red Sox viewing in 2014) showed me some pop in our offense, and some great pitching from Clay Buchholz. The “Ace” of our rotation had a nice break on his curveball and some good movement on his other off-speed pitches. He put together 7 strong shutout innings in a winning effort, while racking up 9 strikeouts and only allowing 3 hits and 1 walk.

As far as the offense goes, 4 solo home runs and a Grand Slam is awesome; I’ll take that any day! Of course the one downfall is that the Sox really didn’t do much outside of those long bombs. They weren’t able to string together multiple hits or base runners until the 9th inning, but that 4-run final frame definitely helped seal the deal and take any pressure off the bullpen.

Dustin Pedroia got things going with a solo shot in the 1st inning (he added another in the 5th), and went 3-5 with 2 rbi and 1 strikeout. Mookie Betts got off to a quick start as well, going 2-4 with a solo homer of his own, 1 strikeout, 1 walk, and 2 runs. Hanley Ramirez resembled another Red Sox left fielder with that surname, finishing the game 2-4 with 5 rbi, 2 HR and 1 walk.

I’m sure that all the home runs won’t keep up like this on a daily basis, but it’s nice to know that the Red Sox have plenty of capable hitters in the top of the lineup. That’s even without David Ortiz and Pablo Sandoval, who were a combined 0-9 at the plate with 6 of the team’s 9 strikeouts

Jegs-