Red Sox Pleased with “Opening Day Sweep” of Northeastern & Boston College
The Red Sox came away happy with the results of their “opening day sweep” of Northeastern & Boston College on Wednesday.
Casey Kelly helped the Red Sox get the day off to a good start as the club cruised to an easy 15-0 win over Northeastern. Kelly needed only 10 pitches to record a 1-2-3 1st inning. 7 of his 10 pitches were strikes and 2 of them resulted in strikeouts. Not a bad spring debut for the shortstop/pitcher who decided to focus solely on pitching this off-season. “I don’t think I’ve stopped smiling since I got off the mound. It was a good first outing. To have the crowd and some of the people behind me playing defense behind me was a tremendous honor… I was very, very nervous going in. Once I got on the mound, kind of the competition takes over and you want to go out there and do your best.”
The Red Sox defeated Boston College 6-1 in the nightcap. Boof Bonser needed just 9 pitches to pitch a scoreless 1st inning. Michael Bowden and Junichi Tazawa – each of whom saw limited stints with the major league club in 2009 – threw 1-2-3 innings as well. Bonser had this to say about his 1st live game action in almost 2 years (he missed all of 2009 due to injury): “It went great. I’m glad it’s over. It was my 1st Spring Training game in pretty much two years. People say that, ‘Hey, it’s a college team’, but to me, a college team wants to beat your brains in more than the regular team does. Like I said, I’m glad it’s over.”
Well – although it is 2 exhibition wins against university teams, it’s better than sitting here today analyzing why Bonser or Kelly did not have sharp first outings. The Red Sox seem to be on the right track and have been avoiding any serious injuries thus far. That can only mean good things for the Red Sox in 2010.