Opening Day Remarks

Game 1 is in the books.  Sox lose but it wasn't a complete disaster.

Danks was good.  I'd almost be willing to say very good.  If it weren't for Kinsler he would have been unreal.  2 runs created single handedly by Ian and the other run should have never been out there had Morel not botched that double play.  Danks mixed it up, struck some guys out, got the big out when he needed it, and really never faced a tough inning.  Hard to take a loss when you pitch pretty well, but that's Opening Day sometimes.

Adam Dunn goes yard in the first game.  His 8th career Opening Day homer tying him for the most in MLB history.  Pretty impressive.  But what I liked was the day as a whole he had.  Walked in the first, struck out on 6 pitches, homered, and lined out hard to first.  Sure it's 1 for 3 with a K, but the HR and the would be double are some very positive signs.

The goat of the game is definitely Brent Morel.  Morel struck out, and badly, all 4 AB's.  He looked completely lost the entire afternoon and seemed like he had no idea what he was doing up there.  Then to botch the DP ball which led to the winning run and the error in the 8th.  All in all pretty horrendous day for him.

The worst part of the day for me was the strikeouts.  Way, way, way too many.  The Rangers set an Opening Day record striking out 13 Sox hitters.  Morel's 4 led the team, but De Aza and Alexei also struck out multiple times.  A portion of that has to be credited to the mammoth strike zone for Ron Winters, but no matter what the size of the zone, you have to get some contact.  Especially on Opening Day when errors are a little more common.

Bullpen was good.  Thornton and Addison.  Hits for 7 different players.  Only the 1 error.  Not good, because we lost, but all in all not to bad.

Can't be too disappointed with a loss against arguably the best team in the AL.  But, we really do need to get out of here with at least one win.  Then we can go take care of some business in Cleveland.  I'd really just like to see 3-3 by the time we return home in a week.

What are the Chances?

The Sox are 1.5 run underdogs in this Opening Day match up with the defending AL Champ Texas Rangers.  The Sox come in as the biggest dog on the day sitting at +175 on the moneyline.

So, the experts don't really like the Sox chances today.  But what do we here in the horribly biased world of TCB?

Well, I like the chances more than Vegas, but I'm still not be any means expecting a W this afternoon.  Opening Day's are almost always toss ups.  When you take a look at the history of playoff teams in their Opening games, there's not really a significant trend one way or the other.  So +175 seems a bit steep to me.

I like John Danks a lot in this game.  Danks has a 3.81 ERA in the past 5 seasons against the Rangers which is fantastic when you look at how powerful the Ranger lineup has bene recently.  Danks is tough to face on an Opening Day because of his style.  Left hander that mixes it up, has the ability to strike you out, these kinds of guys usually do pretty well early.

As far as the hitters go, the Sox have had some success against Colby Lewis in the past.  It's a guy most of the lineup has seen before, which is usually a huge plus for the Sox.  Dunn is the current MLB leader in Opening Day HR's with 7, and Rios and Konerko both have solid Opening Day numbers as well.

Last year the Sox killed the ball in their first game against Fausto Carmona and the Indians.  Offensively this looks like a much better matchup than one year ago.

The Sox are 2-2 historically against the Rangers on Opening Day with the last time being a loss in 2000.

The Sox would definitely surprise some people with a win today, but that's not to say it's a longshot.

Let's Play Some Baseball!!!