Targeted by Jared Carrabis
Twins top Sox in Target Field's grand opening


After a tough outing from Jon Lester, the Red Sox fell to 0-5 when playing in a game in which the opposing team was opening a new ballpark.

As bad as it sounds, it's not as bad as it looks. The last time that the Red Sox lost in a home opener that was played in a brand new stadium, Babe Ruth went deep. Taking that into perspective, that game was a 4-1 loss to the New York Yankees in the very first game ever in the historic Yankee Stadium.

"I just stunk," Lester told reporters after Boston's 5-2 loss to Minnesota. Simply put, the left-hander went on to say, "I didn't execute pitches. There was a ball that bounced off two gloves, another one hit a bag and it cost me runs. You can look at it as bad luck, but I don't really look at it that way. I look at it as executing my pitches, and I've got to do a better job."

The evidence is certainly there to support Lester's claim, as just 59 of his 107 pitches went for strikes. When his pitches were in the strike zone, the Twins' offense were either making loud outs, or stinging the ball to areas unoccupied by the Red Sox defense.

When Lester was finally removed from the game after five innings, four runs had crossed home plate on nine hits. The lefty also walked three and struck out five.

As much as Lester would like to downplay being a notorious slow-starter by saying, "I don't think April has anything to do with it," his numbers tell a different story. The loss dropped his record for his career in the month of April to 2-5 with a 5.08 ERA.

From the month of June through October for the regular season in his career, Lester is 35-8 with a 3.27 ERA. Over that same span in his career, he has held opponents to a .252 batting average from June through the end of the regular season.

Needless to say, there should not be a red flag within miles of the prized left-handed hurler.

As far as the offense was concerned, Marco Scutaro entered the record books as the first batter in Target Field history. He then knocked a base hit into center field to record the first hit in Target Field history, and moments later he became the first player to be picked off in Target Field history.

Former Red Sox pitcher Carl Pavano kept Boston in check through six innings, allowing just one run on an RBI double by David Ortiz, who entered the game as a .571 career hitter against the right-hander.

Prior to the game, Ortiz shot down a rumor spouted by the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, which reported that the left-handed slugger was playing through an injured left wrist. "Don't pay attention to that crap," said Ortiz. "I'm fine. If I'd have been raking they wouldn’t be saying that."

Regardless of Ortiz's denials, we still have no reason to speculate that Big Papi isn't being truthful. With such a mighty swing, I'm sure we would have seen a grimace here and there, but the only pain that we've seen in his face have been in his walks back to the dugout, having struck out 11 times in 22 at bats.

The Red Sox bullpen continued to look unstable, when in the bottom of the seventh inning, Jason Kubel cranked a solo shot off of reliever Scott Atchison.

Boston would add another run in the eighth inning on a sacrifice fly off the bat of Dustin Pedroia, but it wouldn't be enough. All the sac fly did was open the bullpen door for newly appointed closer in the absence of Joe Nathan, Jon Rauch.

It was three up and three down for Rauch, who needed just nine pitches to lock down his fifth save already on the young season.

Keeping things optimistic, outfielder Mike Cameron said after the game that, "You always come out with the mindset of trying to win every ballgame you can. We just stumbled a little bit here. But everyone here is a good ballplayer. We'll just try to get on track."

Tuesday's probable pitchers:

John Lackey will look to build on his promising start against the Yankees in which the right-hander hurled six shutout innings. Of course, there are no numbers to share with you on his successes or failure in Target Field, but is 6-5 with a solid 3.75 ERA against the Twins in his career. Opposing Lackey will be Kevin Slowey, who was nearly as impressive as Lackey in his first start of 2010, giving up just one run in 5.1 innings to the Angels. The right-hander has faced Boston twice in his career, splitting his decisions one a piece, with an ERA of 4.63.

-Jared Carrabis

To order Jared's debut book, One Fan's Story: If This Hat Could Talk, click HERE!





Published on April 13, 2010

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