ARLINGTON, Texas — After five seasons of abject mediocrity (353-355, last place three times), an alarming drift toward baseball’s big middle, and fan apathy that has dented a once-stellar brand, there are great expectations for the 2025 Red Sox. Free agents have been procured, some of the coveted kids are ready for the bigs, and a few pundits are picking the upstart Sox to finish first in a suddenly wide-open American League East.
So it was with new/old enthusiasm that we gathered with 37,587 in the shadow of Jerry Jones’s monstrous circus tent for the Red Sox’ 125th Opening Day Thursday. Yikes.
Powered by two home runs and a single off the bat of Wilyer Abreu, the Sox beat the Rangers, 5-2, moving into first place atop the AL East. Yikes. Even John Henry was smiling in the Sox clubhouse after this one.
“It was a good one and we won, so everybody’s happy,‘’ said Boston manager Alex Cora.
On this day we saw new Boston stars Alex Bregman (0 for 4), Garrett Crochet (five good innings), Aroldis Chapman (one scoreless inning), and we saw the Major League debut of 22-year-old second baseman Kristian Campbell, who got his first big league hit, a single, in the ninth inning.
But it was Abreu who did damage to the Rangers with a single and a run in the second, a solo homer off Nate Eovaldi in the fifth, and a three-run homer to break a 2-2 tie in the ninth.
There was little conversation about Abreu over the winter. He won a Gold Glove in his rookie season, but all the outfield attention went to Jarren Duran’s career year. In Fort Myers, Fla., this spring, Abreu was invisible, sitting out with a gastrointestinal issue, and he wisely skipped the team trip to Mexico this week.
But he was ready for the opener.
“Willie,‘’ said Cora. “Such a good player. Dynamic.‘’
Yes. And this might be a moment to give Chaim Bloom a little credit. Prohibited from opening the Sox vault in his short stint in Boston, Bloom was blamed for everything but the Red Line woes, but he quietly acquired Abreu in the Christian Vazquez deal and it’s proven to be a good one.
Meanwhile, Campbell — who was drafted by the Bloom regime — goes down as the youngest Sox rookie to make his big league debut in an Opening Day starting lineup since Joe Lahoud broke into the bigs in Game 1 of the 1968 season. Some of you may remember 22-year-old Reggie Smith as the Sox Opening Day second baseman in the magical season of 1967, but Reggie played six games for the ‘66 Sox, so he does not count in this bit of trivia.
In a refreshing burst of innocence, Cora revealed that when he told Campbell he was making the big league club, Campbell asked his manager, “who’s going to be my roommate?‘’
Ha. There’s naivete for you. Big leaguers haven’t had roomates since Marvin Miller took a hammer to MLB’s century-old system of involuntary servitude. As depicted in Jim Bouton’s “Ball Four”, baseball roommates were “Boys Gone Wild” in the days of Mickey Mantle and Co., but the concept of big leaguers sharing a hotel room on the road has gone the way of The Sporting News, sacrifice bunts, and complete games by starting pitchers.
In addition to Campbell, the Sox unveiled behemoth (6 feet 6 inches, 260 pounds) lefty Crochet, who was picked up for prospect catcher Kyle Teel and three others during Craig Breslow’s busy winter. Crochet was indomitable in Fort Myers, but just OK Thursday, holding the Rangers to two runs.
A career reliever until last season, Boston’s port side Radatz was at 77 pitches through four and didn’t pitch past the fourth in the second half of his All-Star season with the historically bad (121 losses) White Sox last season. The ChiSox knew they were going to trade Crochet during the winter and didn’t want him to be damaged goods.
It was, therefore, significant that he came out for the fifth inning of a 2-2 ballgame. It was the first time he pitched into the fifth since June 30 and he had a nice inning against the top of the order, throwing 11 pitches, facing only three batters, and keeping the game tied for Abreu. In five innings, he gave up two runs on five hits, walking two, and striking out four. He threw 88 pitches, 61 for strikes. It wasn’t Pedro, but it wasn’t Matt Clement, either.
Garrett Whitlock came on for Crochet and gave the Sox two scoreless innings. Chapman pitched a scoreless eighth and hit 98 miles per hour on the gun. We got to see Aroldis face Adolis with one on and one out in the eighth (Adolis Garcia flew to center).
Bregman, the $40 million man, who brings so much hope to New England, was roundly booed every time he came to the plate and went hitless, flying to right off Chris Martin with the go-ahead run on third and two outs in the eighth.
The new guys were fun to watch.
But Abreu was Boston’s wrecking ball in Game 1.
Tanner Houck goes Friday for the undefeated, first-place Sox, and new guy Walker Buehler gets the ball Saturday.
Dan Shaughnessy is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him @dan_shaughnessy.
