Adam Duvall hit a walkoff two out, two-run homer on Saturday evening in lifting the Boston Red Sox to a dramatic come from behind 9-8 victory over the Baltimore Orioles at Fenway Park to earn their first win of the season.
Things certainly didn’t start well for Boston, as starting pitcher Chris Sale gave up three homeruns and seven earned runs over 3.0 innings as the Orioles got out to a 7-1 lead. The Red Sox began their comeback when Alex Verdugo and Duvall both hit two-run homers in the last of the third inning to cut it to 7-5. After Baltimore increased their lead back to 8-5, Kike Hernandez hit a solo homerun and Duvall hit an RBI ground rule double in the seventh to make it 8-7. The Orioles closer Felix Bautista entered in the bottom of the ninth inning and retired Rafael Devers on a strikeout and Justin Turner on a groundout. It looked like it would be a 1-2-3 appearance for Bautista, but a routine fly ball to left field by Masataka Yoshida was dropped by Ryan McKenna to leave the door open for Duvall to cap off his big day. Duvall took a 1-0 pitch and lined it onto the padding just over the monster in left for a game winning two-run homer to send the Boston faithful into delirium.
Duvall had four hits and five RBI, and Devers had three hits to help lead Boston to the win. The Red Sox used six pitchers, with Kenley Jansen (1-0) earning the relief victory. Austin Hays had five hits, Cedric Mullins two hits and three RBI, and Ryan Mountcastle two hits and two RBI in the loss for Baltimore. Bautista (0-1) was tagged with the loss and blown save. The teams finish off the season opening series with the rubber game on Sunday at 1:35 p.m. Tanner Houck starts on the hill for Boston against Cole Irvin for Baltimore.
Recap by Chris Lessner
