AL East Round Up: Opening Week Edition

Mandatory Credit: Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports

Boston Red Sox:

The defending champions opened up 2014 in Baltimore, but forgot to tell their bats. Aside from a Grady Sizemore‘s homerun, the Red Sox offense was silent to open the season including going 0-10 with runners in scoring position Ouch. Jon Lester, though? Not so much. He struck out 8 in 7 innings. The bats came back the very next day (leave a comment below if you see what I did there). Mike Naploi (.263/.391/.632) drove in 4 in a 6-2 win. He’s leading the league with 7 RBI. And, David Ortiz just refuses to go quietly. He’s off to a good start (.333/.400/.500) again. You know that lineup won’t be held quiet for too many games. Clay Buchholz‘s first start of the season was a rough one: 4 1/3 innings pitched and 13 (!) hits. If the offense and pitching can get on the same page at the same time, look out.

NOTES:

-The Red Sox celebrated their championship with a trip to the White House and a ring ceremony. Blah Blah Blah. For some reason, the big story from the trip to DC was David Ortiz taking a selfie with President Obama. Um, ok….The Sox also received their championship rings. I’m sure they’re pretty and all, but…next.

-The Red Sox bullpen set a team record with 15 strikeouts. They chipped in 6 2/3 innings in Saturday’s 11 inning loss to the Brewers.