It would have - and should have - been a great story.
Just a few days after the passing of his father, Lloyd, the stage was set for Rich Hill to turn in a memorable Patriots' Day start Monday morning. The memory of Mr. Hill had already been entrenched in so many thanks to a life that included sparring with Rocky Marciano, running 37 marathons and blocking for Joe Paterno as a Brown University football player.
This would have been a nice punctuation.
But Hill's day didn't go quite as planned, with the lefty succumbing to a pair of home runs on the way to a four-run, 4 2/3-inning outing that ultimately resulted in a 8-3 Twins win.
"The whole game, actually, it was not easy," said Red Sox manager Alex Cora. "But he did a lot today. He showed his team a lot too. He’s a guy we respected playing against him and all these guys played with him but having him in the clubhouse with us is a different story. We’re very proud of him and my thoughts and prayers for the Hill family. Obviously, Lloyd lived a great life. For his son to go out there and compete the way he did he should be very proud."
Cora added, "I can't even imagine how that works, I lost my dad when I was 13 years old so I have no idea. For him to compete and he did compete, he gave us a chance. It’s one of those games you see where you’re at, and the balancing act of what we want to accomplish today and what we have still on the schedule and for him to give us 4 ⅔ the way we started was great. Everyone was proud of him in this clubhouse. I told him, 'Thank you for competing, we’re very proud of you and we’ll get them next time.'"
Sure, it would have been nice, but not necessary. Hill's existence on the mound at Fenway Park on this sun-soaked morning was plenty to enhance Lloyd's memory.
"It makes you put things in perspective," Hill said in the Red Sox' clubhouse prior to his second start of the season.
Yup. That's why what unfolded in Game No. 10 meant little in the grand scheme of things.
Hill will move on, preparing for his father's funeral on Wednesday and his next start Saturday. And so will the Red Sox.
Besides the presence of Hill, there was little to latch on to in the series finale. The good was 1 1/3 hitless innings from Phillips Valdez, some more fine defense out of Rafael Devers and Christian Vazquez's first homer of the season. Oh, and Xander Bogaerts had his second straight three-hit game.
The bad? Well, it started with Kevin Plawecki's positive COVID-19 diagnosis and continued with offensive futility against Twins starter Dylan Bundy. And, to cap things off, the Kutter Crawford took a turn for the worse, with the rookie giving up four runs while walking five in just 1 2/3 innings.
By the time the marathoners started hearing those radios along the course in the 1 p.m. hour, the tone was heavy with a sad Joe Castiglione. They had their memories. The folks at Fenway? Not so much. Except for that one very important memory, that of Lloyd Hill.
"Well, I mean, he ran 37 of them," said Hill of his dad and the Marathon. "There were a lot of great memories of him coming home if we couldn’t make it in for the Marathon. A few times being able to get in there and see him finish was great. He had a great life and taught me a lot of lessons and one of them is to show up and do your job even when things aren’t perfect on the outside.”