Hanley Ramirez laced the game-winner to deep right field, rounded first base with his arm raised, and then ran for his life.
One of the breakout stars of this early Red Sox season, Ramirez delivered the shivering fans who stuck around for 12 innings on Thursday a home opener to remember with a walkoff single. Rather than accept his celebratory group pummeling, he outraced teammate Xander Bogaerts to second base before making a right turn towards center field.
Just when it looked like he might sprint right off the field, he stopped in front of the first base camera well, where teammates doused him with water and celebrated the 3-2 win that moved the Red Sox to 6-1, tied with the Astros for best in the majors.
"I don't want that. It was too cold," Ramirez said of the bath. "But when you win, anything is fine. That warmed me up a little, that sprint right there. I didn't want anyone to get hurt, so I just stopped and celebrated."
What remained of the sell-out crowd joined in the cheers.
"I'm going to tell you what," Ramirez said. "That's the only thing that kept me in the game and locked in, the fans. Because it's cold out there, it was really cold, but sometimes you don't pay attention to that. You're just concentrating on the game so much that it doesn't affect you. I think that makes you feel better, a W, all of us."
Ramirez's hit made a winner of Bobby Poyner, the former Double-A pitcher who surprisingly made the opening day roster. Poyner delivered two shutout innings for his first decision.
"It was great," Poyner said. "First game at Fenway, to be able to get in it was incredible. Obviously, I was very excited, but I was trying to keep my emotions in check, stay calm, and make pitches."
It didn't look good for most of the afternoon. Down to their last out in the ninth inning on a cold, blustery afternoon, the Red Sox forced extra innings before Jackie Bradley Jr. led off the 12th with a double, was sacrificed to third, and scored on Ramirez's liner to the right field fence.
This one was once again an offensive struggle, but the pitching staff delivered with outstanding performances from bookend left-handers David Price and Poyner. The former threw seven shutout innings for the second straight start and the latter stranded the go-ahead run at third to end the top of the 12th.
The Red Sox tied things in the ninth when Mookie Betts singled, Andrew Benintendi walked, and Hanley Ramirez delivered a run with a single. After J.D. Martinez grounded into a double play, Xander Bogaerts doubled off the left field wall, barely eluding the leap of Mallex Smith, who crashed into the fence.
After an intentional walk to Rafael Devers, it looked like Eduardo Nunez had won it, but third baseman Matt Duffy deflected his grounder for an infield single that loaded the bases. Jackie Bradley grounded to second and was called out on a bang-bang play at first that needed to be upheld by replay before we could move on to extra innings.
By that point, the eighth inning had once again loomed as a trouble spot after reliever Carson Smith allowed a two-run homer to Duffy to break a scoreless tie.
The primary setup men, Joe Kelly and Smith, have been the primary culprits, which is problematic because there don't appear to be internal solutions, unless manager Alex Cora wants to embark on the mix-and-match-a-thon that John Farrell executed to perilous perfection last season.
The setup issues have been exacerbated by an offense that has not yet emerged from hibernation. The Red Sox got the Rays on one of their "bullpen days," which is another way of saying, "We barely have three starters." Making just his second big-league appearance, 24-year-old right-hander Yonny Chirinos limited the Red Sox to three hits over five innings, striking out four. He was followed by a bunch of people you've never heard of before closer Alex Colome blew the lead.
The bullpen and offense combined to negate another excellent outing from left-hander David Price, who tossed seven shutout innings for the second straight start. Price struggled with the elements like everyone else -- it was 40 degrees with wind chills in the low-30s for opening pitch -- but he allowed only three hits and three walks while striking out five and sitting at 92-93 mph with his fastball.
"It was bad," Ramirez said. "I think that's the coldest I've ever played in my life."
Seven games into the season, Red Sox starters have yet to allow more than one run in an outing. They needed just a little bit of offense, and the team squandered its best chance to score in the second when Martinez led off with a wind-aided triple to center before failing to score on a broken-bat grounder to first. A sharp groundout by Devers and an Nunez grounder ended the frame.
The Red Sox have allowed a league-high 10 runs in the eighth inning this season, including six in the opener to blow a 4-0 lead, and then two more on Thursday to break a scoreless tie before the rally in the ninth.
