Walking up to Fenway Park in the moments before the 2020 baseball season was to get underway, it was something. For now, that will have to do. Something.
The people gathered around the park, eating, drinking and social-distancing on Landsdowne St. almost universally looked like they wanted to press their face against the glass to see what was going on inside those green walls of Fenway Park. Others, such as Mike Noonan Bruce Niemczyk and Ken O'Brien stayed home, helplessly watching their streak of 52 straight Fenway openers come to an end. (See below for the ticket that started the suddenly-halted streak.)
It wasn't perfect, but it was baseball. Different to be sure, but baseball nonetheless.
Eovaldi walked off the field after allowing just one run over his six innings, the roar would have undoubtedly led the pitcher to tip his hat on the way into a dugout-full of admiring teammates.
Those were the kind of things that were supposed to define this night.
Nope. Not when one of the measuring sticks for satisfaction was not having to use the third level of disappointment on the fake crowd sound machine. And also not when the opponent was the Orioles.
If you had to power-rank how people were prioritizing the night's events it would probably look like this:
1. Game result.
2. Who was kneeling for the National Anthem?
3. Why did Eovaldi come out in the third inning wearing No. 7?
4. Is the Red Sox offense and Eovaldi this good, or is it just that the Orioles are that bad?
As for No. 1, a win is a win is a win, and it's even more of a win when there are only 59 games to play. In a normal year, one loss in the opener basically is the equivalent of falling into a 2 1/2-game hole after one day. So, the Red Sox did what they needed to do, and they did it -- let's face it -- as impressive of a fashion and one could muster against this sort of opponent.
Jose Peraza had four hits. Jackie Bradley Jr., Kevin Pillar and J.D. Martinez each had three. The Red Sox had 17 in total.
This was major-league pitching in real major-league game so they all go in the books as real major-league stats.
This might be, after all, the method this team has to win more times than not. So with that in mind, it was a good start.
As for No. 2, it was going to be highlighted if any Red Sox players or coaches knelt during the National Anthem. So when Jackie Bradley Jr., Alex Verdugo, Tom Goodwin, Carlos Febles and Mani Martinez took a knee, it stood out.
Unfortunately for the Red Sox, what also separated itself were the images of the Orioles unified in their approaches to both the social justice tribute and the Anthem. The first one was met with each and every Baltimore participant taking a knee, with the visitors then linking arms for the song.
It was a juxtaposition that didn't go over well for many living out Opening Day on social media.
"I got a text last night from Jackie to let me know what he was doing, talked to him this morning," said Red Sox manager Ron Roenicke. "Then Goody came in today, we had a coach's meeting, and he actually told a little story about his mom, what she went through when she was young, and felt like that he should kneel. Same thing on our part. We support these guys and their decisions. I think I saw Verdugo on a knee, too. These are all personal decisions. They mean different things to different people. And we're supporting everything that's going on right now. Jackie, the type of person that he is, I don't know if you've spent much time talking to Tom Goodwin, but it doesn't get much better than these guys. Anything we can do to help them and realize that there needs to be changes. This country, it's a great country, and yet we have this issue of the equality that needs to get better and the divisions we have. By recognizing it, we feel like we're supporting a change that needs to happen."
And of course, the starting pitcher is going to be a story, particularly when he does what Eovaldi did -- starting with a first pitch of the season that registered at 100 mph.
But people always like the weird, and when the Red Sox starter came out in the third inning wearing the same number as his catcher Christian Vazquez, it climbed the list of memorable moments.
"Yeah, so I guess Vazquez and I both sweat a lot so we had the jerseys hanging down in the batting cage," he explained. "I didn't realize his were down there too. I glanced over and saw the No. 7, thought it was mine and grabbed it off the hanger, threw it on and once I came back through the dugout they were like, 'Atta boy Vazqyy!' I was like what? They were like, 'you have his jersey on.' 'I was like, 'I thought it felt a little tight on my arms but it's all good."
Then there is what to make of this team as they head into Game No. 2.
That's item No. 4, in large part because it is the most unanswerable.
"Yes, it was what I expected," said Roenicke of Day 1. "The only thing you don't expect was … I knew our offense was good and we've been swinging the bat well, but obviously you don't expect them to come out … In my mind I'm not expecting we're going to score that many runs. But guys continue to swing the bats great and we got the good pitching. To start like this, for me it's kind of nice that the first one goes like this and I can get a couple of guys in the game. We got (Jonathan) Arauz in the game. (Jonathan) Lucroy behind the plate. (Tzu-Wei) Lin at short, So I thought that was all good."
Don't tell that to those who couldn't get in the park.
"We hopefully get an asterisk," Noonan messaged regarding the Opening Day streak. "Back in April 2021."
Maybe normalcy will return next year. But one thing that is certain: This was one Opening Day nobody will forget.
Bizarre scene after Red Sox win. 'Dirty Water' abruptly stops playing and we are left with silence and players walking through the stands pic.twitter.com/3x7DOikO0V
— Rob Bradford (@bradfo) July 25, 2020
