Chris Sale debuts; Raimel Tapia, Jorge Alfaro continue hot spring as Red Sox beat Tigers 7-1
The Red Sox hosted the Detroit Tigers on Monday, and for the first time since July of 2022, Chris Sale was on the mound for Boston. The radar gun at JetBlue had him top out at 96 MPH in the top of the first, as Sale went on his way to a scoreless first inning back with a strikeout.
Sale came back out for the second inning, with another scoreless inning. The 33-year-old finished with two strikeouts and two hits given up on 32 pitches.
Scary situation for Justin Turner in the bottom of the first inning. Tigers' pitcher Matt Manning lost control of a pitch that hit Turner in the face. He would stay down for a few minutes and was seen bleeding from the mouth. The 38-year-old would leave the game immediately after.
Adam Duvall followed up the scary situation with a bases loaded sacrifice fly to open the game 1-0.
Raimel Tapia continued his hot spring with a ground rule double over the center field wall to make it 2-0.
Jorge Alfaro got in on the action with a two RBI single to open things up. Promising results from Alfaro before he departs to play in the WBC.
The Red Sox MVP of the spring Tapia came through in bottom of the third and mashed a home run over the right field wall to make it 5-0.
Tapia remains one of the Red Sox hottest hitters this spring, as his battle with Jarren Duran for a bench spot is heating up and could come down to the wire.
Zack Kelly came on for the top of the 6th and gave up a homerun to Riley Greene. Kelly has struggled some early in the spring but rebounded nicely after the home run to retire the next three batters.
We got to see some offense from the Red Sox prospects in the bottom of the 6th. Niko Kavadas got things started with an RBI double.
Kavadas was followed by an RBI triple from Tyler McDonough to make it 7-1 Red Sox.
Some bright spots out of the bullpen today after Sale went two scoreless:
Ryan Brasier - 1.2 IP , 0 H , 1 BB , 2 K
Taylor Broadway - 1.1 IP , 0 H , 1 BB , 1 K
Jake Faria - 1 IP , 0 H , 0 BB , 2 K
Durbin Feltman - 1 IP , 0 H , 1 BB, 1 K
Brasier is a lock to start the year in the MLB, but the other three will all find themselves in a pretty loaded Worcester bullpen. There will be plenty of depth to be called upon in case of injuries in the MLB.
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