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Red Sox hammer Mariners 14-3 in home opener
2007-04-11
The Red Sox routed the Seattle Mariners 14-3 on Tuesday in Boston's best home season opener in 34 years. Right-hander Josh Beckett pitched seven solid innings on a chilly spring day that felt more like winter, as Boston brought in four runs in the opening frame and three more in the second. The powerful start included J.D. Drew's first homer as a member of the Red Sox, a two-run blast straight in center field off starting Seattle pitcher Jeff Weaver, who allowed seven runs on seven hits in just two innings on his season debut. "It was cold out. The wind was blowing and I think he just didn't have a good feel for the ball in his hand and we took advantage of that," Drew said of Weaver. Seattle's Jose Guillen was ejected in the eighth inning for having words with Boston reliever Brendan Donnelly, an incident that prompted both teams to clear the benches. Donnelly, who had been involved in a brawl with Guillen two years ago, was ejected in the same inning for hitting Kenji Johjima with a pitch. "From where I sit it was horrendous timing," said Red Sox manager Terry Francona of the incident. "It was just a bad mistake .... it wasn't on purpose." Beckett, in his second season with the Red Sox, threw 61 strikes out of 84 pitches, allowing only one run and no walks before he was retired after seven innings. "It's nice to go out there and get a one-two-three fairly quick inning," Beckett said. Before a sellout crowd of 35,847, the game was Boston's best home season opener since they beat the New York Yankees 15-5 in 1973. It was also as a prelude to Wednesday's much-anticipated home debut of Daisuke Matsuzaka, the Japanese pitcher purchased by the Red Sox in December for a record-breaking $103 million. Officials said 170 of the 350 media members attending Tuesday's home opener were Japanese.
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