The Season Begins: Sox vs Royals

Game 1: Curt Schilling had trouble controlling his fastball and relinquished an early lead. The Royals never looked back and ended up tagging Schilling for 5 runs. Hideki Okajima made his major league debut and on his very first pitch, he was taken deep by John Buck. Okajima settled down after that and pitched 1.2 solid innings. The rest of the bullpen looked pretty good but the Red Sox bats struggled against Gil Meche and Joel Peralta and the Royals took Game 1 by the score of 7-1.

Schilling's struggles shouldn't be cause for concern as he was solid all spring and has supposedly added a changeup to his already dominant arsenal.

Game 2: Josh Beckett struggled with the command but gave the Red Sox bats a chance to capitalize on Royals pitching. Beckett went 5 innings and threw 94 pitches (48 for balls, 46 for strikes). He allowed 1 run on 2 hits and allowed 4 walks. Kevin Youkilis had his first home run of the season and JD Drew had 2 hits and an RBI. Drew also made a couple of nice plays in the outfield and has me impressed after two games. The bullpen pitched well for the second straight night and I was particularly impressed by Joel Pineiro. Javier Lopez, Kyle Snyder, and JC Romero also kept the Royals off the board.

Game 3: Daisuke Matsuzaka made an impressive Major League debut striking out 10 batters in 7 innings. Matsuzaka allowed 6 hits, and 1 earned run (David Dejesus hit a homer to lead off the 6th). Zack Greinke (my early pick for Comeback Player of the Year) also impressed in his 2007 debut. He lasted 7 innings, allowed 8 hits, and 2 earned runs while striking out 7.

The Red Sox made a habit out of getting the leadoff man on base, but it led to little in the early going. Luckily they were able to pick up a few runs in the 8th on some base hits and an Alex Gordon error. Multiple Red Sox hitters turned in 2-hit days including Lugo, Ramirez, Lowell, and Pedroia. Coco Crisp collected his first hit of the season and added an RBI.

JC Romero pitched an inning of scoreless relief in the 8th. Romero has now pitched 2.2 scoreless innings on the season. Papelbon pitched the 9th inning and struck out two batters to pick up his first save of the season as the Red Sox took the game by the score of 4-1.

On Deck: The Red Sox will begin a series with the Texas Rangers tomorrow at 2:05 PM. Tim Wakefield will oppose youngster Robinson Tejeda. Tavarez will get the ball in the 2nd game and Schilling will pitch the finale.