Wilyer Abreu was the hero of Red Sox Opening Day and other takeaways
Wilyer Abreu made two huge swings in Texas and led the Boston Red Sox to a 5-2 win over the Rangers on Opening Day.
Abreu smashed two homers in the Boston victory, including a three-run bomb in the top of the ninth to break up a 2-2 tie and propel the Red Sox to a season-opening win. With two on and one out, Abreu took a slider from Texas reliever Shawn Armstrong and launched it 394-feet for the go-ahead blast.
The Rangers had no answer for Abreu, who was 3-for-3 on the day with four RBI and three runs scored. He scored Boston's first run of the season to tie the game, 1-1, in the top of the third and then tied it again in the fifth with laser of a 415-foot solo blast.
Abreu's big day came after a pretty eventful spring for the Boston right fielder. He lost 20 pounds while battling an illness and was just 1-for-20 at the plate during the exhibition season. He then became a father of twins just a few weeks ago.
On Thursday, he hit a homer for each of his boys, and led the Red Sox to a season-opening victory. Here are the other takeaways from Boston's 5-2 win to start the 2025 season.
Garret Crochet's Red Sox debut
Crochet was solid but slightly unspectacular in his first outing for Boston. He threw some serious heat during his time on the bump but also struggled with his command, which allowed the Rangers to work his pitch count.
Crochet was out after just five innings and 88 pitches as he struggled with his location. But the big lefty threw 61 of those pitchers for strikes and struck out four.
Crochet struck out the first batter he faced when he got Marcus Semien swinging at a 90 MPH cutter, and worked around a two-out walk to get out of the inning unscathed.
But he ran into some trouble in the second inning when he walked Jake Burger on eight pitches to lead things off. The Texas first baseman scored when Crochet surrendered back-to-back hits, as Kevin Pillar drove in the game's first run with a single to center. Crochet got the next three batters in order, including a three-pitch strikeout of Josh Smith, but threw 25 pitches in the frame.
Crochet sat down eight straight batters after giving up the run in the second, but was tagged for another with two outs in the fourth. After Pillar singled, Kyle Higashioka brought him home with a deep double off the wall in center to put the Rangers back on top, 2-1. Crochet struck out Smith again on three pitches to end the inning.
He gave up a leadoff single to Semien to start the fifth, but the Red Sox defense came up big when Triston Casas and Trevor Story turned a 3-6-3 double play on a sharp hopper by Corey Seager. Alex Bregman made a nice scoop at third to retire Wyatt Langford for the inning's final out, which ended Crochet's day.
The southpaw struggled with his command at times and was squeezed by the home plate ump on a few occasions, but he also showed why he's going to lead this staff with his fastball consistently in the high 90s. He got better as the game went on, and Crochet should look a lot more ace-like as the season progresses.
Kristian Campbell got his first career hit
Right before Abreu crushed his three-run bomb, Boston's star rookie notched his first career hit as a Major Leaguer.
With one out in the ninth, Campbell hit a sharp grounder off the glove of third baseman Josh Jung for his first knock in the big leagues. It sent Trevor Story to third, and two pitches later, Abreu put the Red Sox up 5-3.
Overall, Campbell went 1-for-3 at the plate, and he looked like a rookie making his debut in his first two at-bats. He struck out on four pitches his first time at the plate and then grounded out to third to lead off the fifth.
But he worked a five-pitch walk in the seventh and then got his first hit in the ninth. It wasn't a bad debut for the 22-year-old, whose family was in the stands in Arlington.
The Boston bullpen was solid
The Red Sox bullpen put up zeroes after Crochet departed, allowing just two hits and issuing no walks over four shutout innings. Garrett Whitlock threw two scoreless innings, Aroldis Chapman tossed a scoreless eight inning against the heart of the Texas order in a tie game, and Justin Slaten needed just 13 pitches for a 1-2-3 ninth to notch the save.
Strong defense all around by Red Sox
Abreu didn't have to show off his Gold Glove in right, but he had a great fake-out to on a ball off the wall by Jung in the second inning. He made it seem like it was going to be an easy fly-out until the last second, which had Burger confused on the base paths. It turned what could have been a double and runners on second and third into a deep single and runners on first and second. Pillar followed with an RBI single, but that could have been a two-run single without Abreu's smart play.
Then there was the fifth inning, when Casas started the 3-6-3 double play after a leadoff single, and Bregman ended the frame with his nice scoop at third.
The Red Sox had the second-most errors in baseball last season, but played an extremely clean game to start 2025.
Tough DH debut for Devers
Rafael Devers struck out in each of his first three at-bats, and then grounded out to fourth in his final time at the plate. Tough start to his career as Boston's designated hitter.
