Offense's start was first-rate
Five-run inning led to easier night
It's not a mortal lock. The Red Sox have lost twice this season when they've scored multiple runs in the first inning, back-to-back games in Minnesota and Baltimore in mid-May.
But they've won eight of 10 games in which more than one Sox runner has crossed the plate on their first at-bats. Score five in the first, like they did last night in a 6-3 win over the Baltimore Orioles, and the only drama the rest of the night centers on whether Don Orsillo can handle a pop fly back to the broadcast booth. (He made the catch.)
"I can't believe that ball didn't take one look at [Orsillo's] sport coat and take a right turn," said manager Terry Francona, whose closet evidently doesn't contain any jackets resembling a lemon drop. How the clashing red- and yellow-striped tie escaped Francona's notice was probably only a temporary oversight, to be rectified at the manager's pregame meeting with the media this afternoon.
The Sox opened last night's game with a technicolor burst, their biggest first inning of the season kicked off by Jacoby Ellsbury singling and creating havoc on the basepaths. It climaxed with a three-run home run by Jason Varitek off rookie lefthander Garrett Olson, who threw a run-scoring wild pitch and walked Mike Lowell and Kevin Youkilis just before Varitek took him out of the house.
And J.D. Drew was again in the middle of things, his double driving home Ellsbury after the rookie goaded Olson into a wild pickoff throw past first baseman Kevin Millar as he broke for second, allowing him to spin into third. That went into the books as a stolen base, E-1, if you're scoring at home.
"I think he beats the throw to second," said Sox hitting coach Dave Magadan. "It's not like Millar's got a quick transfer from glove to hand to second base. He took off on the first move, and he's so quick."
The Sox are 33-9 in games in which they score first, regardless of the inning.
"One run, I don't know, might be a fluke thing," Lowell said, "but if you put four or five on the board, that takes away the hit-and-run. It takes away the stolen base. It takes away a lot of things teams do to maybe match a run and maybe turn it into a big inning.
"They kind of feel like they have to slug, and I think we match up well with any team that has to do that."
Ellsbury is the creative spark at the top of the order. He is batting .310 (13 for 42) in the first inning this season with 10 runs.
"He puts so much pressure on the other team," said Magadan. "He puts pressure on the pitcher to throw him strikes.
"He's got juice in his bat, so you can't just lay the ball in there. When he gets on, he disrupts the pitcher's timing. He's got to worry about throwing over, he's got to worry about being quick, he's throwing heaters to the guy behind [Ellsbury].
"He steals a base, now we can bunt over and he's on third. He impacts a game like nobody I've been around in a long time. I played with Vince Coleman, but he was a .250 hitter, a singles hitter. Jacoby's got some juice in his bat. We're just cracking the surface on him."
Olson, who was making his 16th career start, settled down nicely after the first, Lowell's fly ball just inside the Fisk pole accounting for the sixth Sox run, at the start of the sixth, and the Orioles' bullpen, with 2 2/3 scoreless innings, kept Baltimore in position to send the tying run to the plate in the ninth, when Jonathan Papelbon induced Brian Roberts to roll out to first with two on and two out.
"We didn't do much after [the first], but it was enough," Francona said.
The biggest - in every sense of the word - beneficiary of the early five-spot was starter Bartolo Colon.
"I think it's probably a psychological advantage," Magadan said. "I know as a coach I feel better with a four- or five-run lead, and it makes our starting pitcher settle down a little more. When every pitch constantly means the game, you tend not to make your pitches as much. You've got a little bit of a lead, there's a little more relaxation in your starting pitcher.
"We used to go through that in San Diego. Every game at home was a one-run game, every pitch meant everything. A lead, and your starting pitcher settles down."
Gordon Edes can be reached at edes@globe.com. 