The Boston Red Sox Sunday, May 30, 2021

* The Boston Globe

Nate Eovaldi, bullpen stellar as Red Sox take second straight win over Marlins

Peter Abraham

Adam Ottavino punched his fist into his glove and let out a yell as he marched off the mound in the seventh inning Saturday.

The righthander even flexed on his way to the dugout, the veins popping in his neck as the fans at Fenway Park roared.

Ottavino uncharacteristically went the full Hulk Hogan for a few seconds after striking out Miami Marlins cleanup hitter Garrett Cooper to leave the bases loaded.

“Kind of an out-of-body experience there. Glad I was able to make the pitch and just kind of blacked out,” Ottavino said after the Red Sox finished off a 3-1 victory.

Credit an assist to the crowd of 25,089, the largest at Fenway Park since the final game of the 2019 season.

“That was awesome. The crowd brought it today. That’s what’s been missing at those two-strike moments at home,” Ottavino said. “Feels like that puts a lot of pressure on the hitter.”

On the day Massachusetts rescinded its pandemic protocols, the ballpark was abuzz despite the cold, wet, and windy weather.

“A lot of energy out there, a lot of excitement. I know the guys were really feeding off that,” said bench coach Will Venable, who managed the team with Alex Cora attending his daughter’s high school graduation.

“A couple of guys came into the dugout and we’re talking about how electric it was.”

They have a team worth supporting. The Sox have won three straight and seven of nine. At 32-20, they are 12 games over .500 for the first time this season.

Nate Eovaldi (6-2) and five relievers allowed 10 hits. But the Marlins were 2 for 12 with runners in scoring position, striking out six times.

Outside of needing 101 pitches to go 5⅓ innings, Eovaldi (6-2) had one of his best starts of the season. He allowed four hits, walked one, and struck out seven.

Eovaldi felt the same kind of surge Ottavino did as the fans got into the game at pivotal moments.

“The fans, they basically tell you what they want,” he said. “They’re encouraging you to try and get a strikeout in a big situation. When we’ve got runners in scoring position they want to get that knock across and score some runs.

“That’s part of having a home-field advantage.”

The Sox had nine hits — four of them doubles — over six innings against Marlins lefthander Trevor Rogers but scored only two runs as they left six runners on base.

Rafael Devers singled with one out in the second inning, took second on a single by Hunter Renfroe, and scored on a single to shallow left field by Bobby Dalbec.

The game plan was clearly to challenge left fielder Corey Dickerson and his throw was high and off the mark. With Christian Arroyo singled to left, Renfroe tried to score on Dickerson but this time his throw was accurate and Sandy Leon slapped a quick tag down.

The Sox made it 2-0 in the fourth inning when Renfroe doubled to left and scored on a two-out single by backup catcher Kevin Plawecki. It was his third RBI of the season. But Rogers (6-3) was otherwise solid. He struck out six without a walk.

After Eovaldi departed, Josh Taylor got the final two outs of the sixth inning to leave two runners stranded.

Miami’s Jose Devers doubled with one out in the seventh and went to third on a single by Magneuris Sierra. Ottavino came on and walked Starling Marte to load the bases before striking out Jesús Aguilar and Cooper to end the inning.

Aguilar saw nine pitches before going down swinging at a slider.

The Marlins also threatened in the eighth inning. Darwinzon Hernandez walked Isan Díaz with two outs. Hirokazu Sawamura came in face righthanded-hitting pinch hitter Jorge Alfaro. He grounded to third, but Rafael Devers made his second throwing error of the game to continue the inning. Sawamura then struck out Jose Devers.

Rafael Devers (3 for 4) doubled with two outs in the eighth and scored on a single by Renfroe.

Matt Barnes finished the Marlins off for his 12th save in 13 chances, although he did allow a run.

Will Venable pinch hits for Alex Cora as Red Sox manager against Marlins

Peter Abraham

Will Venable played played baseball and basketball at Princeton before spending parts of nine seasons in the majors.

He then worked in the front office of the Cubs before coaching first base and third base. Venable then joined the Red Sox as their bench coach.

On Saturday, he took on managing for the first time.

With Alex Cora in Puerto Rico to see his daughter Camila graduate from high school, Venable guided the Sox to 3-1 victory against the Miami Marlins.

It was a first for the 38-year-old. His only prior managerial experience was an inning in Minnesota on April 15 when Cora was ejected.

Venable was busy. He made five pitching changes over the final 3⅔ innings to preserve the win.

“The way baseball is, you knew it was going to challenge us and put us in some situations where we had to make some calls,” Venable said.

Cora discussed the lineup and the status of the bullpen with Venable before he left. Quality control coach Ramón Vázquez took on a few more in-game responsibilities.

“It was great,” Venable said. “High stress levels, but what we expected.”

Within the game, Venable is seen as a managerial candidate. He interviewed with the Sox last fall before the team decided to bring back Cora.

Brighter day

Rochelle Walensky, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, threw out the first pitch before the game. She said Fenway Park being back at full capacity was a “bright moment” for the nation as it emerges from the pandemic.

Walensky was chief of the division of infectious diseases at Massachusetts General Hospital when the pandemic started last year.

“It was so hard as we thought through the things that needed to be closed, the conventions at Hynes Center that might not happen or didn’t happen, school systems that needed to close,” she said.

“It’s been a really long year. We’ve seen some really, really dark times. The future is so bright. I’m super excited to be here. It was truly an honor to be here and thrilled that we are back where we are right now.”

Walensky is encouraged by the rising vaccination rates around the country. The CDC’s goal is to get to 70 percent by July 4.

“Still a lot of work to do,” she said.

Miami’s vice

The Sox are 18-6 against Miami and have won nine consecutive games at home against the Marlins. Sox are 7-2 in interleague games this season . . . Hunter Renfroe was 3 for 4 with a double and an RBI. After hitting .167 with a .485 OPS in April, he has hit .307 with an .879 in May with 12 extra-base hits and 14 RBIs in 23 games . . . Eduardo Rodriguez, who starts the series finale Sunday, is 1-3 with a 6.48 earned run average in five starts this month. He took the loss at Philadelphia last Sunday but pitched three scoreless innings with five strikeouts after giving up four runs in the first inning and felt he had turned a corner with his command. Rodriguez hasn’t faced the Marlins since 2015 . . . Double A Portland righthander Josh Winckowski pitched seven shutout innings, allowing one hit and striking out nine in a 4-3 victory against Hartford. Winckowski, one of the prospects obtained in the Andrew Benintendi trade, is 2-0 with a 1.33 ERA in five starts . . . Red Sox CEO Sam Kennedy said the Red Sox retained 85-90 percent of their season ticket-holders since 2019 despite the pandemic. “We’ve got among the strongest renewal rates in all of baseball,” Kennedy said.

Fenway Park being allowed to be full once again feels like a big step

Peter Abraham

Massachusetts lifted its COVID-19 restrictions on Saturday and for the first time since the final game of the 2019 season, Fenway Park was allowed to have full capacity.

Ideally, this paragraph would have been about a sun-splashed crowd of 37,000 cheering loudly as Nate Eovaldi fired the first pitch.

That will have to wait.

The Red Sox had a paid attendance of 25,089 for the game with somewhat fewer actually in the stands because of the cold, wind and rain.

It was 50 degrees at first pitch and people walked into the park carrying blankets and wearing winter hats. They were rewarded with a 3-1 victory against the Miami Marlins.

Sox CEO Sam Kennedy would have preferred a sellout but actually welcomed a smaller crowd. After 20 months without a full house, the game-day staff got a chance to ease into being back to normal.

“It’s kind of nice, to be honest with you, to have a bit of a dry run,” Kennedy said. “Although not dry, a wet run.”

The weather wasn’t the only factor. Kennedy has gotten a sense that some fans didn’t want to venture out into large crowds quite yet. His mother, Joanna, is one of them.

“Yes, have heard some reluctance from different demographics,” Kennedy said. “Have heard a lot of other folks say, ‘I just can’t to get to Fenway and get back to some normalcy.’ ”

Masks were not required at the ballpark, although unvaccinated fans were encouraged to wear them. Based on a walk down the first base concourse, only a few people were masked.

Concession stand workers were required to wear masks, something the Sox will evaluate over time.

Beyond that, it was a typical pre-pandemic game.

“Fenway will be the Fenway we all have known and loved,” Kennedy said. “It will be a little like stepping back into time.”

The Sox didn’t know for sure when they would be at full capacity and started their season-ticket packages for the first homestand in June.

So the first crowds approaching a sellout won’t be, at the earliest, until the homestand that starts June 8. The good news for the Sox is that all 10 home games against the Yankees are still to be played.

Through Friday, the Sox were 25th in the majors in attendance with an average of 6,122 fans over 28 games. The team was restricted to 12 percent capacity until May 11. The Sox’ largest home crowd before Saturday was 9,374 for the Angels on May 15.

Based on capacity, those games were considered sellouts.

As good news mounts, the lingering disappointment for the Sox is that they have not reached 85 percent of players, coaches, and staff members being vaccinated. That’s the percentage required by Major League Baseball to reduce protocols. The Sox are one of 11 teams not to reach that mark.

For a team that plays within walking distance of some of the greatest hospitals in the world, it’s embarrassing.

“It is frustrating because you’d like to be at 100 percent,” Kennedy said. “It’s really important with the situation we’re dealing with to have as many people vaccinated as possible.

“That said, you have to respect differences of opinion, thought, [and] approach to combating COVID. So we respect the individual players who have decided not to get vaccinated.

“But the honest answer is it is frustrating because I know for the coaching staff and the players who have been vaccinated, you’d like to see a relaxing of protocols across the game.”

The irony is that almost every Sox player has said at one point or another this season how much they enjoy having fans back in the stands after playing the shortened 2020 season in empty ballparks with a soundtrack of canned crowd noise.

That those fans are back in the seats is a product of vaccinations and people believing in medical science.

The reason Massachusetts was able to lift protocols on Saturday is that 52.9 percent of the population is fully vaccinated, the highest rate in the nation.

The ceremonial first pitch, fittingly enough, was thrown out by Centers of Disease Control and Prevention director Dr. Rochelle Walensky, a Peabody native.

She was chief of the division of infectious diseases at Mass. General and a professor at Harvard Medical School before being tapped by President Biden.

Dr. Walensky, who was not wearing a mask and smiling widely, tossed the ball to Christian Vazquez and received a loud cheer.

Fenway Park was a polling place in October and November, then the state’s second-largest vaccination site in February and March.

On Saturday, it was back to being a ballpark with people sitting close together, standing in line for beer less than 6 feet apart, and rooting for a contending team.

It looked and felt like a big step.

Jason Varitek is still finding ways for the Red Sox to win

Peter Abraham

Jason Varitek’s role with the Red Sox has been difficult to define for a few years now.

He was listed as a “special assistant to the president of baseball operations” in the 2019 media guide but ended up spending most of that season around the major league team, although he wasn’t officially a coach.

In 2020, he was “special assistant/catching coach” and was with the major league team for all 60 games, although again not officially as a coach.

Now he’s a member of the coaching staff as the game-planning coordinator, a new position for the Red Sox.

Throw the titles out. Varitek, 49, is doing what he did for 15 years as a player: supporting the manager by finding ways to win. For years that was Terry Francona. Now it’s Alex Cora.

“It’s great. I love it,” Varitek said during a recent interview while seated in the stands before a game. “As bad as things were last year, I enjoyed it. As tough as 2019 was, I was there for 120 games, and I enjoyed it.

“AC’s been great. He delegates a lot of responsibility, and he engages all his people. It’s a good group of kids, or I should say young men.”

Varitek’s main focus is distilling all the scouting and analytical information that’s available into a package that the catchers and pitchers can best use to their advantage in preparing for games.

As a player, Varitek kept binders of information in his locker with breakdowns of opposing hitters that he could refer to. Now that can all be done in seconds.

“It makes you appreciate the coaches we had — the Brian Butterfields and Gary Tucks — because they did it all with manual labor,” Varitek said.

“You still have to do manual labor to find some of it — nobody can watch videos for me. But it’s easier. The information has always been there since I’ve been playing. Now it comes from the analytics department. Add pro scouting and advance scouting and mix it together and you have one pretty strong circle.”

Christian Vázquez said Varitek works with him throughout the game, discussing pitch sequencing for the next inning and tendencies he has noticed.

Vázquez joked that Varitek has become like a second father.

“We’re always talking,” Vázquez said. “He’s still the captain, right? He’s somebody I trust because of how well he knows the game. He’s been great for us.”

Over the course of the season, Matt Barnes, Garrett Richards, and Garrett Whitlock are among the pitchers who have credited Varitek with a suggestion that made a difference during the game or helped them get over a rough patch.

Varitek also works with Vázquez and backup catcher Kevin Plawecki on their fundamentals. As an organization, the Sox are now teaching their catchers to set up with one knee down to improve their receiving.

That stance also allows catchers to be more fluid moving to block balls.

It was something Varitek worked with minor league catching instructor Chad Epperson to implement starting in spring training.

“I wish that had been around when I was catching,” Varitek said. “I had skepticism at first but there are a lot of advantages.”

Varitek said the stance doesn’t so much help steal strikes as it does keep pitches in the strike zone by not reaching for them. For catchers who have always used the traditional squat, their throwing mechanics have to be adjusted and that takes time.

Having one knee down also is easier on the body. In Vázquez’s case, it could get him more starts this season than he would have gotten otherwise.

“The traditional way is a lot of work,” Varitek said.

Because Varitek has two World Series rings, caught four no-hitters, and was the team’s last captain, his credibility with the players is instantaneous.

Where does this lead next? Bench coach Will Venable seems sure to be a managerial candidate after the season. Varitek is well-positioned to be moved up to bench coach.

Or perhaps he’ll pursue managing.

“That seems to be always the question,” Varitek said. “I love what I’m doing. I don’t know when that will be or if that will be. I enjoy what I’m doing. If that’s something that happens, I’ll be ready for it when that time comes.”

ON THE VERGE? Jays will benefit being in Buffalo

Beware the fourth-place Toronto Blue Jays.

After playing 21 home games at their windblown spring training park in Dunedin, Fla., the Jays relocate to their Triple A stadium in Buffalo on Tuesday.

The stability will be welcome.

Toronto entered the weekend only 5½ games out of first place despite having used 13 starting pitchers and getting only four games out of George Springer, their big offseason acquisition.

“I’m really proud of this team with everything we’ve gone through,” manager Charlie Montoyo said. “Everybody has done great at different times.”

The Jays have used the injured list 23 times for 22 players already this season with Cavan Biggio, Rafael Dolis, Robbie Ray, Hyun-Jin Ryu, and Ross Stripling among those also missing time.

They also gambled on the health of Kirby Yates, signing him to a $5.5 million contract despite concerns about his elbow. He was lost for the season in spring training.

“There’s been a lot of people hurt in the big leagues, but we’re one of the teams that has had more transactions than any other team,” Montoyo said. “To be where we are with this many guys getting hurt, it’s a big compliment to this club and the players we have.”

Rookie Alek Manoah threw six shutout innings at Yankee Stadium in his debut on Thursday. If the 6-foot- 6-inch, 260-pound righthander improves what has been a league-average rotation, the Jays will be a threat to the Rays, Red Sox, and Yankees.

Vladimir Guerrero Jr. is building a case for MVP and has been deft at first base after dropping 40 pounds. His turnaround has been dramatic.

Marcus Semien, who moved to second base to accommodate Bo Bichette, has been the team leader they hoped Springer would be.

“They put an emphasis on character, and he’s been terrific,” team broadcaster Buck Martinez said. “He and Bo have been together every day and they work well together on the field.”

Outfielder Teoscar Hernandez, a helpful player earlier in his career, has an .899 OPS since the start of last season.

The core members of the team came up together and they’ve weathered being unable to play in Toronto. An older team probably wouldn’t have reacted as well. But the Jays are like a college team, they show up and play.

“No complaints,” Montoyo said.

The Jays need more from left fielder Lourdes Gurriel Jr. and the hope is Biggio’s worrisome neck injury will clear up while he’s on the injured list.

BACK TO TRIPLE A Chavis still needs work

Michael Chavis’s effusive personality makes him a favorite among some Red Sox fans, so it’s understandable why his demotion this past week after 11 games and 33 plate appearances caused some consternation.

But it’s pretty simple. Chavis hit .264 with an .858 OPS and 28 RBIs over his first 38 major league games in 2019. He made a big impact.

His OPS plunged to .699 in the 57 games that followed that season as opposing teams got a look at him and went to a steady diet of high fastballs.

Since 2020, Chavis has hit .223 with a .658 OPS and stuck out in 33 percent of his plate appearances.

You want to see a 25-year-old player improve, not regress. The defensive versatility isn’t there, either. The Sox trust him only at first base and second base.

They tried left field last season and that went so poorly it wasn’t revisited in spring training. To be part of a three-man bench, a player needs more than two defensive options.

Manager Alex Cora has placed an emphasis on situational hitting this season. It’s a small sample size, but Chavis was hitless in six at-bats with runners in scoring position and struck out three times. He also hasn’t shown a good two-strike approach.

First-round picks always get plenty of chances to succeed. But Chavis was taken back in 2014 under Ben Cherington. The current administration isn’t tied to him.

A few other observations about the Red Sox:

▪ Is it time to wonder if Chris Sale will pitch more than a few games this season?

“We believe that he’s going to contribute this year. And I know that he wants that, too,” Cora said on Wednesday.

We believe?

The Sox have been sparing in their updates about Sale going back to when he was first injured in 2019. Part of that is Sale does not want information released. But there’s also not much to report.

He has started throwing off the mound but hasn’t faced hitters. It has been 14 months since Sale had surgery and nearly 22 months since he last appeared in a game.

If Sale is built up as would be typical for a pitcher during spring training — two rounds of live batting practice followed by five or six starts — that would take 35-40 days.

That could mean a late-July return. But given his earlier setbacks and how cautious the Sox are being, August could be more realistic.

▪ Jason Varitek on games now being played in front of bigger crowds: “I’m so glad I don’t hear the white noise anymore. The buzz of the crowd is a beautiful thing, and these guys are better for it. They appreciate it.”

▪ Since the start of the 2017 season, Franchy Cordero has played only 245 games counting the minor leagues. At 26, he’s still an inexperienced player because of all the injuries he’s had.

Now that he’s in Triple A, Cordero will get a chance to play every day and the Sox will see what they have in him.

It may not be much. Cordero has hit .222 with a .678 OPS in 129 major league games. He has size and speed but not much feel for what he’s doing. His swings are awkward and even when he makes a play in the outfield, his steps are unsure as he pursues the ball.

But the Worcester coaches could unlock his talent.

ETC. Hill adds chapter to his career

Rich Hill became the oldest player to appear in a game for the Tampa Bay Rays when he faced the Royals on Tuesday at 41 years, 75 days. That was two days older than Wade Boggs in 1999.

Hill went eight innings, allowed two runs on six hits, and struck out a career-best 13 without a walk. The lefthander threw 74 of 99 pitches for strikes, 25 of them swinging.

Hill joined Nolan Ryan (13 times), Randy Johnson, and Gaylord Perry as the only pitchers with 13 strikeouts at that age. Hill and Ryan (three times) were the only ones to do it without a walk.

Unfortunately for Hill, he took the loss as the Rays managed only one run.

“The strike-throwing was off the charts,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said. “He had an electric fastball. I wish he had gotten the win.”

Typically, Hill credited his defense after the game and focused on the run-scoring single he allowed to Salvador Pérez in the sixth inning that decided the game.

“I have to make better pitches. That’s really what it comes down to in that situation,” Hill said. “This isn’t just to come out here and have a fun day at the ballpark. It’s to win baseball games.”

Since making his comeback to the majors in 2015, Hill is 46-24 with a 2.99 ERA over 105 games.

Hill is averaging 88.9 miles per hour with his four-seam fastball but throws it only 44 percent of the time. A curveball opposing hitters can’t barrel up remains his signature pitch.

Hill is the second-oldest player in the majors to Albert Pujols, who has him by 54 days.

“Come to the field and put in the work. Just put in the work every day,” Hill said. “The one thing I pride myself on is to make your lows minimal and stay the course during the season.”

Extra bases

The Indians lost Zach Plesac for at least 4-6 weeks with a broken right thumb, the result of what manager Terry Francona said was “aggressively ripping off his shirt” before a game. Plesac and Mike Clevinger were optioned to the alternate site last August after breaking COVID-19 protocols and lying to teammates about what they did. Clevinger was traded to San Diego later that month and you wonder at what point the Indians will decide they’ve had enough of Plesac … Mike Yastrzemski has an .871 OPS in three seasons with the Giants. His defense has been stellar, too. Yastrzemski has four Defensive Runs Saved, the most in the National League. “Fundamentally he’s very sound,” a scout said. “He knows what he can do and what he can’t do.” … Oakland manager Bob Melvin went into the weekend with 797 victories, two shy of moving past Tony La Russa for second in franchise history. There will be no catching Connie Mack, who had 3,582. But at least Melvin will have the most in Oakland until they leave, which is looking increasingly inevitable … The process of electing people to the Baseball Hall of Fame is not perfect, far from it. Some BBWAA members — like the three still-unidentified writers who didn’t vote for Ken Griffey Jr. — are out of touch and there’s still too much cronyism within the different versions of what used to be known as the Veterans Committee. But baseball is doing pretty well compared to basketball, which somehow has Chris Bosh and Ben Wallace in its next Hall class … For years, the White Sox had a small seating area near a concession stand at Guaranteed Rate Field named after Loretta Micele, who worked for the team for more than six decades selling beer and hotdogs before dying in 2014. But “Loretta’s Lounge” was changed to “La Russa’s Lounge” to honor La Russa, the current manager. La Russa is in the Hall of Fame, has won three World Series, and was voted Manager of the Year four times. Does he really need a seating area in a dingy ballpark named after him? What a terrible message to team employees, too … Simmons University recognized Yankees radio broadcaster Suzyn Waldman with an honorary Doctor of Journalism degree during its virtual commencement on Friday. Waldman, a Newton native, is a 1968 graduate of Simmons and a baseball trail blazer, having covered the Yankees since the 1990s … Happy birthday to Manny Ramirez, who is 49. He last played in the majors in 2011 but has since either played games or practiced with teams in Australia, the Dominican Republic, Japan, and Taiwan. Just this past week he was taking cuts at a field in Miami and at a complex north of Orlando. Ramirez is 15th all time with 555 home runs … Red Sox infielder Christian Arroyo is 26. The former first-round pick seems to have found a home after playing for the Giants, Rays, and Indians.

Polished Emma Tiedemann shining as Sea Dogs’ play-by-play voice

Chad Finn

In the 47 years that Pawtucket served as the Red Sox’ top farm team, the Triple A club was almost as renowned for developing big league broadcasters as it was ballplayers.

Don Orsillo found his voice in the McCoy Stadium booth. So, too, did current big league broadcasters Dave and Will Flemming (Giants and Red Sox), Gary Cohen (Mets), Andy Freed (Rays), Dave Jageler (Nationals), Glenn Geffner (Marlins), and Aaron Goldsmith (Mariners), as well as a couple who ended up with NFL gigs, Bob Socci (Patriots) and Dan Hoard (Bengals).

In Double A in Portland, there’s a bit of a different history. The Sea Dogs, who debuted as the Marlins’ Eastern League affiliate in 1994 before linking up with the Red Sox in 2003, have featured their own excellent broadcasters. It’s just that there have been far fewer of them.

From 1994-2019, the Sea Dogs had just four full-time play-by-play voices, most notably Mike Antonellis, a big league talent who mostly by choice spent 15 seasons in Portland before moving up to Pawtucket before last season. (He’s now with the WooSox in Worcester.)

The Sea Dogs hired their fifth voice in March 2020. Before Emma Tiedemann spoke her first word into a microphone at Hadlock Field, she was already a notable choice. She was just one of five women who at the time were the primary play-by-play voices for affiliated minor league baseball teams.

Tiedemann had to wait awhile to turn on that microphone, however. The COVID-19 pandemic led to the postponement of the 2020 Eastern League season and delayed her Sea Dogs debut until April.

“My first day of work, we were actually sent home to work from home for three months,’’ said Tiedemann, who spent two seasons calling Single A games in the Royals system before beating out approximately 150 other applicants for the Sea Dogs job.

“And so we worked from home from March until mid-May. And then we started kind of just working on stadium projects. We weren’t able to do a lot in the stadium with fans, so we kind of went around, saw what needed to be upgraded. We sanded rails and repainted all of them. So if you ever come to Hadlock Field and you see anything green, we painted that ourselves.”

Tiedemann, a Dallas native and 2015 University of Missouri graduate, is remarkably poised and polished in the booth, with a voice that becomes comfortable quickly. If Baseball America or another publication put together a list of the top broadcasting prospects in the minors, she’d make the cut. But she acknowledges that there is pressure that comes from being a female in a job that for decades was the domain of men.

“I wish that I didn’t feel that way, but I’ve come to kind of embrace it a little bit,” she said. “If you’re going to hold a position that typically a person of your gender or race has not typically held, I think that there are more ears listening, and will be ready to jump on you if you make a mistake. You have to work 10 times harder than anyone else to make sure that that doesn’t happen, and that you can bounce back.”

Tiedemann has known she wanted to be a play-by-play broadcaster since she was 15, and she homed in on the baseball aspect her junior year at Missouri. It’s little surprise to learn that she has broadcasting in her blood. Her grandfather is Bill Mercer, who called Dallas Cowboys games and was the first voice of the Texas Rangers during a decorated 60-year career. Now 95, he calls, texts or e-mails Tiedemann with a critique of every game she calls.

“There’s definitely a variety of methods that I’ve come to utilize as I’ve gone on with my career to try to get better,’’ she said. “I listen to other broadcasters, but I don’t try to emulate them that much because I want to have my own personality and I want to have my own voice.

“So, I’ll typically have like a pad of paper with me and I’ll write down vocabulary words or phrases that they used to describe maybe a routine play that I would like to say or at least have in the back of my mind for a future broadcast. Other than that, I like to listen to complicated plays to see how they handle that. Do they focus on the play-by-play in the moment or do you go back and recap?”

One of the calls on her highlight reel she sent the Sea Dogs in applying for the job included an inning in which a fielder’s throw ricocheted off a base runner’s helmet. She is told that she never sounds hurried or behind the play when there are complicated or unusual situations unfolding in real time.

“In those moments, the crowd is half the story in what you’re calling. So you want to breathe a little bit,’’ she said. “Early on that was my biggest issue that my grandfather would critique me on. If there was a double in the gap with two on, I would have trouble focusing on the runners and the ball in the field, so it took me a little bit of time to figure out those frenzied plays. It’s taken a lot of practice.”

When Tiedemann started with the Royals’ Lexington Legends Single A team in 2018, she was just the second full-time female broadcaster in affiliated baseball, following Kirsten Karbach, who reached Double A in the Phillies system.

“Just the media coverage about it back then and that sort of stuff, I was totally overwhelmed,’’ said Tiedemann. “But once the national anthem played, I sat back down, I was able to kind of take a deep breath and settle in.”

She’s made a point since to help ensure that female baseball broadcasters have a support system. Last March, just before the pandemic put the sports world and so much else on hold, Tiedemann organized a gathering at the Legends’ Whitaker Bank Ballpark that brought minor league baseball’s five female play- by-play voices together for a ticketed event and cocktail hour, the proceeds going to the Association for Women in Sports Media.

Joining Tiedemann and Karbach were Jill Gearin (Single A Visalia), Maura Sheridan (Single A Lynchburg), and Melanie Newman (who called games for the Red Sox’ Single A Salem affiliate and is now part of the Orioles’ television broadcast team).

“That event was the first time that we had all been in the same room together,’’ said Tiedemann. “It was incredibly empowering. Ever since then, we’re in a group message and we text every single day, Snapchat every single day. We help each other troubleshooting questions. It’s fantastic that we have this handful of people that we can always fall back to and rely on that knows what it’s like to be in this industry as a female.

“Melanie landed in a great spot and I think it’s opening a lot of people’s minds to the fact that women can call the sport and be good at it and it’s not just a publicity stunt. We’ve earned the spot and have something to say.”

CDC’s Rochelle Walensky throws out first pitch for Red Sox game

Lauren Booker

Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, came out to Fenway Park to throw the first pitch for the Red Sox-Miami Marlins game on a rainy Saturday.

Walensky’s pitch coincides with a historic day for Massachusetts’ pandemic reopening rollout. Most coronavirus restrictions were lifted Saturday, and those who are fully vaccinated for COVID-19 aren’t being required to wear masks or social distance, in most situations.

Businesses, such as restaurants, stores, and gyms, are also returning to full capacity. Some local stadiums are also increasing capacity, with Fenway Park planning to see 25,000 to 30,000 people in the stands on Saturday, according to a previous Globe story.

The shift in precautions for Mass. came after Walensky announced on May 13 that “anyone who is fully vaccinated can participate in indoor and outdoor activities, large or small, without wearing a mask or physical distancing,” during a White House COVID-19 briefing.

While some states embraced the directive from the CDC almost immediately, Governor Charlie Baker decided for the state to begin mirroring the guidance almost two weeks later.

Walensky officially became the 19th director of the CDC on Jan. 20 and was previously the chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases at Massachusetts General Hospital.

* The Boston Herald

Red Sox win bench coach Will Venable’s managerial debut as electric Fenway Park returns to full capacity

Steve Hewitt

Fenway Park wasn’t quite full on Saturday, but for the first time in exactly 20 months, it felt normal at the ballpark again.

The roars of the crowd were noticeably louder with each Red Sox strikeout and hit, and the playing of “Sweet Caroline” during the eighth-inning stretch was sung with more energy than ever before.

The weather — rain that delayed the start time by 15 minutes and 50 degrees at first pitch — certainly wasn’t ideal for a baseball game on Memorial Day weekend, even in Boston. But it was never going to deter 25,089 maskless fans, who were given even more reason to celebrate with the Red Sox’ 3-1 victory over the Marlins.

Bench coach Will Venable, in his first career game managing in the absence of Alex Cora — who was home in Puerto Rico attending the high school graduation ceremony of his daughter, Camila — did a good job in the acting role. Bobby Dalbec, Kevin Plawecki and Hunter Renfroe each produced RBI singles, and that was enough as Nathan Eovaldi and the bullpen combined to hold the Marlins in front of an electric Fenway.

When Matt Barnes induced a game-ending double play in the ninth, there was a loud roar from the crowd but surely some relief for Venable, whose experience was overall positive but came with some tense moments.

“It was great,” Venable said. “High stress levels, but what we expected. … We knew we were in a good spot. The staff did an amazing job keeping us locked in on what we were supposed to be locked in on.”

It was far from easy for Venable in his first try in the dugout’s top chair, as he had to help direct the Red Sox out of danger in two big spots. The first one came in the seventh. The Red Sox led 2-0 when Josh Taylor put runners on first and third with one out, forcing Venable to call for his setup man, Adam Ottavino, early.

As Ottavino got to the mound, the message was straight forward from Venable.

“He fired me up when I came in the game,” Ottavino said. “He told me not to worry about the runners and just strike everybody out so that kind of fired me up.”

It was a little dicey at first, but it turned out to be the right move.

Ottavino walked Starling Marte, the first batter he saw, but a quick mound visit from pitching coach Dave Bush was all he apparently needed. With the bases loaded, Ottavino struck out both Jesus Aguilar and Garrett Cooper to end the inning. Normally pretty reserved emotionally, the veteran Ottavino was visibly fired up as he walked to the dugout.

“I think the crowd was what made it a little different than it’s been,” Ottavino said. “Just a lot of energy in the moment, especially once I got to two strikes on the last guy. Just kind of out of body experience there, glad I was able to make the pitch and just kind of blacked out. …

“The crowd brought it today. That’s what’s been missing is those two strike moments, at home, and I feel like that puts a lot of pressure on the hitter that didn’t exist last year. It’s a great feeling to be the guy on the mound in that spot. You feel like you have the advantage you’re about to just have a big release there.”

A similar sequence unfolded in the eighth, when Hirokazu Sawamura relieved Darwinzon Hernandez with two outs and a runner on. A throwing error by Rafael Devers put runners on first and third, and a wild pitch by Sawamura put both runners in scoring position. But Sawamura responded by striking out Jose Devers to end the threat.

The Japanese pitcher also wore some emotion as he walked off the mound, pounding his chest as Fenway — finally — roared to life.

“They were definitely bringing the energy,” said Nathan Eovaldi, who went 5 1/3 innings to improve to 6-2 this season. “You could definitely tell the excitement was there in the stadium. So it was awesome having them out there and even better that we were able to get that win tonight.”

Red Sox Notebook: Sam Kennedy ‘fired up’ as Fenway Park opens to full capacity

Steve Hewitt

Though the weather literally rained on the Red Sox’ parade as they opened Fenway Park to full capacity on Saturday, team president Sam Kennedy viewed it as a blessing in disguise.

Because of the rainy weather, Kennedy was only expecting 16,000-17,000 fans to show up for Saturday’s big reopening at Fenway Park, but 25,089 came to watch the Red Sox beat the Marlins 3-1, their largest crowd since the 2019 season finale. With about 66% of full capacity in the house, though, Kennedy was happy to ease back into a return to normalcy as Massachusetts lifted its state-wide COVID-19 restrictions and Fenway Park adjusts from 25% capacity straight to full.

“As much as we’d love to have a full house, it’s nice, to be honest with you, to have a bit of a dry run,” Kennedy said. “Although not dry, wet. A wet run, with the restrictions being relaxed. It will probably work out for the best today and tomorrow and then be ready for June 8 (the next homestand).”

Kennedy asked that fans who are not fully vaccinated to continue to wear masks, and employees in food and beverage will continue to wear masks for the time being. But other than that, the Red Sox aren’t operating under any remaining COVID restrictions as they return to a traditional experience at Fenway.

“Fenway will be the Fenway that we all have known and loved and it will be a little bit like stepping back in time when you come into Fenway Park today,” Kennedy said.

Kennedy admitted that there has been some reluctance from fans to return to Fenway, though, including from his mother.

“She’s asking me if she’s going to be OK,” Kennedy said. “I have heard some reluctance from different demographics, have heard a lot of other folks say, I just can’t wait to get to Fenway, to get back to some normalcy. In different conversations, have heard responses sort of all over the board, all over the map. I think all of us need to be really sensitive to … people have very different feelings to emerging from the experience that we’ve had over the last 15 months and we just need to be mindful and respectful of that, when it comes to people coming into the building, but also companies, our employees, people feeling very different about it.

“Some people, like me, for example, I’m really fired up that we’re all going to be able to be back together in person but there are others that are less enthusiastic and it’s going to take some time. We just have to recognize that people will adjust at a different pace and just be respectful of each other.”

But Kennedy is confident that one day soon, everyone will be comfortable returning to the ballpark. It might not have been on Saturday, but he looks forward to a time this summer that he can look out at Fenway on a hot summer day with a sellout crowd.

Kennedy said Saturday was an emotional day for him and people within the organization as they saw some people who they haven’t seen since before the pandemic began.

“It’ll be great for everyone to get back together and we’ll do it at a pace that’s a little bit different for everybody, but I think by later this summer, I really think people will feel completely and totally comfortable,” Kennedy said. “We’ve seen the incredible impact of the vaccinations and how it’s helped, so we just need to keep encouraging everybody to go out and get vaccinated and we’ll be able to do the things that we love to do.”

Kennedy disappointed by vaccine number

On Friday, Major League Baseball announced that 19 teams have reached 85% of their Tier 1 individuals being fully vaccinated. The Red Sox, though, are not one of those teams, and it doesn’t look promising that they’ll get to that number soon after Alex Cora said they haven’t made much progress over the last week.

Teams need to hit the 85% number for COVID-19 protocols to be relaxed. Kennedy was honest about how he feels about the Red Sox not getting there yet, but showed respect to those who have chosen not to get vaccinated.

“It is frustrating because you’d like to be at 100%,” Kennedy said. “It’s really important with the situation we’re dealing with to have as many people vaccinated as possible. That said, you have to respect differences of opinion, thought, approach to combating COVID, and so we respect the individual players who have decided to not get vaccinated. But the honest answer is that it is frustrating because I know for the coaching staff and the players who have been vaccinated, you’d like to see a relaxing of protocols across the game.

“The honest answer is, yes, it’s frustrating but also we’re respectful of individual choice and people have the right to decide what’s best for them.”

First pitch

Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the director of the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) threw the ceremonial first pitch prior to Saturday’s game to catcher Christian Vazquez, as the Red Sox marked the lifting of restrictions and capacity limitations in Massachusetts.

* The Providence Journal

Winning roars return to Fenway Park, Red Sox

Bill Koch

The first real Fenway Park roars we’ve heard in 20 months came in the late innings Saturday evening.

That wonderful sound we used to take for granted in one of baseball’s premier markets was back. It’s unlikely we’ll ever forget to appreciate it again.

Adam Ottavino’s strikeouts of Jesus Aguilar and Garrett Cooper had Red Sox fans on their feet. Hirokazu Sawamura pounded his chest after fanning Jose Devers, his first real taste of life in his new home. Matt Barnes sealed the victory thanks to a double play in the top of the ninth.

Crank up ‘Dirty Water’ and sing it to the heavens. The 25,089 on hand for the first game after the removal of COVID-19 restrictions had no reservations about doing so. Boston finished a 3-1 winner over the Marlins when Cooper bounced into the closing 4-6-3.

“Not to get fired up, but to show emotion? Probably a little bit unlike me,” Ottavino said. “I usually keep my head down and make my pitches.

“My wife (Brette) always says, ‘What are you looking at?’ I’m looking at the ground and the catcher – that's it.”

The green grass and clay mix in the infield is pretty standard across baseball. Ottavino’s catcher on this occasion was Kevin Plawecki. Eight short months ago he would have found few other sets of eyes staring back at him – the Red Sox played 31 home games without patrons last season.

The most fans to watch a baseball game in 20 months filed into Fenway Park on Saturday. No shivers up your spine. No adrenalin pumping. It was a soulless slog to October, and Boston wasn’t up to the challenge. This season has felt different through the first two months, and another layer was added while the Red Sox secured a fourth series victory in their last five.

“It was awesome,” said acting manager Will Venable, who filled in for the absent Alex Cora. “A lot of energy out there. A lot of excitement. I know the guys were really feeding off that.

“A couple guys came into the dugout and were talking about how electric it was. I think it was a great experience for them.”

Ottavino inherited runners at the corners in a 2-0 game in the seventh. His issued a one-out walk to Starling Marte that loaded the bases and worked the count full to Aguilar. Ottavino refused to give in during the nine-pitch battle, throwing a slider below the strike zone that induced Aguilar to swing and miss.

Cooper was next and proved quicker work. Ottavino fell behind 1-and-0 before slicing through the final out on three more pitches. Cooper waved at a slider down and away on 1-and-2, protecting the two-run advantage.

“Just a lot of energy in the moment, especially once I got to two strikes on the last guy,” Ottavino said. “Kind of an out of body experience there. Glad I was able to make the pitch and just kind of blacked out.”

Darwinzon Hernandez recorded the first two outs of the eighth before Isan Diaz drew a walk. The Marlins eventually put two men in scoring position with two outs, and Devers – younger cousin of Rafael, the Red Sox third baseman – dug in. Sawamura caught Devers fishing on a nasty split-fingered fastball down and away, hopped off the mound and swaggered his way toward the home dugout.

“The way baseball is, you knew it was going to challenge us and put us in some situations where we had to make some calls,” Venable said. “It worked out for the best.”

Boston had done enough on offense to that point. Hunter Renfroe totaled three hits, an RBI and a run scored. Bobby Dalbec and Plawecki each shot RBI singles through the infield. Those contributions made a winner of Nathan Eovaldi, who worked 5 1/3 scoreless innings.

This was a late afternoon where the high-leverage pitching situations accounted for the majority of the tension. Miami went just 2-for-12 with runners on base and stranded 12. The Red Sox felt the long-awaited support that comes with calling the Back Bay home.

“That’s part of having home field advantage,” Eovaldi said. “You’ve got your home crowd with you and they were definitely bringing energy today.

“It was nice having them back out there.”

RED SOX JOURNAL: Venable is manager for the day

Bill Koch

Aside from a few notes regarding bullpen usage, Will Venable was on his own Saturday at Fenway Park.

The Red Sox bench coach was set for a one-day stint as the club’s manager. Alex Cora left for Puerto Rico late Friday night to attend his daughter’s graduation from high school.

Boston secured a shortened 5-2 win in the series opener against the Marlins on Friday, with the game called midway through the sixth inning after an 85-minute rain delay. Venable handled the postgame press conference and was back meeting with the media about three hours prior to the scheduled 4:10 p.m. first pitch against Miami on Saturday.

“Just a couple of notes on how he viewed our bullpen today — stuff that [pitching coach Dave Bush] is dialed in on anyway,” Venable said. “No real surprises. Nothing out of the ordinary.”

Venable’s career managerial experience totals barely an inning. He took over late in a 4-3 loss at Minnesota on April 15 after Cora was ejected for arguing a missed foul tip call by the umpiring crew. Venable previously served as the first-base coach for the Cubs from 2018-19 and moved across the diamond to third base for the 2020 season.

“Outside the inning in Minnesota when Alex got thrown out, zero managerial experience,” Venable said. “It will be fun.”

Venable worked in the front office with Chicago after his retirement in 2016. The former outfielder played in 967 career games with the Padres, Rangers and Dodgers. Venable was one of several potential managerial candidates interviewed by Boston during the offseason prior to the club hiring Cora for the second time.

Ramon Vazquez was expected to serve as Venable’s de facto bench coach against the Marlins, minding the matchups in the lineups and handling the phones to both the bullpen and replay room. Bush, hitting coach Tim Hyers, game planning coordinator Jason Varitek and the two base coaches — Carlos Febles at third and Tom Goodwin at first — are all holdovers from Cora’s original staff in 2018 and should help Venable keep things running smoothly.

“Alex left us in a good spot,” Venable said. “I think Alex has done a great job this whole season of delegating and making sure we have everything dialed in for the game. He just kind of left things as is.”

Cora is expected to return to Boston late Saturday night and take charge of the club for Sunday’s scheduled series finale. Eduardo Rodriguez will take the ball for the 1:10 p.m. first pitch.

Kennedy frustrated with vaccine rate

Count Red Sox president and CEO Sam Kennedy among those disappointed with his club’s inability to reach an 85% vaccination rate among Tier 1 staff.

Boston is not one of the 16 franchises that has met or exceeded that COVID-19 standard thus far, which results in the lessening of restrictions and the relaxing of protocols. Cora issued a somewhat pointed reminder on Friday that the 100 or so individuals among that group include the club’s players and staff members at Triple-A Worcester.

“It is frustrating,” Kennedy said. “You’d like to be at 100%. It’s really important with the situation we’re dealing with to have as many people vaccinated as possible.

“That said, you have to respect differences of opinion, thought, approach to combating COVID. We respect the individual players who have decided not to get vaccinated.

“The honest answer is it is frustrating because I know, for the coaching staff and the players who have been vaccinated, you’d like to see a relaxing of protocols across the game. The honest answer is yes, it is frustrating.”

Three more teams are expected to reach the number within the next two weeks, as their two-week immunity periods pass following a second shot. That would leave just 11 clubs — the Red Sox among them — still adhering to the strictest of standards agreed upon by Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association.

Loading up

Boston went with a lineup of primarily right-handed hitters on Saturday against the Marlins.

That meant the inclusion of Christian Arroyo at second base, batting ninth. He went 0-for-4 with two strikeouts in a start Wednesday against Atlanta. It was Arroyo’s first appearance since being activated off the 10-day injured list — his left-hand contusion is healing.

“I think it’s going to be about timing with him — really, with everybody,” Venable said. “He looks healthy to me. Some really good swings.”

Alex Verdugo and Rafael Devers were the only two left-handed hitters included against Miami southpaw Trevor Rogers, who entered with a fine 1.75 ERA. Rogers has been tough on everyone through his first 10 starts — a .562 OPS for right-handed hitters and a .610 OPS for left-handed hitters.

Fenway Park's not 'a packed house' — yet

Bill Koch

It’s been nearly 20 months since Fenway Park welcomed this sort of crowd for a Red Sox baseball game.

The 2019 season finale was the last time Boston played on its historic diamond without capacity restrictions. Mookie Betts slid across home plate with the winning run, Alex Cora was in his first managerial stint and Chaim Bloom was an executive with the Rays.

Those changes in the local baseball world seem inconsequential when compared to society at large. The COVID-19 pandemic has killed hundreds of thousands, sickened millions and caused incalculable financial hardship in the United States alone. This painful period in our history beginning in March 2020 is finally showing signs of abating.

According to team president and CEO Sam Kennedy, the Red Sox expected to welcome upward of 24,000 fans on Saturday afternoon against the Marlins. The driving rain that started on Friday night and lingered into the following morning was expected to limit actual patrons in the seats, but the initial demand for tickets was encouraging for Boston’s front office. They hope to see full capacity when season-ticket packages take effect for the next homestand beginning on June 8.

“Fenway will be the Fenway we all have known and loved,” Kennedy said. “It will be a little bit like stepping back into time when you come into Fenway Park today.”

Vendors were turned loose in the aisles, selling the typical beverages, hot dogs and ice cream. Security and ushers were prepared to take tickets and guide folks to their seats. Concourses that housed weight rooms and training facilities during the empty 2020 season have been cleared.

The Red Sox could suffer a bit of an initial hit in terms of attendance. Kennedy estimated the club retained up to 90% of its previous season-ticket base, which leaves more uncertainty while relying upon day-of- game sales. The human effects of the pandemic, the economic impact in the region and the miserable performance of the club on the field last season all play a part in the reduction.

“My mom is a little bit reluctant,” Kennedy said. “She’s asking me if this is going to be OK. We have heard some reluctancy from different demographics. We have heard a lot of other folks saying, ‘I can’t wait to get to Fenway — get back to some normalcy.’

“In different conversations, we have heard responses all over the board, all over the map. I think all of us need to be really sensitive. People have very different feelings about emerging from the experience we’ve had over the last 15 months. We just need to be mindful and respectful of that when it comes to people coming into the building.”

Kennedy said unvaccinated fans and club employees would be encouraged to continue wearing face coverings. Hand sanitizer stations installed prior to the season are likely to remain in place, as will signage on the concourses and near the restrooms reminding folks to exercise good hygiene and wash hands frequently. Food and beverage employees could be asked to wear masks for a brief period while the ballpark reopens.

“Other than that, you're going to see a Fenway Park you’re used to seeing,” Kennedy said. “From a business sense and from a competitive sense, you’d like to see 37,000 here, but I actually think this will give us a chance today and tomorrow to get our sea legs under us and be ready to go on June 8.”

Houston and Toronto visit for a seven-game homestand that begins that night, and the Red Sox expect to have a full staff of employees on hand. Boston successfully hired to fill the majority of its seasonal vacancies in terms of ballpark operations. Its food and beverage provider, Aramark, has been forced to enact some contingency plans like some restaurants and bars in the area that are struggling to fill vacancies.

“Food and beverage have been a little bit more difficult,” Kennedy said. “Our partners at Aramark have really worked hard and gone to some of their other accounts, other venues that they have around New England. They’ve gotten lots of employees to come and help pitch in.”

Tier 1 and Tier 2 employees — separated by their testing requirements — have been working at the ballpark throughout the season. The Red Sox are expected to begin a voluntary reopening of their front office on June 7, bringing back employees who are in Tier 3 or below. Boston plans a full concert series later in the year — six dates in August, one in September, one in October — and will host the inaugural Fenway Bowl between two college football programs on Dec. 29.

“We lived through, hopefully, a once-in-100-year experience,” Kennedy said. “To have that traditional Fenway Park experience — a packed house. Not being able to get together with your teammates was a really, really difficult period for so many people.

“It’s emotional today.”

* MassLive.com

Adam Ottavino strikes out 2 with bases loaded, Boston Red Sox pitchers combine for 14 punch-outs in win over Marlins

Christopher Smith

BOSTON — A fired-up Adam Ottavino yelled while leaving the mound after he struck out Marlins’ Garrett Cooper on a slider with the bases loaded to end the seventh inning.

Red Sox pitchers Nathan Eovaldi, Josh Taylor, Ottavino, Darwinzon Hernandez, Hirokazu Sawamura and Matt Barnes combined for 14 strikeouts. Boston won 3-1 over Miami in front of a paid attendance of 25,089 here at Fenway Park.

Ottavino entered with one out and runners at the corners with Boston ahead 2-0. He walked the first batter he faced to load the bases.

Ottavino has allowed just one run in his past 12 outings. During that stretch, he has allowed five hits and seven walks while striking 15 in 11 ⅓ innings.

Jesús Aguilar worked a nine-pitch at-bat against Ottavino before striking out on a 3-2 slider out of the strike zone. Ottavino then punched out Cooper on a 1-2 slider away.

Sawamura also showed excitement as he struck out José Devers with runners at second and third base to end the eighth.

Nathan Eovaldi went 5 ⅓ scoreless innings to lower his ERA to 4.01. He allowed four hits and one walk while striking out seven. The righty threw 101 pitches: 46 four-seam fastballs, 22 curveballs, 15 cutters, 11 splitters and seven sliders.

Red Sox offense

Bobby Dalbec put the Red Sox ahead 1-0 in the second inning with an RBI single to left field.

Dalbec battled back after being down 0-2 in the count to connect on a 2-2 94.5 mph four-seam fastball from Marlins starter Trevor Rogers. The single left Dalbec’s bat at 106.6 mph.

Kevin Plawecki put Boston ahead 2-0 in the fourth with an RBI single to center field on a 0-1 changeup.

Hunter Renfroe’s two-out RBI single put Boston ahead 3-0 in the eighth.

Sunday’s matchup

Boston and Miami finish this three-game series at Fenway Park on Sunday at 1:10 p.m.

Red Sox lefty Eduardo Rodriguez (5-3, 5.06 ERA) will start opposite Marlins righty Sandy Alcantara (2-4, 3.46 ERA).

Rodriguez went 5-0 with a 3.82 ERA in his first six starts this season. Since then, he’s 0-3 with a 7.80 ERA in three starts.

Boston Red Sox notebook: Hunter Renfroe has .897 OPS, 12 extra-base hits, 14 RBIs in May; Fenway Park crowd was ‘electric’

Christopher Smith

BOSTON — Hunter Renfroe went 3-for-4 with an RBI and run in the Red Sox’s 3-1 victory over the Marlins here at Fenway Park on Saturday.

Renfroe is batting .307 with a .897 OPS, five homers, seven doubles, 14 RBIs and 16 runs in 23 games during May.

“It’s been great. He stuck with the game-plan and he’s been taking some really good swings,” said Red Sox bench coach Will Venable, who managed Saturday because Alex Cora was in Puerto Rico for his daughter’s high school graduation. “Even on balls that he’s fouling back, he just looks like he’s in a really good position to do some damage. His timing is great right now. And I think it’s just a credit to him sticking with it and staying with his work, staying with his routine. Confident kid out there and it’s nice to see him get some results.”

Renfroe’s two-out RBI single in the eighth inning put Boston ahead 3-0.

25,089 in attendance

Saturday marked the first game at Fenway Park that the Red Sox were allowed to host 100% capacity since Sept. 29, 2019. The paid attendance was 25,089.

“It was awesome. A lot of energy out there, a lot of excitement,” Venable said. “I know the guys were really feeding off that. A couple guys came into the dugout and were just talking about how electric it was. I think it was a great experience for them. And obviously some tense plays, some tense moments the crowd was into. I think everybody enjoyed it for sure.”

Red Sox manager for a day

Venable managed the bullpen well. He used five relievers (Josh Taylor, Adam Ottavino, Darwinzon Hernandez, Hirokazu Sawamura and Matt Barnes) after Nathan Eovaldi tossed 5 ⅓ scoreless innings.

“The way baseball is, you know it was going to challenge us and put us in some situations where we had to make some calls but it worked out for the best,” Venable said. “Bushy (pitching coach Dave Bush) did a great job having things framed up ahead of time. We knew kind of the pockets we wanted to line guys (relievers) up with. It wasn’t perfect but it worked out.”

Bullpen getting the job done

Taylor, Ottavino, Hernandez and Sawamura all recorded holds. Barnes earned his 12th save.

“Today a lot of guys contributed,” Ottavino said. “Darwinzon. JT has been on a great run. I don’t know if anybody’s noticed that but he’s been dealing for a while now.”

Taylor hasn’t allowed a run in 8 innings during May.

“Sawamura, big punch out for him, big moment for him,” Ottavino said. “So really everybody. Everybody’s kind of getting in that groove.”

Red Sox season ticket renewals

Red Sox team president Sam Kennedy said approximately 85-90% of season ticket holders renewed their packages for 2021.

“We’ve got among the strongest renewal rate in all of baseball,” Kennedy said.

Season ticket holders will be back in their own seats starting June 8

Sunday’s matchup

Red Sox lefty Eduardo Rodriguez (5-3, 5.06 ERA) will start opposite Marlins righty Sandy Alcantara (2-4, 3.46 ERA) in the three-game series finale Sunday at 1:10 p.m.

Rodriguez went 5-0 with a 3.82 ERA in his first six starts this season. Since then, he’s 0-3 with a 7.80 ERA in three starts.

Boston Red Sox’s Adam Ottavino has ‘out of body experience’ striking out Garrett Cooper with bases loaded; ‘The crowd brought it today’

Christopher Smith

BOSTON — Red Sox setup man Adam Ottavino shouted after striking out Marlins’ Garrett Cooper on a slider with the bases loaded to end the seventh inning.

He also had punched out Jesús Aguilar on a 3-2 slider for the second out with the bases loaded.

He helped the Red Sox to a 3-1 win over the Marlins in front of a paid attendance of 25,089 here at Fenway Park.

“I think the crowd was what made it a little different from what it’s been,” Ottavino said.

It was the first game since Sept. 29, 2019, the Red Sox were able to host 100% capacity at Fenway Park after the CDC and state recently lifted COVID restrictions.

“So just a lot of energy in the moment, especially once it got to two strikes on the last guy,” Ottavino said. “Just kind of an out-of-body experience there. Glad I was able to make the pitch, and I just kind of blacked out.”

Ottavino said he often feels fired up but he doesn’t always show emotion.

“Probably a little bit unlike me,” he said. “I usually just keep my head down and make my pitches. My wife always says, ‘What are you looking at?’ I’m always just like, ‘I’m looking at the ground and then the catcher and that’s it.’”

He said pitching in front of a big crowd for the first time in a couple years was awesome.

“The crowd brought it today,” he said. “That’s what’s been missing is those two-strike moments at home. I feel like that puts a lot of pressure on the hitter. It didn’t exist last year. So it’s a great feeling to be the guy on the mound in that spot. You feel like you have the advantage and you’re about to have a big release there.”

Aguilar worked a nine-pitch at-bat against Ottavino before striking out on a 3-2 slider out of the strike zone.

“I was willing to throw any pitch really,” Ottavino said. “But I think I’ve faced Aguilar quite a bit and he hasn’t done much with my slider yet. And when in doubt, I’ll probably throw that pitch. So I just went with it and it worked out. He had a great take on 2-2. And I think he really wanted to get the job done so he ended up chasing there and that was huge for me.”

Ottavino has a 1.53 ERA (three earned runs, 17 ⅔ innings) in 19 outings beginning April 17.

Boston Red Sox manager for a day: Will Venable says he has ‘zero experience’ besides one inning in Minnesota when Alex Cora got tossed

Christopher Smith

BOSTON — Bench coach Will Venable will manage the Boston Red Sox on Saturday because manager Alex Cora returned home to Puerto Rico for his daughter Camila’s high school graduation.

Venable, who is in his first season as Boston’s bench coach, has never managed a game — not even a spring training game.

“I have not,” Venable said before Saturday’s game against the Marlins. “Outside the inning in Minnesota when Alex got thrown out, zero experience. So it will be fun.”

First pitch for the Red Sox and Marlins has been pushed back 15 minutes to 4:25 p.m. because of rain here at Fenway Park.

Bench coaches typically manage during spring training split-squad games. But there were no split-squad games in 2021.

Cora was ejected in the eighth inning April 15 at Minnesota. That’s the game Venable was referencing.

Quality control coach Ramón Vázquez and game-planning coordinator Jason Varitek will have more responsibility Saturday.

“We will ask a little more out of Ramón,” Venable said. “He’ll help me out on the phones and with some lineup stuff. Otherwise, Tek (Jason Varitek) has been helping me with running (the) game stuff. That will continue. ... Everyone pretty much doing the same thing. Asking a little more of Ramón.”

Cora will leave the team for only one day. He is expected to manage Sunday.

“Alex left us in a good spot,” Venable said. “I think Alex has done a great job this whole season of kind of delegating and making sure we have everything dialed in for the game. So he just kind of left things as is. Just a couple notes on how he viewed our bullpen today and stuff that Bushy (pitching coach Dave Bush) is dialed in with anyway. So no real surprises. Nothing out of the ordinary.”

Boston Sox lineup: Christian Arroyo at 2B, Bobby Dalbec at 1B vs. Marlins lefty Trevor Rogers (Cody Ross’ cousin); Christian Vázquez has day off

Christopher Smith

BOSTON — Catcher Christian Vázquez will have the day off as the Red Sox and Marlins meet here at Fenway Park on Saturday.

Kevin Plawecki will catch starter Nathan Eovaldi.

First pitch is at 4:10 p.m.

Boston will face left-handed starter Trevor Rogers, who is former Red Sox outfielder Cody Ross’ cousin. Rogers is 6-2 with a 1.75 ERA in 10 starts this season.

Hunter Renfroe and Bobby Dalbec will hit sixth and seventh in Boston’s batting order against the lefty. Dalbec is 15-for-48 (.313) with four homers, two doubles, one triple and 10 RBIs against left-handers.

Christian Arroyo is at second base.

Boston Red Sox lineup:

1. Kiké Hernández CF

2. Alex Verdugo LF

3. J.D. Martinez DH

4. Xander Bogaerts SS

5. Rafael Devers 3B

6. Hunter Renfroe RF

7. Bobby Dalbec 1B

8. Kevin Plawecki C

9. Christian Arroyo 2B

Pitching matchup: RHP Nathan Eovaldi (5-2, 4.39) vs. LHP Trevor Rogers (6-2, 1.75)

Boston Red Sox rain delay: First pitch vs. Marlins at Fenway Park pushed back to 4:25 p.m.

Christopher Smith

BOSTON — The Red Sox and Marlins were scheduled to begin their game Saturday at 4:10 p.m.

But first pitch has been pushed back 15 minutes to 4:25 p.m. because of rain.

Nathan Eovaldi (5-2, 4.39) will start for Boston opposite Marlins lefty Trevor Rogers (6-2, 1.75).

According to the National Weather Service, the rain could let up around 5 p.m. The website states, “Rain likely, mainly before 5pm. Patchy fog. Otherwise, cloudy, with a high near 48. Northeast wind around 16 mph, with gusts as high as 32 mph. Chance of precipitation is 70%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible.”

The precipitation potential percentage decreases from 63% at 4 p.m. to 30% at 5 p.m., 16% at 6 p.m., 19% at 7 p.m., 28% at 8 p.m., per the National Weather Service.

Boston Red Sox forecast: Fenway Park returns to 100% capacity Saturday, but Sam Kennedy predicts 16-17,000 fans because of rain

Christopher Smith

BOSTON — Fenway Park is allowed to host 100% capacity Saturday because of the state and CDC lifting COVID restrictions.

But the Red Sox don’t expect a sellout. The weather also should decrease attendance even more. It’s raining here at Fenway Park. The Marlins and Red Sox are scheduled to play at 4:10 p.m.

“I think we were at about 24,000 paid (fans),” Red Sox president Sam Kennedy said Saturday afternoon. “Something like that. But with the weather that’s going on out there today, I would imagine we would have a significant decrease in terms of our turnstile count. So maybe 16-17,000 in the building. Something like that. It’s pretty bad out there. So we’ll see where we end up today and tomorrow.

“As much as we’d love to have a full house, it’s kind of nice, to be honest with you, to have a bit of a dry run ... with the restrictions being relaxed,” Kennedy added. “So it will probably work out for the best today and tomorrow, then be ready for June 8.”

The Red Sox finish their homestand Sunday, then play four games in Houston and three games in New York against the Yankees before returning home June 8 vs. the Astros.

Will today’s game be played?

According to the National Weather Service, the rain could let up around 5 p.m. The website states, “Rain likely, mainly before 5pm. Patchy fog. Otherwise, cloudy, with a high near 48. Northeast wind around 16 mph, with gusts as high as 32 mph. Chance of precipitation is 70%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible.”

The precipitation potential percentage decreases from 63% at 4 p.m. to 30% at 5 p.m., 16% at 6 p.m., 19% at 7 p.m., 28% at 8 p.m., per the National Weather Service.

“I actually think God is smiling on us because it is helpful to have a little bit of a dry run as I said,” Kennedy added. “We’re going back to sort of pre-COVID protocols. We’re asking that any unvaccinated fans (wear a mask). Certainly our employees in food and beverage will be wearing masks. Other than that, you’re going to see a Fenway Park that you’re used to seeing. So to have a bit of a dry run — while from a business sense and from a competitive sense you’d like to see 37,000 here — I actually do think this will give us a chance today and tomorrow to get our sea legs under us and then be ready to go on June 8.”

Boston Red Sox not making progress toward 85% vaccination threshold: ‘It is frustrating because you’d like to be at 100%,’ Sam Kennedy says

Chris Cotillo

On Friday, Major League Baseball announced that 16 of its 30 clubs have reached the 85% threshold of vaccinated individuals required to relax COVID-19 protocols and that three more are on pace to join the group in the coming weeks. The Red Sox, however, are among the 11 teams that are not over the threshold or close to it.

The fact the Red Sox are behind most of their counterparts has become a source of frustration in the organization. By allowing teams who reach the threshold to skirt protocols related to quarantining and potentially canceling games, the league has incentivized the vaccination process and give a clear competitive advantage to clubs that reach 85%.

“It is frustrating because you’d like to be at 100%,” team president and CEO Sam Kennedy said. “It’s really important with the situation we’re dealing with to have as many people vaccinated as possible. With that said, you have to respect differences of opinion, thought and approach to combatting COVID. We respect the individual players who have decided to not get vaccinated.

“The honest answer is it is frustrating because I know the coaching staff and the players who have been vaccinated, you’d like to see a relaxing of protocols across the game,” Kennedy said.

Manager Alex Cora said last weekend that the club was getting close to reaching 85% but noted Friday that the group had not made any progress toward the threshold in recent days. Until the Red Sox reach 85%, they will have to follow strict MLB guidelines which limit that players and coaches can do away from the field and require coaches to wear masks in the dugout during games.

The Red Sox are having trouble reaching the threshold because of the number of unvaccinated individuals with the WooSox, sources said. To reach the mark, the Sox need to have 85% of covered individuals in the majors and at Triple-A fully vaccinated.

Cora said he respects every individual’s decision about getting vaccinated but added that some aspects of the rules have him worried. Because the Red Sox have not yet had their protocols relaxed, any player entering quarantine after being exposed to COVID-19 could cause a domino effect of unavailable players.

“I don’t think it’s frustrating, baseball-wise, because I believe this whole thing about vaccination is about the outside world,” Cora said. The real world. In our case, obviously, you make the decision you want to make, but as a manager, sometimes you think about all these guidelines and rules.

“I always wonder how we’re going to react if somebody just decides, ‘Ok, I’m not vaccinated’ or, not even that, or if someone in our group — because we’re not at 85% — somebody decides to go to a restaurant or to a spa or go out and then all of the sudden that person misses seven days because you have to be put in quarantine because you broke the rules,” he continued. “That’s the one I always wonder. So far, we’ve been very disciplined. As the world keeps becoming normal, hopefully we don’t see that as a window that we can take advantage (of). That’s my biggest worry.”

Though reaching 85% presents a clear competitive advantage, Cora has decided not to mix his feelings about the vaccine with how it affects his team’s play on the field. Getting more players and coaches vaccinated would mean the Red Sox would be able to have more freedom at and away from the ballpark, but the club is not trying to pressure anyone into receiving shots.

Throughout the season, Cora has praised his group for following protocols and avoiding COVID-related issues. He hopes that will continue as things begin to open up nationwide.

“You can feel it,” Cora said. “The summer is here, the world is moving forward. Hopefully, we can stay disciplined throughout the process.”

Boston Red Sox prospect Josh Winckowski (from Andrew Benintendi trade) allows 1 hit in 7 scoreless innings for Portland, has 1.33 ERA in 5 starts

Christopher Smith

Pitching prospect Josh Winckowski — who the Boston Red Sox acquired in the Andrew Benintendi three- team trade — threw 7 scoreless innings for Double-A Portland on Saturday.

He earned the victory over Hartford, giving up just one hit and no walks while striking out nine. Portland won 4-3.

The 22-year-old righty is 2-0 with a 1.33 ERA and 0.89 WHIP in five starts. He has held the opposition to a .152 batting average in 27 innings. He has 26 strikeouts and nine walks.

The Red Sox acquired Franchy Cordero and two players to be named later from the Royals in the three- team deal. They also acquired Winckowski and one player to be named later from the Mets.

The Red Sox should select the three players to be named later soon.

Winckowski features a fastball, slider, changeup and splitter.

“There’s a good foundation there,” chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom said last month. “The changeup shows a lot of promise. It’s a pretty hard changeup right now but you can still have success with that. It’s more of a power change. And that pitch is going to evolve but I think his other stuff will evolve, too. And he’s going to learn different ways to use it as he goes.”

Jay Groome tosses 5 strong innings

Red Sox prospect Jay Groome had his best start since returning from Tommy John surgery. He pitched 5 strong innings in High-A Greenville’s 4-3 loss to Rome on Friday.

The lefty allowed just one run, one hit and no walks while striking out four.

Groome throws a fastball, curveball, slider and changeup.

“I’ve changed a lot from the kid that I used to be,” Groome said in November after Boston added him to the 40-man roster. “I’m not really the same pitcher. My velocity is still there. I’m sitting 92-94. But my fastball is playing well right now because coming back from Tommy John, it really helped me develop the changeup. So now that I have that changeup just to flash, it makes my fastball better. So now I don’t have to use my curveball as much. And then I introduced a slider. And now I have four pitches. So it makes me a little bit more confident because now I don’t have to rely on my fastball/curveball.”

* RedSox.com

'Electric' crowd sparks Sox: 'It was awesome'

Ian Browne

BOSTON -- It had been 20 months since Fenway Park had been anything like it was on Saturday.

Fans sat in big clusters from behind the plate to the infield, and out to the bleachers and the Monster Seats. They roared with approval for all of Nathan Eovaldi’s seven strikeouts, and for three timely, run-scoring hits (Bobby Dalbec, Kevin Plawecki and Hunter Renfroe) on a day offense was at a premium.

With Adam Ottavino in a bases-loaded, one-out jam in the seventh, the fans got up on their feet and erupted when he struck out Miami's Jesús Aguilar and Garrett Cooper to get out of the threat. They did the same when Hirokazu Sawamura wiggled out of a sticky situation in the eighth, striking out José (cousin of Rafael) Devers.

And the loudest batch of cheers came when Matt Barnes ended the festivities, with the Red Sox turning a pretty 4-6-3 double play that ended a tense, 3-1 victory over the Marlins.

Baseball was truly back in Boston on a day Fenway Park was opened back up to full capacity, and the Red Sox and their fans celebrated in a way that made you forget the temperature was in the high 40s on Memorial Day weekend. The paid attendance was 25,089. Due to the weather, the actual turnout was probably closer to 20,000. However, the fans who were there made it feel like it was a sellout.

“The crowd brought it today,” said Ottavino. “That's what's been missing is those two-strike moments at home, and I feel like that puts a lot of pressure on the hitter that didn't exist last year. It’s a great feeling to be the guy on the mound in that spot. You feel like you have the advantage and you're about to just have a big release there.”

Ottavino was so pumped up after his escape that he felt like he was in an altered state as he ran back to the dugout.

“Especially once I got to two strikes on the last guy,” said Ottavino. “So it was just kind of an out-of-body experience there. I was glad I was able to make the pitch and just kind of blacked out.”

While manager Alex Cora attended his daughter Camila’s graduation from high school back in Caguas, Puerto Rico -- he called it “the biggest day of his life” earlier this week -- bench coach Will Venable took the reins for the day and led the team to victory in his first game as a manager in any level of baseball.

“It was great,” said Venable. “High stress levels, but what we expected. And like I said, just with the work the staff did and the players, we knew [we] were in a good spot. Like I said, the staff did an amazing job keeping us locked in on what we were supposed to be locked in on.”

A season of good vibes continued for the Red Sox, who improved to 32-20 with their third straight win to remain a half-game behind the ridiculously hot Rays in the American League East.

For sports-crazed Boston, it was a nice way to ease into the Bruins playing Game 1 of their NHL Eastern Conference semifinals across town against the New York Islanders later on Saturday.

“It was awesome,” Eovaldi said of the atmosphere at Fenway. “They were definitely bringing the energy. You could definitely tell the excitement was there in the stadium. So it was awesome having them out there, and even better that we were able to get that win tonight.”

As an opponent, Marlins lefty Trevor Rogers also got caught up in an atmosphere that was uniquely Fenway.

“They were loud,” said Rogers. “I heard it, for sure. It was really special. That atmosphere, it was crazy. But that's what baseball is, and I was glad to be back to normal. It was a really good atmosphere to pitch in and it was a lot of fun.”

The Red Sox are 16-13 at Fenway so far this season. That winning percentage could increase significantly with home field advantage becoming a factor again.

“I know the guys were really feeding off that,” said Venable. “A couple guys came into the dugout and were just talking about how electric it was and I think it was a great experience for them and obviously some tense plays out there, some tense moments, but the crowd was into it and I think everyone enjoyed it, for sure.”

Dry (and wet) run of 100% capacity at Fenway

Ian Browne

BOSTON -- Opening Day of full capacity at Fenway Park was dreary and soggy, at least in the pregame hours.

Though the Red Sox weren’t expecting a sellout on Saturday due to various logistics, the weather clinched it. And in a way, this wasn’t a bad thing.

Going from 25 percent to 100 percent capacity in the span of 24 hours is a hectic thing for a baseball franchise, given all of the operational challenges and demands of a typical gameday – of which the Sox hadn’t had since Sept. 29, 2019.

Fenway has a capacity of close to 38,000. How close would they get to that on Saturday?

“I think we’re at about 24,000 paid, something like that,” said Red Sox president and CEO Sam Kennedy. “But with the weather that’s going on out there today, I would imagine we’ll have a significant decrease in terms of our turnstile count. So maybe 16, 17,000 in the building, something like that, it’s pretty bad out there.

“So we’ll see where we wind up today and tomorrow. As much as we’d love to have a full house, it’s nice, to be honest with you, to have a bit of a dry run with the restrictions being relaxed. It will probably work out for the best today and tomorrow, and then [we’ll] be ready for June 8.”

As Kennedy playfully noted, this dry run was actually a wet run, with more rain expected on Sunday. The tarp was removed roughly 40 minutes before the scheduled first pitch, and the game started after a 15- minute delay.

Saturday and Sunday are the final two games of the homestand -- but the first ones the Sox were eligible to open at full capacity according to Massachusetts state guidelines.

By June 8, when the Sox open a seven-game homestand against the Astros and Yankees, season-ticket holders will be back in the ballpark for the first time this season. And the Fenway operations staff should be back in full rhythm by then.

“We’re going back to sort of pre-COVID protocols. We’re asking that any unvaccinated fans, certainly our employees in food and beverage, will be wearing masks,” said Kennedy. “Other than that, you’re going to see a Fenway Park that you’re used to seeing. So to have a bit of a dry run … from a business sense and from a competitive sense, we’d like to see 37,000 here. I actually do think this will give us a chance, today and tomorrow, to get our sea legs under us and then be ready to go on June 8.”

Kennedy said roughly 85 to 90 percent of ticketholders renewed their packages, which is one of the highest percentages in MLB.

“We are very grateful and thankful for that,” Kennedy said.

The one area the Red Sox in which aren’t at such a high percentage is getting their own clubhouse vaccinated. Sixteen of MLB’s 30 teams have reached the 85-percent threshold of Tier 1 individuals being fully vaccinated, which allows for the relaxation of certain health and safety protocols for those teams.

The Red Sox are one of the 14 teams that aren’t there yet, and manager Alex Cora said Friday the team had come to a standstill with their numbers within the last week. He noted that the category of Tier 1 individuals also includes Triple-A Worcester.

“For sure, it is frustrating, because you’d like to be at 100 percent,” said Kennedy. “It’s really important with the situation we’re dealing with to have as many people vaccinated as possible. That said, you have to respect differences of opinion, thought [and] approach to combating COVID, and so we respect the individual players who have decided to not get vaccinated.

“But the honest answer is that it is frustrating, because I know for the coaching staff and the players who have been vaccinated, you’d like to see a relaxing of protocols across the game. The honest answer is, yes, it’s frustrating, but also we’re respectful of individual choice and people have the right to decide what’s best for them.”

* WEEI.com

When it comes to the trade market, timing will be everything for Red Sox

Rob Bradford

It was 18 years ago today. The Red Sox had a problem and they made a move.

The problem was a combination of Shea Hillenbrand being a poor fit and a need for pitching, whether in the rotation or bullpen. The answer was trading for Byung-Hyun Kim.

That was on May 29, 2003.

It was certainly not the norm, but it should offer a pretty important reminder. Teams like the Red Sox shouldn't be beholden to the July 31 deadline cliff, particularly when you're in the kind of four-team race this team seems to be staring down at the rest of the way.

On that day Theo Epstein made his move, the Red Sox were 31-21, carrying a 1/2 game lead over the Yankees and 3 1/2-game advantage over Toronto.

As we sit here, after the Red Sox' rain-shortened, 2-hour, 7-minute win over the Marlins Friday night, Alex Cora's club is at 31-20, which is 1/2 game in back of Tampa Bay and two games in front of the third-place Yankees.

This isn't to say that this edition of the Red Sox currently has the kind of glaring need that paved the way for the Kim deal. They aren't glaringly bad in any facet of the game, although the bridge to closer Matt Barnes can oftentimes be uncomfortable.

And another bonus Chaim Bloom has going is there seems to be alternative options almost at his disposal. Jarren Duran. Ryan Brasier. Chris Sale.

But this will still be about staying one step ahead of the Rays, Jays, and Yanks. If a player like Pittsburgh reliever Richard Rodriguez is clearly available - (yes, that is a player we will keep bringing up in these trade target pieces) - make the move. Bloom did it with reliever Nick Anderson in Tampa and made all the difference when it counted the most.

The good news is that Bloom has already shown an awareness of this outside-the-box way of approaching the deadline. Last year, 10 days before the trade deadline, he made the move for Nick Pivetta. This is what the Red Chief Baseball Officer said when asked why he pulled the trigger so early:

“The timing of trades is not always something that you can foresee. Philly came hard after these two pitchers. They really wanted to complete something and any time you have a situation where you’ve got some time before the trade deadline, you’re not just looking at the trade in a vacuum, you’re also trying to think about what are the options that you can have between now and the deadline, and obviously that’s something we have to weigh, but we felt that this return was a really good fit for us, that we got two pitchers that not only fit an area of need, but are also pitchers we like that can be part of this thing for many years. I thought that was worth doing right now.”

What he didn't mention was Tampa Bay was also hot on the heels of Pivetta. Once again, timing was everything.

It's hard to imagine that the Red Sox are going to dramatically alter their roster in the coming weeks. They are playing too well, have possess too many back-up plans.

The point is that in this kind of pennant race, it wouldn't behoove the Red Sox to simply circle July 31 on the calendar. Steve Pearce (June 28). Brad Ziegler (July 9). And, of course, Byung-Hyun Kim (May 29).

Just a few reminders.

Pitcher Red Sox got back for Andrew Benintendi continues to dominate

Rob Bradford

This was good timing for the Red Sox.

The same week Franchy Cordero, the outfielder the Sox got in exchange for Andrew Benintendi was sent to Triple-A Worcester, another piece of the deal turned in perhaps the best performance of any Red Sox minor-league pitcher this season.

Pitching for Double-A Portland against the Hartford Yard Goats, Josh Winckowski turned in seven shutout innings, allowing just one hit while striking out nine and not walking a single batter.

Winckowski's ERA now stands at 1.33 after five starts for Portland, with the 6-foot-4 righty not allowing more than two runs in many of his appearances.

The starter came to the Red Sox from the Mets, who dealt for Winckowski just a few weeks earlier in a trade that sent Steven Matz to Toronto. Along with Cordero and Winckowski, the Red Sox will be receiving three players to be named later in exchange for Benintendi.

* BostonSportsJournal.com

Final: Red Sox 3, Marlins 1

Sean McAdam

Surviving a few rocky moments in the late innings, the Red Sox stretched their winning streak to three games with a 3-1 victory over the Miami Marlins in the first game in which full capacity was allowed at Fenway Park since the end of 2019.

Hunter Renfroe, Bobby Dalbec and Kevin Plawecki provided run-scoring hits for the Sox.

In relief of starter Nathan Eovaldi, the Sox got 3.2 innings of relief from five different relievers, allowing just one run. The Marlins stranded 12 runners throughout the game.

WHO: Red Sox (31-20) vs.Miami Marlins (24-27) WHEN: 4:10 p.m. WHERE: Fenway Park SERIES TO DATE: BOS 1-0 STARTING PITCHERS: RHP Nathan Eovaldi (5-2, 4.39) vs. LHP Trevor Rogers (6-2, 1.79) TV/RADIO: NESN; WEEI-FM 93.7 FM

LINEUPS

MARLINS

Sierra RF Marte CF Aguilar 1B Cooper DH Dickerson LF Beri 3B Diaz 2B Leon C Devers SS

RED SOX

Hernandez CF Verdugo LF Martinez DH Bogaerts SS Devers 3B Renfroe RF Dalbec 1B Plawecki C Arroyo 2B

IN-GAME OBSERVATIONS:

B8: Huge insurance run as Renfroe goes oppo with a single that snakes through to right and scores Devers (double) from second.

T8: For the second straight inning, the Red Sox get a strikeout with baserunners at both second and third. Hirokazu Sawamura gets Jose Devers to chase a splitter for the

T7: Adam Ottavino, after walking the first hitter he faced, comes back with consecutive strikeouts to leave the bases loaded and preserve the lead.

T7: Taylor is the victim of pure bad luck, with a couple of balls that were barely hit hard.

T6: Nice job by Taylor, who gets a dribbler, strikeout and a flyout and strands a couple to close out the sixth.

T6: PItch count catches up to Eovaldi (101, one off his season high) and he's lifted with one out and one on in the sixth. A very strong start, with just four hits allowed and one walk to go with seven strikeouts. Josh Taylor on.

B4: Kevin Plawecki pokes a single to right field, enough to score Renfroe from second base. Just the third RBI of the season for the backup catcher, but a huge one that doubles the Red Sox' lead.

T4: Sloppy throw from Rafael Devers, who makes a throw in the dirt and misses a chance to cut down the lead runner at second.

T4: Lots of drawn-out at-bats for the Marlins, including a number that have taken seven and eight pitches. That's driven Eovaldi's pitch count to the point where he's going to be up near 80 after just four innings.

B2: Bang-bang play at the plate as Christian Arroyo singles to left, Hunter Renfroe rounds third. Corey Dickerson's throw to the plate is off-line, but Sandy Leon reached up the line and applies the tag a split- second before Renfroe tags the plate.

B2: Bobby Dalbec, who's been far more successful against lefthanded pitching this season, comes through with a hard-hit single to left off Trevor Rogers, producing the first run of the afternoon.

T2: Whatever Eovaldi is doing, it seems to be working -- strikes out the side in the second and has now fanned five straight Marlins.

T2: For the last few starts, Nathan Eovaldi has been fluctuating the timing of his delivery -- including a slight pause in the middle -- to throw off hitters' timing.

B1: A couple of hard-hit balls off Trevor Rogers in the first inning, but nothing to show for it as both are hit right at Miami defenders -- a lineout to second and another to center field.

WHAT'S UP: The Red Sox are 6-2 in their last eight games and 14-8 in their last 22...They are unbeaten in their last four series (3-0-1) and 5-1-1 in their last seven...With a record of 31-20 (.608), the Sox are tied with the Dodgers and Giants for MLB’s third-best record, trailing the Padres (33-19, .635) and Rays (32- 20, .615)....Friday's rain-shortened game was the first Sox game of six innings or fewer the Red Sox beat the Orioles in Baltimore 8-1 on Aug. 17, 2016 and the first at Fenway Park since a 4-1 win on July 31, 2012 vs. DET, when the game was called with two outs in the bottom of the sixth....The Red Sox are 15-13 at Fenway Park, but 15-10 at home since getting swept by Baltimore to begin the season...The Red Sox lead the majors in runs (264), doubles (110), extra-base hits (182), slugging percentage(.446), and OPS (.767) while ranking second in batting average (.259)....The Red Sox are out-homering opponents, 68-38 (plus-30), the largest difference in MLB... They rank fourth in the AL in HR hit (68) and have hit multiple homers n 10 of their last 13 games...They are 17-2 (.895) when hitting two or more homers...The Red Sox are 6-2 vs. NL teams this season and 269-182 (.596) all-time against the NL, the highest Interleague winning percentage in the majors...The Sox have won their last eight home games against the Marlins and 7-0-0 in their last seven series vs. MIA at Fenway Park, going 16-4 in games in that time....Red Sox starters have thrown innings five or more innings 43 times, tied with the Dodgers for second-most in the majors behind the A’s (44)...Sox starters have thrown five or more innings in 28 of their last 30 games....Starling Marte is 3-for-4 with a homer lifetime against Nathan Eovladi while Corey Dickerson is 0-for-9....Eovaldi is tied for third in the AL in lowest percentage of batted balls that have been barreled this season (4.9%, 8 of 164) ...Eovaldi has thrown at least five innings in nine of his 10 starts this season, including six or more in his last four...Christian Arroyo is hitless in his last 10 at-bats while Bobby Dalbec is 0-for-11.

NOTES:

* Interim manager Will Venable, filling in for the day as Alex Cora attends his daughter's high school graduation in Puerto Rico, said he'll try to keep things routine today. "We're just preparing like normal,'' he said. "We'll have some meetings here to make sure we're all on the same page and dialed in before we get out there.'' This will be the first full game Venable has managed at the professional level. He managed an inning in Minneapolis earlier this season when Cora was ejected.

* Venable said he will rely on quality control coach Ramon Vazquez and game coordinator Jason Varitek in the dugout for input. "Everyone will be pretty much doing the same thing.'' said Venable. "Nothing out of the ordinary.''

* Red Sox CEO/President Sam Kennedy said the Red Sox are expecting a paid crowd of 24,000 or so fans today as Massachusetts lifts all COVID restrictions for large public gatherings. "But with the weather that's going on out there today, I would imagine we would have a significant decrease in terms of our turnstile count,'' he said. "Maybe we'll have 16-17,000 or so in the building. As much as we'd love to have a full house, it's kind of nice to have a bit of a dry run here, with the restrictions being relaxed. So it will probably be for the best today and (Sunday) and then be ready for June 8 (the start of the next homestand).'' The Red Sox did not make their season-ticket holders buy their tickets for April and May games, anticipating that those would not be full-capacity games.

* Kennedy said some fans has expressed some reluctance to go to Fenway initially as crowds return. "I've heard responses all over the map,'' he said. "People have very different feelings about emerging from the experience that we've had over the last 15 months and we need to be mindful and respectful of that.''

BSJ Game Report: Red Sox 3, Marlins 1 - Backed by a big crowd, Sox win third straight

Sean McAdam

All you need to know, in quickie form, about the Red Sox' win over the Marlins, complete with BSJ insight and perspective

HEADLINES

Venable a winner in debut: With Alex Cora gone for the day to attend his daughter's high school graduation, Will Venable had his first opportunity to manage in pro ball and pushed all the right buttons. There were plenty to push, too, as Venable used five pitchers from the bullpen in relief of starter Nathan Eovaldi, and each one seemed to be the right call. He credited pitching coach Dave Bush for staying on top of the pitching matchups, but Venable was ultimately in charge and made the proper calls. Relievers Adam Ottavino was asked if the players made any special ceremony for the rookie manager's first win and sheepishly admitted there had been none. "We probably should have,'' said Ottavino.

Fans welcomed back: For the first time since the final game of the 2019 regular season, there were more than 9,500 fans at Fenway as Massachusetts opened up and removed restrictions that been in place for battling the pandemic. The fans made themselves known throughout the day, with a couple of profane chants aimed at the Yankees and Kyrie Irving. But they also brought some energy, which some players acknowledged and appreciated. "That's what's been missing at home -- those 'two strike' moments,'' said Ottavino. "I feel like that puts a lot of pressure on the hitter that didn't exist last year. It's a great feeling to be the guy on the mound in that spot. You feel like you have the advantage and you're about to have a big release there You don't have to worry about your energy level. It's just a natural hormonal reaction and you just try to embrace it and use it.''

Bullpen answers the call: The Sox pieced this one together with their relievers playing a huge role. Josh Taylor, Ottavino, Darwinzon Hernandez, Hirokazu Sawamura and Matt Barnes all contributed as the Marlins kept giving themselves scoring opportunities in the final four innings. Each time, however, the Red Sox pen stepped up and the Marlins didn't score a run off any of the relievers until the Marlins got a rather meaningless one in the ninth to spoil the collective shutout bid. Of the five hits allowed by the five relievers, three never left the infield.

TURNING POINT

The game's most tense moment came in the seventh when, with one out, Ottavino inherited two baserunners, then provided a third on a walk to fill the bases. Leading just 2-0 at the time, the Red Sox didn't have much margin for a mistake, so Ottavino didn't make one. He got Jesus Aguilar to chase a slider out of the strike zone for the second out then, on a full-count, got Garrett Cooper swinging at strike three. Ottavino let loose with a full-throated yell as he came off the mound and the crowd lets its presence be known, too.

TWO UP

Hunter Renfroe: Renfroe had a three-hit game and has lifted his average to .250 for the season following a stretch that has seen him make more regular contact. He's hitting .307 in May.

Bobby Dalbec: Dalbec continues to beat up left-handed pitching, as he delivered two hits including a run- scoring single.

ONE DOWN

Top of the order: Kike Hernandez and Alex Verdugo combined to go hitless in eight plate appearances in a game in which it was the lower half of the lineup that did all of the damage.

QUOTE OF NOTE

"Lot of energy out there, lot of excitement. I know the guys were really feeling off that.'' -- Will Venable on the full capacity allowed at Fenway.

STATISTICALLY SPEAKING

* The Red Sox improved to a season-best 12 games over .500.

* J.D. Martinez had two doubles and leads all American League hitters with 20 multi-hit games.

* Matt Barnes has converted 12 of 13 save chances.

* Of the last 27 hits by Rafael Devers, 20 have been for extra bases.

* Red Sox relievers had four inherited baserunners and none scored.

* The Red Sox are 6-1-1 in their last eight series.

UP NEXT

The Red Sox and Marlins close out their series Sunday at 1:10 p.m. with LHP Eduardo Rodriguez (5-3, 5.06) vs. RHP Sandy Alcantara (2-4, 3.46)

MLB Notebook: A fast forward to the trade deadline creates some big decisions for Red Sox

Sean McAdam

This week, the 2021 MLB season will pass three significant milestones: the Memorial Day Weekend, the turning of the calendar to June and the passing of the one-third mark on the regular-season schedule.

In other words, we're about to move past the "it's still early" portion of the season. Sure, better than a hundred games remain and a lot can still happen, but it's safe to take a look at the standings and start to make some judgments.

The Red Sox are guaranteed nothing. But the more days that come off the calendar, the less fluky they appear. Whether that translates into a return to the postseason for them for the first time since they won the World Series in 2018 is uncertain. But this much seems rather obvious: barring some tsunami of injuries or otherwise completely unexpected developments, they'll be in contention well into the summer.

What that also means is the Red Sox have to have one eye on July 30, this year's non-waiver trade deadline. (It arrives a day early this year because July 31 falls on a Saturday, when teams are more likely to play day games and MLB didn't want the prospect of players being pulled mid-game as the 4 p.m. deadline arrives).

For now, chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom is probably more attuned to the amateur draft set for July 11. The Red Sox own the No. 4 pick in that draft and stand a chance to land a foundational player with their highest pick since the 1960s. But a little more than two weeks after that comes the deadline.

Given the nature of the standings, it's not hyperbolic to suggest two factors could well determine the finish of the 2021 AL East standings -- health and the trade deadline. The Red Sox can do little about the former, but a lot about the latter.

In all likelihood, the Red Sox performance to date has been a pleasant surprise for Bloom, general manager Brian O'Halloran and the rest of the Red Sox Baseball Operations Staff. While they wouldn't have said so publicly, the group probably anticipated an improved product on the field and likely even a winning season. But the guess here is that few -- if any -- members of the Baseball Ops staff projected the team to be playing around .600 ball as the start of June neared.

The Sox' unexpectedly excellent start, then, will serve to move up the timetable of expectations for the franchise. At the start of the year, the prospect of being passive sellers was perhaps a more likely scenario for the Sox. It would have been easy to foresee the team playing in and around .500 at the All-Star break, forcing the Sox to debate whether it was prudent to begin selling off some veteran assets on short-term deals (Hunter Renfroe, Marwin Gonzalez, Adam Ottavino, Kevin Plawecki) to teams looking to improve for the stretch run.

Those sorts of deals would have offered the opportunity to deepen the Red Sox' prospect inventory, as happened last year when the Sox auctioned off Mitch Moreland, Heath Hembree, Brandon Workman and Kevin Pillar for a return of five players. In some ways, that would have represented a win-win situation for Bloom and Co.: a step forward on the field, a winning season, and the added bonus of deepening the minor league system without disrupting the major league core.

Now, however, such a plan seems unlikely. The team's unexpectedly strong play will force the Red Sox into another kind of thinking: how much of the future should be sacrificed to bolster the present.

How Bloom navigates that issue will determine a lot about the franchise's direction over the next few seasons.

Barring a doomsday collapse, the notion of standing pat -- neither selling nor buying at the deadline -- would appear to be off the table. To reward manager Alex Cora, the coaching staff and the players for being competitive over the first half of the season, some additions would be necessary. An unwillingness to improve the roster would be met with massive disappointment in the clubhouse -- to say nothing of the fan base.

That much seems obvious.

But how far will Bloom go to make the Red Sox better for the final two months of the 2021 season and October? That could be the most fascinating question to be asked over the second half of the season.

We know that, more than anything, Bloom values "sustainability'' -- the chance to be able to contend for a pennant, year after year. It's the model undertaken by his mentor, Andrew Friedman with the Los Angeles Dodgers, who, since Friedman's arrival after the 2014 season, have won their division six straight times, won three pennants and a world championship while managing to maintain a fertile, top-ranked farm system.

That's Bloom's vision, too: a competitive team, a Top 5 payroll and a steady flow of young (and inexpensive) prospects who can be used to either fill roster needs or be utilized to obtain established help.

As invigorating as the Sox' start has been, Bloom will want to be careful not to upset the master plan by sacrificing too much of the Sox' prospect base to improve for merely one run at a title.

It may be folly to anticipate what the Red Sox will be in search of two months from now. For one thing, we have no idea of knowing how injuries could impact the roster between now and then. Another 'X' factor for the Red Sox: the status of Chris Sale. If Sale has already returned by the deadline, or is on the verge of returning to the Red Sox' staff, that could be an upgrade all by itself -- at no player cost whatsoever to the Red Sox.

In the same vein, by July, the Red Sox will likely be far more open to the notion of promoting Jarren Duran to the major league roster and Duran's blend of power and speed could be an invigorating addition to the club late in the summer, just as the schedule begins to take its toll on the everyday players.

Because the Red Sox put such an emphasis on versatility and depth this offseason with the signings of Gonzalez, Danny Santana and Kike Hernandez, they probably won't be in that market -- a crowded one, historically speaking. The Sox already have three players who can play both the infield and outfield, and two are switch-hitters? How much utility does one roster need?

From here, it would seem the one area of need the Sox could have would be a left-handed hitting first baseman to platoon with Bobby Dalbec. Currently, Gonzalez and Santana have filled that void, but the former isn't much of an offensive threat -- let alone one with power -- and it might be best to have them serve as depth options in the outfield or other infield positions.

That leaves -- surprise, surprise! -- pitching.

Like almost every other season, most contenders will be looking to bolster their bullpen, and the Red Sox can surely be expected to be among them. Closer Matt Barnes, and now that he's figured out some early- season control issues, Ottavino, provide both experience and dependability in the eighth and ninth innings.

But the rest of the Red Sox relief staff is murky. Hirokazu Sawamura remains an unknown in the big picture, and Darwinzon Hernandez, though dominant in spots, hasn't yet demonstrated he's fully trustworthy.

Maybe, in the coming weeks, the return of Ryan Brasier or Workman could fill that seventh-inning spot. But it's more likely the Sox seek a swing-and-miss power arm on the trade market to complete their late- inning high-leverage crew.

And what of the rotation? This is the area that is least projectable, given the odds of injuries or under- performance thinning the starting staff. The Red Sox can't ignore the checkered injury histories of Nathan Eovaldi and Garrett Richards, nor the relatively unproven Nick Pivetta. By July, Pivetta will presumably have topped the 100-inning mark for the first time since 2018 -- and only the third time in his career.

Making matters more uncertain for the Red Sox is the fact the two top depth starter options in the organization -- Tanner Houck and Connor Seabold -- are currently sidelined with what are thought to be minor arm woes. But those setbacks in April and May bear careful monitoring over the course of the season.

Which leads us to, potentially, the most fascinating scenario of all: Max Scherzer.

For now, the Washington Nationals insist that, no matter where they sit at the deadline, Scherzer, eligible for free agency this fall, won't be auctioned off. The team points to Scherzer's standing in club history, its desire to re-sign him this offseason, and, not incidentally, the franchise's own recent history in which it overcame a poor first two months in 2019 to win its first championship.

But, of course, the Nationals have to say that now. Forecasting a trade involving one of the most important and revered players in club history months ahead of time would be poor form. But if the Nationals continue to sputter, how could they not at least listen on Scherzer? It's not as if dealing him in July would preclude them from re-signing him in December. (See: Chapman, Aroldis).

And, then, well, wouldn't the Red Sox have some thinking to do?

Even with the recent trend of teams being unwilling to sacrifice their top prospects for short-term rentals, the Nats would have to aim high for any return.

There'd be no shortage of interested teams, including the Yankees, who haven't won it all in a dozen years. Or the Atlanta Braves, San Diego Padres and Chicago White Sox -- all of whom could go from serious contenders to prohibitive favorites with the addition of someone like Scherzer.

This could mean the Nats would inquire about the likes of Duran or Triston Casas or Jeter Downs as part of any package for Scherzer. And just as the Red Sox would initially balk at that asking price, how tempted, ultimately, would they be? Imagine adding Scherzer to a rotation that is already flourishing with Sale, Richards, Eovaldi, Pivetta and Eduardo Rodriguez?

It may well be that, by late July, Bloom will have a better sense of where the Red Sox stand among the other contenders. If the Sox are perceived to be flawed with only a puncher's chance of winning it all, it will be far easier to pass a go-for-it deal. If, on the other hand, the Red Sox see an opening to win it all, Bloom may have a big call on his hands -- one, in all likelihood, that he didn't expect to face so soon. ______

On Tuesday night at Guaranteed Rate Field in Chicago, umpire Joe West worked his 5,376th game, breaking a record for umpiring longevity that had stood for 80 years.

Naturally, West threw himself a big celebration, inviting everyone from boyhood friends, fellow umpires now retired, the Oak Ridge Boys, the San Diego Chicken, former quarterback Jim McMahan and proof that even West does have indeed have some endearing qualities, the fabulous Emmylou Harris.

(West's affinity for country music is well-documented, as he once recorded an album under the moniker "Cowboy Joe West'').

When the game became official after the fifth inning and the White Sox posted a tribute to his record- setting night on the scoreboard, most of the fans in attendance booed lustily.

This is West's final year in the game. It may surprise you to learn that among managers and players, West has the earned reputation of being a very good balls-and-strikes umpire, with a consistent strike zone.

What most objected to, over the years, was his insistence on calling attention to himself by over-involving himself in games. It was that shameless self-promotion that most disliked about him. It's too bad that West couldn't let his work stand as his principal calling card. It's said that the best umpires go unnoticed, but such a fate was unthinkable for West, for whom anonymity was unthinkable.

Occasionally, he got called out for his overzealous behavior. When Terry Francona managed the Red Sox, West went overboard in a game and attempted to embarrass Francona in the heat of an argument. An MLB official who learned of the exchange was outraged by West's behavior and personally ordered West to apologize to Francona the next day in the parking lot adjacent to the home clubhouse outside Fenway.

West, hat literally in hand, did so, which Francona graciously accepted -- but Francona, never one to miss an opportunity to supply a zinger or two, made sure to give West some good-natured off-field grief in return.

* The Athletic

Red Sox deliver rousing win worthy of a crowd: ‘That’s what’s been missing’

Chad Jennings

A little more than a half-hour before first pitch, a roughly college-aged kid came sprinting out of the crowd gathered in front of Fenway Park. He ran along the Jersey Street sidewalk to the edge of the parking lot behind Tasty Burger. He pulled a beer from a black plastic bag, chugged the can right then and there and ran back to join his friends as they entered the ballpark.

Good times never seemed so good.

By the old standards, Saturday was not a great day for baseball in Boston. It was cold and dreary. The nondescript Marlins were in town. The Bruins were hours away from puck drop for Game 1 of their second-round playoff series, and Fenway was not sold out.

But the old standards are long gone, the world has changed — it’s still changing — and Saturday had an air of celebration even before the first pitch was thrown. The state of Massachusetts had lifted most of its COVID-19 restrictions, and so the ballpark was as full as it had been in 20 months. Masks were (mostly) off, friends were together without restriction, and the Red Sox were worth watching again. The mood had not been this triumphant in two years.

And in a 3-1 win, the Red Sox delivered a moment that demanded such a crowd. With the bases loaded in the seventh inning, reliever Adam Ottavino struck out No. 3 hitter Jesús Aguilar —who immediately snapped his bat slamming it to the ground — then struck out cleanup hitter Garrett Cooper on a perfect slider down and away. The crowd had been on its feet even before the 1-2 pitch, bringing back the familiar pulse of a ballpark and a ballgame on the edge, and the stands erupted when Cooper whiffed and Ottavino stormed off the mound pounding his mitt and screaming to the masses.

So good. So good. So good.

Try as it might, digital crowd noise couldn’t replicate that sort of moment last season — frankly, neither could the moribund 2020 Red Sox — and a 25-percent-capacity Fenway couldn’t quite get there in the first quarter of this season. But Saturday, the old feeling was back. Not all the way back to the old standard, but a return to the days when a bases-loaded jam qualified as a real problem and getting out of it was a collective achievement.

“I think the crowd was what made it a little different than it’s been,” Ottavino said. “Just a lot of energy in the moment, especially when it got to two strikes on the last guy. Just kind of an out-of-body experience there. Glad I was able to make the pitch, and just kind of blacked out. … That’s what’s been missing is those two-strike moments at home.”

Allowed to open at full capacity for the first time since September 2019, the Red Sox announced a sold attendance of 25,089, roughly 12,000 short of a sellout. Because of the weather, team president Sam Kennedy said he expected more like 17,000 in the building, but the actual crowd looked bigger than that. Season ticket holders won’t have their seats until the next homestand, but Fenway looked well over 50 percent full.

“People have very different feelings (about) emerging from the experience that we’ve had over the last 15 months,” Kennedy said. “And we just need to be mindful and respectful of that. … Some people, like me, for example, I’m really fired up that we’re all going to be able to be back together in person, but there are others that are less enthusiastic and it’s going to take some time. We just have to recognize that people will adjust on a different pace and just be respectful of each other.”

Some fans and game-day employees wore masks — anyone not vaccinated was asked to wear one — and most if not all food-service workers seemed to be wearing masks, but for the most part, Fenway Park looked the way it did before the pandemic (perhaps with more hand-sanitizer stations throughout the concourses). Concession lines were long — Kennedy said it’s been a challenge to hire back the usual number of food and beverage vendors — but during a fourth-inning walk through two different concourses, there was no sense of impatient frustration. In fact, with the vast majority of fans opting not to wear their masks, people were smiling at one another. The mood was relaxed, not tense.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky — who was born in Peabody, Mass, taught for nine years at Harvard Medical School and most recently worked as the Chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases at Massachusetts General Hospital — threw out the ceremonial first pitch, a pretty good one to catcher Christian Vázquez. He wore a mask on the field. She did not.

“It’s such a bright moment right now,” Walensky said. “Having been here (at the start of the pandemic), March 6 was the first call I received — March 6, 2020 — when we had our first case (of COVID-19) in Boston, and our first case in Massachusetts. It was so hard as we thought through the things that needed to close, the conventions at Hynes Center that might not happen or didn’t happen, school systems that needed to close. And it’s been a really long year. We’ve seen some really, really dark times. (But) the future is just so bright, and I’m super excited to be here. It was truly an honor to be here, and thrilled that we’re back where we are right now.”

With the crowd in place, Fenway Park was back to its familiar rhythms right away. There was a big cheer when Boston Mayor Kim Janey was introduced pregame, then an even bigger ovation when Walensky threw her pitch, and bigger still when the Red Sox took the field behind starter Nathan Eovaldi.

First-pitch strike — Roar!

Flyout to left — Cheer!

Fan with a glove drops a foul ball — Groan!

The soundtrack was familiar, right down to the strikeout looking that ended the first inning: first a small cheer when the ball hit the mitt and then a loud ovation when umpire Chad Fairchild finally called strike and Eovaldi came strutting off the field. He finished with 5 1/3 scoreless innings for his sixth win.

The crowd swayed to “Dancing Queen” after the second inning and sang along to “Three Little Birds” when Xander Bogaerts came to the plate. A middle-aged man in a Red Sox sweatshirt and Bruins cap won the sixth-inning Dance Off, and the “Sweet Caroline” singalong was a full-throated rendition in the eighth. Bigger crowds will come this summer. There will be better days — for baseball and for everything else — but as a first step back to normal, Saturday felt like a win even before the game was over.

“You don’t have to worry about your energy level when you have the crowd like that,” Ottavino said. “It’s just going to be there. It’s just a natural hormonal reaction, and you just try to embrace it and use it.”

That may be true in more ways than one.

* Associated Press

Fenway Park back to full capacity; Red Sox beat Marlins 3-1

BOSTON (AP) — Playing their first game in a rejuvenated Fenway Park since the state dropped limits on crowds during the coronavirus pandemic, Nathan Eovaldi went 5 1/3 scoreless innings and the Boston Red Sox beat the Miami Marlins 3-1 on Saturday.

Bobby Dalbec, Kevin Plawecki and Hunter Renfroe each had an RBI single for Boston, which won for the seventh time in nine games and posted its ninth straight home victory over the Marlins.

There was a lot more buzz in the fabled park, with the fans roaring after the national anthem and cheering loudly when Eovaldi fired a fastball past the swing of Magnerius Sierra, the game’s first batter.

Despite drizzly, chilly weather, the stands were about half full and the crowd broke in a chant of ’“Let’s go, Red Sox!” that echoed around in the first inning from the announced paid attendance of 25,089.

Eovaldi (6-2) allowed four hits, striking out seven with one walk.

“It was awesome,” he said of the crowd. “They were definitely bringing the energy. You could definitely tell the excitement was there in the stadium.”

Adam Ottavino struck out Jesús Aguilar and Garrett Cooper to leave the bases loaded in the seventh. The crowd erupted into a loud cheer when Ottavino struck out Cooper on a sharp slider.

“I think the crowd was what made it different than its been,” Ottavino said. “Just a lot of energy in the moment, especially once I got to two strikes on the last guy. Just kind of an out-of-body experience. Glad I was able to make the pitch. I just kind of blacked out.”

Matt Barnes got the final three outs for his 12th save in 13 chances despite giving up Aguilar’s RBI single.

“We had the right guys up there, we just weren’t able to get the big hit,” Marlins manager Don Mattingly said.

Trevor Rogers (6-3) gave up two runs in six innings, allowing nine hits with six strikeouts and no walks.

“They were loud. I heard it for sure,” Rogers said. “The atmosphere was crazy. It was a really good atmosphere to pitch in. It was a lot of fun.”

Red Sox manager Alex Cora missed the game and was back home in Puerto Rico, attending the high graduation of daughter Camila. Bench coach Will Venable ran the team.

FIRST PITCH

Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, threw out the ceremonial pitch to Boston catcher Christian Vázquez, tossing a high arc from just in front of the mound. She said she warmed up in her backyard in nearby Newton.

“It’s such a bright moment right now,” she said. “Having been here, March 6, 2020, was the first call I received when we had our first case in Boston and our first case in Massachusetts. … It’s been a really long year, and we’ve seen some really, really dark times. … I’m cautiously optimistic, but I’m not declaring victory.”

The Red Sox were following CDC guidelines and fans that were fully vaccinated were not required to wear masks.

THAT’S HOW IT LOOKED

It was the first time since the final game of 2019, when the Red Sox beat Baltimore in front of a crowd of 35,427, they were able to open to full capacity.

“It’s emotional today,” Red Sox President Sam Kennedy said. “We’re seeing some people we haven’t seen in a year-plus.”

TRAINER’S ROOM

Marlins: Mattingly said SS Jazz Chisholm, who missed his fourth straight game with a sprained right ankle, could return for the series finale Sunday. … OF Adam Duvall, a late scratch Friday with left side soreness, didn’t play.

Red Sox: Kennedy said: “the honest answer is, yes, it’s frustrating, but we’re respectful of individual choice” when asked if it was disappointing that the Red Sox hadn’t reached the threshold of 85% or more of their Tier 1 individuals being considered fully vaccinated.

UP NEXT

Miami RHP Sandy Alcantara (2-4, 3.46 ERA) is set to face LHP Eduardo Rodriguez (5-3, 5.06), who is coming off his shortest outing this season when he lasted just four innings in his previous start.

* USA Today

With MLB changes imminent, Theo Epstein wants baseball 'back in the players' hands'

Bob Nightengale

CHICAGO — You sick of no action? God-awful hitting? Strikeouts galore? Interminable long games? Nightly no-hit alerts?

Well, Theo Epstein, the architect who ended two of the longest World Series droughts in baseball with the Boston Red Sox and Chicago Cubs, is right there with you, painfully watching the same thing night after night.

Epstein, 47, is a civilian now, not employed by a team for the first time since he was a 17-year-old intern with the Baltimore Orioles. But unlike most civilians, he has the power to do something about it in his role as a consultant with Major League Baseball.

Get ready, you’re about to see some immediate changes, with a slew of others on the way courtesy of Epstein and about 10 other MLB executives in a collaborative effort to save baseball from becoming a niche sport.

Major League Baseball plans to seriously crack down on the rash of pitchers using illegal substances in the next two weeks, with umpires ordered to be vigilant in stopping pitchers from using foreign substances to dramatically improve their spin rate – even if it means embarrassing some of the biggest pitching stars in the game.

Tired of seeing pitchers and catchers constantly changing signs between pitches every time there’s a baserunner on second base who’s trying to legally steal signs? Well, so is MLB. At some point, there will be no need for catchers putting down signs. You’re going to have catchers wearing electronic devices on their wristbands, who will signal pitches to his pitcher wearing bone conduction headsets on their caps.

The days of relievers opening games could be coming to an end. Beginning in 2022, teams will have a maximum of 13 pitchers on their roster. It could potentially be reduced to 12 pitchers, maybe even 11 in ensuing years.

You tired of screaming at your TV set on an umpire’s missed pitch in the strike zone? Have no fear, robo- umps are coming too with an automated strike zone.

And, depending on how the experiments fare in the minor leagues, we may see a pitch clock, larger bases, at least a limited ban of shifts, and maybe the pitching mound moved a foot back, too.

Too drastic of a measure?

Or drastically needed?

“I think there's a misconception that MLB has an interest in trying to completely change the game and reinvent the wheel,’’ Epstein says, “and that's not the case. We just want to nudge the game back into a better balance. The game is constantly changing, and I think for the last 10 years it's been moving in a direction that nobody would choose on their own if they were starting from scratch.

“I don't think anyone would sit down and say, 'Hey, we really want to have a 25%, 30% strikeout rate.' It's just recognizing that the game's changing a little bit. It's important for everyone who cares about the game just to have a discussion that can be thoughtful and intentional about steering in the direction that's good for everybody, particularly the fans.

“So, if the game's going to be evolving, how can we put up some guideposts to make sure it changes in a way that's the best possible version of baseball, action-packed and the most entertaining version of the game for fans and players alike?’’

Epstein sat down with USA TODAY Sports at his favorite Wrigleyville coffee shop this week, addressing some of MLB’s biggest issues and its attempt to restore more action to the game.

The league-wide batting average was .237 through Friday, tied for the lowest since World War II. There are 18.04 strikeouts per game – which has doubled the past 40 years. The average time between pitches is 23 seconds. The average time in between hits is now 12 minutes, according to G. Scott Thomas’ research. And the average time in between a ball even put in play is 3 minutes, 51 seconds.

Oh, where have you gone Tony Gwynn and Rickey Henderson?

“We need to readjust the balance between batters and pitchers,’’ Epstein says, “to create more opportunities for players to show their athleticism and for fans to get entertainment value again. The experimental rule changes are an attempt to put the game back in the hands of the players.’’

How'd we get here?

“I think it's a lot of factors coming together at once,’’ Epstein says, “changing the way certain elements of pitching and hitting are prioritized, and therefore, taught. Pitching has evolved from more of an art to more of the science of that missing. A lot of people in the industry have done a great job of weaponizing data and technology to train for the traits that allow you to miss bats, and strike a lot of people out. So pitchers are able to train for velocity and to optimize the spin on their breaking pitches.

“You can almost rename pitching to bat-missing.’’

Yes, the game has changed that much.

Now, to offset pitchers throwing at record speeds with the average fastball at 93 mph, MLB plans to limit teams to 13-man pitching staffs next year, with hopes of further reducing it in future years. The strategy is simple. If you have fewer pitchers, you’ll need starters to go deeper into games. And if you pitch into the seventh and eighth innings, you’re not throwing as hard as you possibly can, knowing that five-inning stints by starters can devastate a pitching staff. We’ve gone from 5.34 pitchers per game in 1981, according to Thomas, to an average of 8.66 pitchers a game – an increase of 62%.

“The job evolved from trying to go into the seventh, eighth and ninth innings,’’ Epstein says, “to missing as many bats as you can for five innings. It's a self-fulfilling prophecy because now teams are completely changing their pitching development. Instead of developing starters that can go through a lineup, three or four times, you're developing pitchers who just throw as hard as possible with this crazy spin rate to miss bats.’’

The theory is that if pitchers’ velocity decreases, and they no longer have spin rates making pitches look like whiffle balls, hitters will alter their approach, too, and stop trying to jack a ball out of the ballpark on every pitch.

“The pitching has created a different environment for hitters,’’ Epstein says, “so their last resort is to hit a ball hard in the air and pop it out of the ballpark. Hitters in the draft now are being selected based on the ability to hit the ball hard in the air. Launch angle and exit velocity are being prioritized in teams’ development.

“So, it's a bit of a vicious cycle where the pitching is so good, the defensive positioning is so good, that hitters prioritize the home run and not two-strike approaches or using the whole field. It’s not a surprise that the strikeout rate is climbing as rapidly as the batting average is.’’

The average strikeout rate these days is virtually matching Hall of Famers Sandy Koufax and Nolan Ryan. There are more strikeouts than hits in games, with an average ratio of 0.87 hits per strikeout. Just 10 years ago, there were 1.23 hits per strikeout. And no one seems the bit embarrassed to strike out.

“If you’re rewarded for putting the ball in play,’’ Epstein says, “then the stigma of striking out comes back.’’

What about the game's history?

Fans and reporters screamed there was no need to even have infielders and outfielders on the field with the way pitching dominated the game. It was in 1893. So they moved the mound back from 50 feet to the current 60-feet, 6 inches. The pitching ERA soared to 5.33, the batting average was .309, and there were four players who hit .400 or better.

In 1969, following the year of the pitcher, with seven teams hitting .230 or lower, three teams averaging 2.90 runs or less and Bob Gibson’s 1.12 ERA, they lowered the mound from 15 inches to 10 inches and shrunk the strike zone. The result? Instant offense with 8.14 runs scored a game after 6.84 in 1968.

“Those things allowed hitters to put the game back in better balance between pitchers and hitters,’’ Epstein says, “so I think that's a simple way to think about what needs to happen over the next five years or so and rebalancing the pitcher-hitter relationship.’’

But moving the mound back a foot in the Atlantic League beginning this week, isn’t that taking it too far?

“I understand that the 60-feet-six inches has been around for over a century,’’ Epstein says. “But here's one way to look at it. Isn't it worth running an experiment for half a season in the Atlantic League to find if that might be the answer? That pitching is so good right now that we've outgrown 60 feet-six-inches by a foot, and if it is, and can be done safely, maybe we don’t have to change six other things.

“I think it's important that we find that out. If it doesn't work, then you can move on and no one will ever talk about moving the mound back again. But I think it's important to find out.’’

Why not just lower the mound?

“Lowering the mound is a complicated one,’’ Epstein says, “because a big, big contributor to the strikeout rate now is the prevalence and effectiveness of good high spin is a four-seam fastball above the zone. Those are actually more effective from a lower release point. So, lowering the mound might not have the same effect that it had back in the 60s.’’

The shift

There’s a myriad of woes MLB would like to fix, but until hitters are able to start making more contact, everything else is almost superfluous. Sure, hitters can produce more hits if shifts are banned and baserunners can steal more often if pick-off moves are limited and the bases are bigger.

Yet, there’s no bigger concern than making sure the pitchers aren’t overpowering every hitter, and suffocating the life out of the game.

“I hear voices out there saying, 'Well, just have better hitters or tell the hitters to use the whole field,'’’ Epstein says. “I don't think that's enough to ask organizations or players to prioritize a way of playing that that might be more familiar. I think it's important to find ways to adjust the rules a little bit to create incentives that rewards those behaviors. …

“If I were to pick one thing that we have to focus on to create the best version the game can be is putting the ball in play more, because by definition it will gives players more chance to show their athleticism, and helps the game move quicker.’’

'Put the game back in the players' hands'

Epstein laughs, knowing that when it comes to analytics, the genie is already out of the bottle and he is just as aggravated as fans watching players constantly digging cheat sheets out of their pockets or taking off their caps to look at the instructions where to play hitters.

Whatever happened to relying on instincts?

“Analytics obviously have their place in the game,’’ Epstein says, “but it'd be great if they’re used more for pregame preparation, and not as much in game. We want to improve the pace of play but what slows the pace down is the synthesis of a ton of information that’s in the game now. If you can limit the analytical stuff to pregame, and let the players use their instincts and their intelligence to position themselves, it would lead to a faster pace of play. It puts a premium on players’ instincts and intelligence.

“We have players who are more athletic now than we’ve had in the history of the game, but it would be great if we could find more opportunities for them to show their athleticism. Fans don't want to see players look robotic.

“The players are smart. They understand the way the game is played better than anyone else so let them position themselves a little bit. Let’s put the game back in the players’ hands. They can use their instincts, use their intelligence, and put their athleticism on display more for fans to get that entertainment value.’’

Robo-umps

The automated strike zone is coming, perhaps within three years, but it’s definitely on the way.

“When that comes,’’ Epstein says, “it's really easy to make adjustments in the strike zone. We’re trying to optimize contact. So, the way the strike zone used to be a little bit wider and a little bit shorter, which was better for contact. Now, it's really tall, but narrow.

“So you can shrink the zone a little bit, especially the upper boundary, which might be better for inducing more contact.’’

'The right levers'

Epstein makes it clear that he has no interest in becoming the next commissioner. He doesn’t know what he wants to do next, but says that he badly misses the daily competition and the camaraderie of being with a baseball team.

In the meantime, if his efforts can help improve the game on the field, it will feel like a championship season.

“I'm just a believer in active experimentation because I spend a lot of time thinking about what the game is going like at the end of the next collective bargaining agreement,’’ Epstein says. “I think it's important not to just kick the can down the road, and wait for the trends to get worse, so I'm really appreciative what the minor league players are doing with the new changes after not playing for over a year.

“I just think this is a really important time for everyone to work together, to figure out what are the right levers to pull to create the best version of the game. It’s a privilege just to have a seat at the table for some of these important discussions.’’

Remember Tom Emanski?

Fred McGriff (who really should be in the Hall of Fame) caused a stir when he was invited to Kenny Mayne’s final show on ESPN and reiterated that he still has never watched one of the Tom Emanski videos in which he was featured.

McGriff met Emanski when he was 18 years old. Emanski videotaped McGriff’s swing and offered to help him. McGriff visited him, became a star, and in 1991 filmed a commercial as a favor. He received 1% of the profit, amounting to about $45,000 to $50,000.

McGriff, of course, has seen the commercial a million times when it ran on ESPN, but generated plenty of laughter when he said again this past week that he has actually never watched a video.

“I was on that show for maybe two minutes,’’ McGriff says, “and people are blowing my phone up. All I said was, “Dude, I’ve never seen the video.’’’

Yet, McGriff says that without Emanski, he’s not sure he ever has his star-studded career.

“People can say what they want,’’ McGriff says, “this guy helped me get to the big leagues. I went to see Tom Emanski in Orlando, and he got me to slow my swing down, and that was before all of the swing technology.

“So I’m Chicago, he calls me and says, 'You mind helping me with this video?’ I meet him outside Wrigley Field, he gives me a cap and puts a camera on his shoulder, and I just say, ‘This video is guaranteed to get results.’

“The rest is history. I’ve never lived it down.’’

Around the basepaths..

– Now that former Los Angeles Angels pitching coach Mickey Callaway is suspended through 2022 for sexual misconduct, former Mets GM Jared Porter is on the clock. MLB is nearing the end of its investigation which is expected to result in a suspension at least as long as Callaway’s.

– If the Oakland A’s or Tampa Bay Rays move, MLB believes the top two markets are Nashville and Montreal, but they’d prefer to keep those cities available for expansion franchises.

– Considering the frustration in New York over catcher James McCann and in Chicago over Yasmani Grandal, maybe the Mets and White Sox can work out a deal swapping for each other. The Mets need Grandal’s offense, and the White Sox would love a return of McCann’s defense. The money owed to each player is almost a wash. This is the first year of McCann’s four-year, $40.6 million contract and Grandal is owed $54.75 million over the next three years.

– The Chicago Cubs are ruining the plans to have at least a moderate rebuild with their success this season, which could keep outfielder/infielder Kris Bryant and closer Craig Kimbrel in place.

– The Arizona Diamondbacks are a train wreck right now, entering Saturday with 12 consecutive losses and losing 21 of the last 24 games. D-backs president Derrick Hall says he’s not blaming manager Torey Lovullo, but Lovullo is on the final year of his contract and future Hall of Fame manager Bruce Bochy is just a six-hour drive away and itching for a return.

– Can we just give Rangers outfielder Adolis Garcia the AL Rookie of the Year award right now? He is producing one of the greatest rookie seasons in history. He leads all rookies this year with 16 homers, 41 RBI, 20 extra-base hits, 100 total bases and a .919 OPS. He could become only the eighth rookie since 1900 to record a slugging percentage of at least .600 while qualifying for the batting title.

– For the first time since 2019, the owners will be having their quarterly meeting in person at the MLB headquarters next week in New York.

– The Rockies no longer have All-Star Nolan Arenado at third base, but their replacements are faring quite well. Ryan McMahon and Josh Fuentes entered the weekend hitting .278 with 11 homers, 38 RBI with an .841 OPS while leading all of baseball with eight defensive runs saved according to the sports info solutions.

– You wonder why the Dodgers are so powerful? They have had 32 quality starts this year, and have had four starters – Trevor Bauer, Clayton Kershaw, Walker Buehler and Julio Urias – produce at least six each. No other team has had three starters with six quality starts.

– Dodgers All-Star outfielder Mookie Betts is having his worst start since he became a full-time player in 2015, batting .240 with five homers, 17 RBI and a .778 OPS. “I don’t have any excuses,’’ Betts said, “sometimes you just don’t play well. I’m not here to say this is why or this, that and the other. You’ve just got to accept it. It’s not from lack of effort.’’

– It’s stunning that the New York Mets are in first place with $341 million shortstop Francisco Lindor having a hideous slash line of .185/.290/.268.

– Chicago White Sox manager Tony La Russa on the criticism he has received this year. “If you just go back to any place that I have been, any other manager or head coach, you’re going to get some heat. If you don’t like it, do something else for a living.’’

– Pittsburgh Pirates manager Derek Shelton on the play seen ‘round the world: “I’m pretty sure this play is going to be used not just in the Pirates organization but in every level of baseball, in every organization. I think a lot of people got caught watching the play because it had never happened before.’’