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The Boston Red Sox Saturday, March 30, 2019 * The Boston Globe Mitch Moreland saves Red Sox after Nathan Eovaldi takes his lumps Peter Abraham SEATTLE — The job of a baseball manager comes down to one essential truth: put your players in the best position to succeed. Everything else is filler. Alex Cora had that in mind in the ninth inning on Friday night when he sent Mitch Moreland to the plate as a pinch hitter against the Seattle Mariners. The Sox had cut a five-run deficit down to two and had two runners on base against righthander Scott Strickland. It was a similar situation to Game 4 of the World Series last fall when Moreland was sent up in the seventh inning with two runners on and the Sox trailing the Los Angeles Dodgers by four runs. Moreland homered deep to right field off righthander Ryan Madson to get the Sox back in the game and they went on to beat the Dodgers and won the Series the next night. Five months later, Moreland did it again. His home run to right field gave the Sox a satisfying 7-6 victory. The second game of the season isn’t the World Series. But Moreland, who has always hit righthanders well, had been in that spot before and knew what he needed to do. “The more experience you’ve got with it the better you can prepare,” Moreland said. “Obviously it was a little bit different but, still, all the same. You’re trying to go up there and do your job.” Cora was just waiting for the right moment. “We wanted Mitch to hit with men on,” he said. “From the seventh inning on he was preparing. We don’t stop playing. They understand their roles and that was a big swing by Mitch.” Moreland got ahead in the count when Strickland missed with two sliders. Moreland told himself to be ready for a fastball, knowing Strickland would want to throw a strike. It was a fastball and Moreland lined it over the fence. The shot was measured at 114 miles-per-hour off the bat, a sign of how ready he was for it. “Yeah, I hit it pretty good,” Moreland said. Once the Sox had the lead, Cora turned to Matt Barnes to protect it. The righthander got three outs on 12 pitches, striking out Domingo Santana and Daniel Vogelbach to end the game. It was the third career save for Barnes, the first since 2017. “I was locked in trying to do my job and get this team a win,” Barnes said. Colten Brewer, Brandon Workman, Brian Johnson and Barnes fired four no-hit innings. The final 10 Mariners went in order, six by strikeout. That the first save situation of the season went to Barnes doesn’t mean all of them will. He has not been named the closer. “We’ll stay with the plan,” Cora said. “We were watching the game and the game dictated for Barnes to be in the ninth. He already knows what it’s all about. I’ll give you that one. I talked to him a month ago about how we’re going to use him.” Barnes is fine with that. “If it’s not me in the ninth inning on a given night, then we have 100-percent faith in the other guy that’s going to take the ball and close the game out” he said. After losing the first game of the season, 12-4, on Thursday the Sox fell behind, 6-1, after four innings on Friday as Nate Eovaldi was hit hard. He gave up six runs on eight hits — three of home runs — over five innings. Mallex Smith, who had seven home runs in 930 career at-bats, led off the bottom of the first inning with a blast deep to right field. Domingo Santana then homered to left field when Eovaldi grooved a slider into his bat path. Omar Narvaez homered with one out in the second inning. The Mariners did not have a home run in the fourth inning but hammered a steady stream of pitches over the heart of the plate. Tim Beckham led off with a double to right field. Navaez followed with a single and Rhon Healy with an RBI double that thumped off the wall in center. Dee Gordon’s sacrifice fly scored Navaez and moved Healy to third. Smith then sent a high fastball deep to left center. Bradley made a leaping catch against the wall but Healy trotted in. The Sox have allowed 18 runs on 20 hits — eight of them home runs — in two games. “I’ve got to do a better job of adjusting on the fly out there,” Eovaldi said. Seattle starter Yusei Kikuchi worked a solid six innings. The lefthander allowed three runs, two earned, on four hits and struck out five without a walk. He left with a 6-3 lead. Xander Bogaerts and J.D. Martinez had solo home runs off Kikuchi. Martinez’s was a 430-foot blast to center in the sixth inning. With the Sox down, 6-3, Christian Vazquez homered leading off the eighth inning. When Andrew Benintendi drew a walk, the Sox suddenly had the tying run at the plate with no outs. The Mariners went to righthander Cory Gearrin, who allowed a single by Mookie Betts. That sent Benintendi to third. Martinez struck out looking at a well-located fastball on the outside corner. Bogaerts drew a walk to load the bases for Eduardo Nunez. Nunez tapped a ball to the right side and inexplicably stopped halfway up the base line. So Gearrin threw to the plate to start a 1-2-3 double play as Nunez stood watching. “I wanted him to tag me, that’s why I stopped,” Nunez said. “I didn’t know what else to do.” Cora didn’t fault Nunez. “It’s such a weird play. There’s nothing you can do,” he said. “It was such a freak play. I’ve never seen it in my life.” Rafael Devers doubled off Strickland to start the ninth inning then moved to third on a passed ball. Strickland then hit Blake Swihart. Bradley grounded to first base and Devers was thrown out at the plate. That was when Cora went to Moreland. “It felt like that was playoff game,” Nunez said. “We forgot it was the second game of the season, that was the feeling. We wanted to win so bad.” Rick Porcello not sad to see Ichiro Suzuki retire Peter Abraham SEATTLE — The only sign of Ichiro Suzuki at T-Mobile Park this week are the dozen or so styles of T- shirts and hats available in the team stores with his name and/or number on them. Suzuki retired after the March 21 game against Oakland in Tokyo. He will continue to work for the Mariners in an advisory role, but for now is taking some time away. Rick Porcello is just fine with that. Suzuki was 13 of 33 (.394) against Porcello going back to their first meeting in 2009. “He was such a unique hitter,” Porcello said Friday before the Sox played the Mariners. “He would let the ball get deep and shoot it down the left field line. You’d feel good that you got a fastball by him, but then he’d hit it.” Porcello, a sinkerball pitcher for much of his career, resorted to changeups against Ichiro. “I wanted to get him to hit the ball in the air, which is not what I was doing with most hitters,” Porcello said. “He just gave me problems. I had to throw my best changeup to get him out. Other than that, he covered the plate with me. “Nobody really hit the way he did. He was a challenge for me, but that was the case for a lot of pitchers.” Brandon Workman also has bad memories of Suzuki. Suzuki was only 2 for 7 against Workman, but one of those hits was a single Sept. 8, 2013, at Yankee Stadium. In a 3-3 game in the ninth inning, Suzuki singled to center field, stole second, moved to third on a fly ball, and scored on a wild pitch. “A walkoff wild pitch,” Workman said. “Not a great way to end a game.” Suzuki hit .292 in 150 games against the Sox and .269 in 64 games at Fenway Park. Suzuki’s .634 OPS at Fenway was his lowest at any AL ballpark. No concerns for Sale A day after Chris Sale allowed seven runs over three innings, manager Alex Cora again said his ace was healthy. “His stuff wasn’t there. His slider wasn’t good; the fastball was erratic and the changeup was OK,” Cora said. “I talked to him. He’s healthy. Obviously he knows more about himself than me as far as delivery and all that. He’ll work on it the next few days.” Sale is scheduled to face Oakland on Tuesday. “The most important thing is that he’s healthy,” Cora said. “I know everybody worries about it. When you don’t see the 98, 99 [mile-per-hour fastballs] people are going to ask questions. We understand that.” Cora pointed out that Sale gradually built his velocity last season. But Sale’s fastball averaged 94.3 m.p.h. in his first start last season and 92.7 on Thursday. His slider velocity was essentially the same. “Talking to Chris, he understands where he’s at and what he needs to do,” Cora said.

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