The Boston Red Sox did not enter the 2023 season with high expectations for the campaign. Boston had an offseason in which chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom opted to not re-sign Xander Bogaerts, and he did not complete a single $100 million-plus signing.
The Red Sox silenced doubters right out of the gate, as they came away with a home series win over the Baltimore Orioles. Boston's offense led the way throughout the series. Overall, the Red Sox joined the 1976 Cincinnati Reds and the 1978 Milwaukee Brewers as the only teams since 1901 to score at least nine runs in each of their first three games of a season.
Red Sox right fielder Alex Verdugo is among multiple hitters on the team who are off to potent starts to the 2023 campaign. Verdugo hit .357 against the Orioles, and he also logged four RBI in the series.
Verdugo took notice of the criticism that the Red Sox received during the offseason, and in the big picture, he sees that the team can defy the odds this year.
“Like I said, they want to count us out,” Verdugo said following Boston’s 9-5 home win over Baltimore on Sunday. “They want to say we’re going to be last in our division. But we don’t feel that way. We like our team. … For us, there’s not going to be one set guy that’s gonna hold this whole team up and keep going.
“It’s going to be every single one of us.”
The Red Sox scored a combined 27 runs in their first series of the season against Baltimore, and manager Alex Cora was quite pleased with the production from the offense across the board.
“The guys that we have: Yoshida, Verdugo, even Raffy (Rafael Devers), he swings and misses but when it matters he will put it in play,” Cora said after the game. “JT’s at-bats. And then Adam who has power. He puts it in play.
“So from top to bottom, we believe we’re going to put pressure on the opposition. There’s certain days that it’s not going to work. But we will grind and do what we’ve done over the weekend.”
The Red Sox will now look ahead to a three-game home series against the Pittsburgh Pirates beginning on Monday.
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