Opening Day is infinity. The numbers stretch beyond our universe.
And so here we are and the 2017 first-place Red Sox are perfect and the sky-beyond-the sky is the limit. Like the hopes of Red Sox Nation, the potential of the Local Nine is infinite.
Potential is a blessing and a curse. A small sample of the final weeks of 2016 — plus one game this year — tells us only that the Red Sox have a scruffy 22-year-old — part Marty McFly, part Tony Conigliaro — who might very well be Freddie Lynn or Yaz, or a bust named Juan Bustabad. All we know at this hour is that we want to see more.
Young Andrew Benintendi, who played 34 games in the big leagues last year, made his Opening Day debut at Fenway Monday and was the prototypical Rockwellian phenom, making a great Yaz-esque catch in left and dropping a three-run homer into the visiting bullpen in a postcard-pretty 5-3, Red Sox Opening Day victory over the mediocre Pittsburgh Pirates.
As openers go, this one checked all the boxes. The Sox got a serviceable effort (6⅓ innings, three runs, five strikeouts, one walk) from reigning Cy Young winner Rick Porcello, Pablo Sandoval established that he is again the nifty, nimble Pablo of his days with San Francisco (2008-14), and the prematurely beleaguered Boston bullpen did what it needed to do to hold a comfortable lead that was established when the Sox put up five runs after starting the bottom of the fifth with two outs and nobody aboard in a Premier League-like 0-0 game.
“The quick-strike ability offensively was key in this one,’’ said manager John Farrell.
Farrell’s abject calm demonstrates the difference between the beginning of this season and the beginning of the 2016 season after the Sox finished in last place for the third time in four seasons.
The first question Farrell heard before the first game of 2016 was “John, do you feel a sense of urgency to keep your job?’’
The question was asked by WBZ’s intrepid Jonny Miller, who was back at it again Monday, but without the party-starter, firing-line question. It was Milller’s 59th consecutive Fenway opener, a DiMaggio-esque streak which dates to 1958 when Yankee Don Larsen beat the Sox and young Jonny Miller paid $2.50 to sit in row A of lower box 69.
“We’re eager. We’re ready to go out and compete,’’ a less-urgent, more-secure Farrell said Monday morning. “I couldn’t be more proud of the way they prepared. They were hungry throughout the winter and spring training . . . We were left with a bad taste in our mouths and that hasn’t been forgotten.’’
Sandoval is particularly hungry. A guy who drops 30-40 pounds in the offseason is probably always hungry.
The Panda was in the middle of things when the Sox broke open a scoreless tie in the bottom of the fifth. After a two-out, stand-up triple to right by Jackie Bradley Jr. Sandoval hit a grounder into the shortstop hole and easily beat the throw from Jordy Mercer to give the Sox their first run. This kept alive an inning that would produce the game’s ultimate moment: Benintendi’s three-run shot into the bullpen off Pirates starter Gerrit Cole.
“It was a fastball in,’’ said the flatline Benintendi. “I thought the wind was going to hold it up a little bit, but I was fortunate enough for it to go over.’’
Let’s stop here and consider The Kid. The Red Sox have had a lot of blue-chip prospects burst upon the big-league scene. Some turned out to be Ted Williams and some turned out to be Dwayne Hosey. Benintendi is not going to be Ted Williams but he is an electric player who has been big-league ready since he was rushed to the majors after just a few months of Double-A ball last summer. He is 5 feet, 10 inches and soft-spoken, but he does everything by the book on a baseball field.
“I guess you just have to let it go in one ear and out the other,’’ said Benintendi. “People like to talk about it. I don’t feel any pressure. Just go out there and play well.’’
In the Sox clubhouse, Benintendi has been assigned the stall closest to the door, which leads to the field. This is a locker formerly occupied by Jerry Remy and J.D. Drew. Zdeno Chara used it when the Winter Classic was played at Fenway on New Year’s Day in 2010. Hanley Ramirez has moved into the two lockers last occupied by David Ortiz, and Christian Vazquez has taken over the locker once used by Jason Varitek. David Price is now occupying the “veteran” stall next to the manager’s office, which was last home to Clay Buchholz and famously rented to Carl Yastrzemski in the 1970s and ’80s.
After a wicked March winter, the Sox played the 117th franchise opener (106th at Fenway) on a cloudless, sun-splashed 48-degree Monday.
The traditionally overblown pregame ceremony was relatively understated.
We got a Red Sox version of the “I’d like to buy the world a Coke” song (homage to the “Mad Men” finale?), followed by nice introductions of both ballclubs (big hand for Chris Sale), then a video tribute to the New England Patriots, which gave way to an appearance by the living, breathing grid gods of New England.
It was a big pregame hit. Each carrying a Lombardi Trophy, Tom Brady, Bob Kraft, Rob Gronkowski, Dion Lewis, and James White emerged from the cornfield in left, walked across the Fenway lawn and gathered at the mound. Brady produced his recently recovered (by the FBI) game jersey, only to have it snatched away by Gronk. In a cornball scene that looked liked something from “A Hard Day’s Night,’’ Brady chased Gronk toward right field, tackled his tight end, and reclaimed the jersey.
When it was announced that Boston’s mayor, Marty Walsh, was presenting a baseball to “the greatest quarterback of all time,’’ a Pittsburgh official in the pressbox said, “Wait, is Terry Bradshaw here?’’
Fat chance.
Brady lobbed a strike to catcher Dustin Pedroia and it was “game on” for the 2017 Red Sox.
The Sox did what they needed to do. Porcello was strong, the bullpen bridge guys kept the lid on, and Craig Kimbrel notched a boilerplate save.
And so the first one is in the books. The first-place Red Sox are undefeated. Looks like the pennant.
Dan Shaughnessy is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at dshaughnessy@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @Dan_Shaughnessy.