CINCINNATI ― Picked up pieces from four days on the road with the Red Sox . . .
Saturday’s 11-inning, 6-5 loss to the Reds in front of 38,298 at Great American Ball Park was one of the most entertaining Game 2’s in baseball history.
Exaggeration? Of course. But who’s going to argue? There’ve been a lot of memorable Opening Days, but Game 2’s generally dissolve into the ether as emphatically forgettable. Just one of 162.
Not this one. The Sox were sloppy early as Sonny Gray struggled in his Sox debut. Boston trailed, 5-3, in the late innings, but were lifted by Wilyer Abreu (do they have a better hitter than this guy?), who roped an RBI double to cut it to 5-4 in the seventh, then hit a two-out, ninth- inning homer off flamethrower Emilio Pagán to send the game into extras.
The Reds won it in the 11th when Dane Myers singled home TJ Friedl on an 0-1 pitch from Justin Slaten.
This all happened after a raft of automated ball-strike challenges — the Sox ran out early — 15 Red Sox strikeouts, and a bad day behind the dish for CB Bucknor. Alex Cora was ejected, and Trevor Story came close.
Sunday’s rubber match should be a beauty.
⋅ Boston’s chief baseball officer Craig Breslow pledged that the Sox would be all about run prevention this season. The Sox have had the worst infield defense in baseball for several years, annually leading the league in errors and are hoping to tighten things up in 2026.
Cora threw down a challenge before the opener, stating, “We have to be better defensively. I hate errors. As manager, the last four years and us leading the league in errors, it kills me.”
New third baseman Caleb Durbin made an error in the opener when a playable grounder skipped into left field. Durbin committed only six errors in 131 games at third for the Brewers last season. His error made no difference in Boston’s 3-0 win.
There was messiness Saturday and it was costly. It started in Gray’s 35-pitch, two-run first inning when he fielded a comebacker with men on first and third and one out and attempted to tag Matt McLain at the plate instead of making a throw to get an out. Gray ended up dropping the ball as the run scored.
An inning later, Trevor Story bounced a throw past first baseman Willson Contreras on a routine grounder to short. It turned into an unearned run.
Gray’s Sox debut: four innings, six hits, four runs (three earned), one walk, five strikeouts, 80 pitches. Not a good day for run prevention.
⋅ It’ll be hard to top Ryan Watson’s big league debut. In relief in the sixth, the 28-year-old rook faced Eugenio Suárez with the bases loaded and two out and twice got a called third strike from Bucknor. Twice, Watson headed for the dugout. Twice, Suárez tapped his helmet and won a challenge, extending the count to 3-2. Amazingly, an unflappable Watson threw another strike and got to celebrate for real when Suárez grounded to short to end the inning.
⋅ Sox rookie lefty Connelly Early, who turns 24 next week, gets the ball Sunday for his sixth major league start (counting one in the playoffs). Early struck out 35 batters with only five walks in his 23 innings in the bigs last fall. Older Sox watchers, especially female fans, might notice that Early bears some resemblance to young Peter Noone of Herman’s Hermits back in the 1960s. “I had super long hair [at the end of high school in 2020] because of COVID,” said Early. “Then I went to West Point for basic training and got the full buzz for the summer. I was able to grow it out a little on the top my freshman year, but kept it short on the sides at West Point.”
⋅ For the second time in two games, Marcelo Mayer hit a double and celebrated when he got to second by putting his hands on his helmet for a double hip thrust celebration — this on Kids Opening Day in Cincinnati. NESN replayed it twice in slow-motion and sideline reporter Jahmai Webster told the audience back home that he asked Mayer about it before the game and that the veterans had given Mayer the green light to continue. “He told me they didn’t want to tell you what it meant,” said Webster. “But that that you’d be surprised that it’s not what you think. . . . It’s a great way to fire up the guys and keep ’em loose.” Swell. Mayer isn’t the only Sox player doing it. If they decide to celebrate hits by hoisting their middle fingers skyward, will that be OK because, “it’s not what you think”?
⋅ According to Cora, Sox fans should be prepared to see Masataka Yoshida in the lineup (and outfield, perhaps?) three times in the next five games.
⋅ Landon Dombrowski, son of former Red Sox president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski, is a scout with the Mariners and attended Saturday’s game. Dombrowski was around the Red Sox for a good part of his teenage years, played at St. Sebastian’s (graduating in 2018), then at Wake Forest before taking the job with Seattle.
⋅ Will Middlebrooks is in Cincinnati in his capacity as Sox radio color man and looks forward to having his wife and two daughters at Friday’s Fenway opener. The forecast is a high of 40 degrees with precipitation; Middlebrooks said, “My daughters are excited. They’ve never seen snow.”
⋅ USA Today has the Red Sox ranked 12th in MLB payroll.
⋅ Reds manager Terry Francona shakes his head when talking about his eight years with the Red Sox, and hasn’t spoken with Sox owner John Henry in more than a decade. On Opening Day, when Francona was asked about managing against his old team, the skipper curtly replied, “I like being a Red.” Now a grandfather of seven, Francona is happy in his second year in Cincinnati and hired former Sox catcher Bill Haselman as catching coach. Haselman played his college baseball at UCLA, Francona at Arizona, and the two have bet on which school will advance deeper into the NCAA hoop tournament: UCLA’s women’s team or the Arizona men.
⋅ Eighty-seven-year-old Hall of Fame lefty Jim Kaat was Pete Rose’s pitching coach with the Reds from August 1984 through the end of the ’85 season. He was reminded last week of his first big league appearance, when he faced the World Series-bound Chicago White Sox in September 1959. Kaat was called up by the Washington Senators and Hall of Fame shortstop Luis Aparicio was the first batter Kaat faced. The Venezuelan-born Aparicio is the oldest living Hall of Famer, turning 92 next month. Young Kaat got Aparicio to ground out to third — a ball fielded by Senators’ third baseman Harmon Killebrew, who also made it to the Hall of Fame.
⋅ Clue in a recent New York Times crossword puzzle: “Giant Jesus.” Clue answer: “Alou.”
⋅ See you at frosty Fenway Friday.
Dan Shaughnessy is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at daniel.shaughnessy@globe.com. Follow him @dan_shaughnessy.