BOSTON — The Boston Red Sox hosted the San Diego Padres in the annual Fenway Park opener Friday afternoon, and it appears only four people were booed to a degree worth talking about.
One was Padres third baseman Manny Machado, who’ll forever be scorned by Red Sox fans for the dastardly takeout slide that effectively ended the career of Sox second baseman Dustin Pedroia.
Also booed was the double-play combination of Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey and Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, this in keeping with a rich Fenway Park tradition of razzing politicians.
And then there’s Caleb Durbin.
Oh, the crowd treated Boston’s new third baseman OK during the pregame introductions, decorum being what it is. But then he came to bat in the second inning and managed to check-swing his way into a 2-4-3, inning-ending double play, and that’s when 36,233 baseball accountants calculated Durbin’s batting average since joining the Red Sox as .000, as in 0-for-19. Armed with this information, they booed.
And then they cheered after Durbin came to bat in the fourth inning and lined a Michael King pitch to center, plating Jarren Duran. On defense, Durbin gobbled up a little bouncer up the line by Fernando Tatis Jr. and rifled a throw to first baseman Willson Contreras to end the eighth inning.
So, yes, Durbin played a significant role in Boston’s 5-2 victory over the Padres, which snapped a five-game losing streak. But the story here wasn’t so much Durbin getting the hit and settling down the masses, though it’s worth noting that he very happily told the media after the game, “That’s Boston, right? You want fans that are poured into it. … It’s honestly a good thing, because you want the fans to be on you. That’s what makes Boston special.”
Nice shoutout to the fan base by the new guy. But the story was the manner in which Red Sox manager Alex Cora used the occasion to launch a powerful defense of Durbin.
“I’m glad he got the hit,” Cora said. “I think everyone was able to breathe, including me, but the kid, he played great at third base, put a good swing there after the weird double play in the first (at-bat). So he’s gonna be OK. He’s a good ballplayer. I think people here are going to love him.”
We’ll get to more of Cora in a moment. But first, it’s important to review what’s been going on at third base for the Red Sox since early 2025. Working backward, Durbin is the 5-foot-6, 183-pound third baseman with one year of big-league experience who was acquired from the Milwaukee Brewers to replace Alex Bregman, who one year ago was brought in to play the position so that Rafael Devers could be unceremoniously shifted to first base. And you don’t need to have the front-office skills of Branch Rickey to know you’re trending in the wrong direction when your plan for the hot corner churns from Devers to Bregman to Durbin.
For those who have a problem with all this, reach out to Craig Breslow, the Red Sox’s chief baseball officer. Or call any talk show.
But Durbin isn’t responsible for any of this. On Feb. 12, 2025, the day Bregman agreed to a deal with the Red Sox, Durbin was in camp with the Milwaukee Brewers, hoping to crack their Opening Day roster.
On June 15, 2025, the day Breslow traded Devers to the San Francisco Giants, Durbin went 2-for-3 in the Brewers’ 3-2 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals at American Family Field in Milwaukee.
It’s not on Durbin that the Red Sox did a poor job convincing Devers of the value of a move to first base as they pursued Bregman. Nor is it Durbin’s fault that Devers was traded, or that Bregman opted to sign with the Cubs after one season in Boston.
But the 0-for-19 to start the season? That was entirely on Durbin. It’s just that everything sort of got thrown into one pot.
And so Cora, using that one hit by Durbin and the nifty defensive play in the eighth inning, went on a public relations mission for his new third baseman.
He did so by bringing up a story about Jason Varitek, the former Sox catcher/captain who played on two World Series-winning teams and is now a member of Cora’s coaching staff.
Seems there was a game, early on, when Varitek was having a tough time catching Tim Wakefield’s knuckleball, and, as Cora tells it, “He was horrible. You know, like, all you could see was his number, going back to get the ball and all that.
“He goes up to bat, and they booed him,” Cora said. “I mean, like loud, very loud.”
You probably know where this story is going. Varitek “hit a homer, or something,” Cora said, “and next at-bat it’s a standing ovation. That’s how it works, you know? We’ve got a lot of experienced people here who have been there, done that.”
Cora didn’t need to be asked about the Devers-Bregman situation at third base. He talked about it without even being asked.
“I think, honestly, as far as expectations, yeah, we know what happened at third base,” Cora said. “And now he’s the third baseman, and he’s little, like the ex-second baseman here.”
(That would be Pedroia, by the way.)
“And the whole thing of Pedroia, Bregman, this or that … no, no, he’s Caleb Durbin,” Cora said. “He’s a good player, he’s a good baseball player.”
Durbin isn’t likely to hit the way Devers did. Few players are capable of that. And at 26 years old and in only his second big-league season, he can’t possibly replicate the clubhouse leadership Bregman delivered last year.
Durbin will fit in nicely if he plays well and plays hard, and then Sox fans can redirect their angst about roster makeup at ownership and the front office.
But if there are more and more 0-for-19s, Durbin will hear it. As he put it so well, “That’s Boston, right?”
