The Red Sox stole four bases in five tries, both highs on the season after they swiped 16 bags in their first 27 games. They pushed rookie lefthander Connelly Early into the seventh inning for the first time in his major league life, and he responded with 6⅔ innings of two-run ball. Roman Anthony dropped down from the leadoff spot for the first time this season, batting third instead.
“Style . . . really is predicated on who’s on your team. If you have a style and your players don’t fit that style, that can be foolish,” Tracy, who on Saturday was elevated from his role as Triple-A Worcester’s manager, said before the game. “So I think it’s about adapting your team. What do you have? What are they capable of doing? We have athletes, we have speed. So I look at that like, well, we’ve got to get people on base and let’s be aggressive and let’s move.”
Get Starting Point
Red Sox interim manager Chad Tracy (right) talks with umpire Andy Fletcher as Jarren Duran warms up before Sunday’s game.Stephanie Scarbrough/Associated Press
After the game, that aggressiveness took another form: a celebratory shower of sorts, with the players dousing Tracy with beer, shaving cream, and all sorts of other liquids — some edible, some toiletry-based — in honor of his opening day win. It was a common major league ritual for significant firsts and other milestones.
“There was a lot of stuff that was stinging the eyes,” Tracy said. “It was cool.”
The Sox’ performance was far from perfect, with a few outs on the bases and some missed scoring chances keeping the game tight. But it was better than most of the prior days.
Early and Baltimore righthander Kyle Bradish were locked in a scoreless duel into the fifth, when the Red Sox broke through. Willson Contreras followed Andruw Monasterio’s RBI single with a two-out, two-run homer. In the sixth, Ceddanne Rafaela added an RBI double and Marcelo Mayer an RBI single.
Early cruised throughout, holding the Orioles to four hits and one walk. He struck out four. Baltimore scored on solo home runs from Samuel Basallo and Gunnar Henderson.
Among the 32,511 watching at Camden Yards were more than a dozen Tracy relatives and friends, including Chad’s father, Jim Tracy, the former manager of the Dodgers, Pirates, and Rockies.
It was a bittersweet moment, Jim Tracy said, because his son ascended as a result of the firing of Alex Cora, his former Dodgers player. But it was a special moment for the family nonetheless.
Chad Tracy had spent two decades playing, coaching, and managing in the minors before making this debut.
“As I watched it today, the thing that I was the most proud of is he looked like he belonged,” Jim Tracy said. “He never looked fazed by any situation. And the only message I gave him was: Stay ahead of what you’re looking at, because things start moving very fast.”
The Red Sox’ slate is only clean-ish, because there is no resetting the damage done over the first month of the play. They are 11-17 and have a long way to go toward saving the season.
If they pull that off, it will take much longer than a day. They’ll figure out the next step Monday in Toronto against the Blue Jays.
A new week will represent something closer to normal for Tracy, whose whirlwind 24 hours featured a surprise promotion, a trip from Worcester to Baltimore, and minimal rest.
“There’s a chance,” Tracy said, “I might fall asleep on the airplane.”
Trevor Story was out of the lineup because of soreness in adductor muscles near his hip . . . Anthony went 0 for 3 with a walk as the DH. He had missed the previous four games because of a tight back . . . Anthony on Cora getting fired less than a year after he signed a long-term contract: “AC and the staff was here when I committed to it, but I committed to [chief baseball officer Craig Breslow], I committed to Mr. [John] Henry, I committed to Mr. [Sam] Kennedy. I committed to the city and the people around me and my teammates.”
Tim Healey can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him @timbhealey.
