By MATT PIKE
St. Joseph Post
The St. Louis Cardinals were unable to overcome a five run first inning by the Boston Red Sox, falling 13-9 at Fenway Park in the first home game of the season at the historic stadium.
New Red Sox third baseman Alex Bregman doubled to score the first run of the game, driving in Jarren Duran, before Trevor Story smashed his second home run of the season to left field, scoring Rafael Devers and Bregman. Wilyer Abreu capped off the first inning scoring with his third home run of the season to right field.
The Cardinals scored one run in the top of the third inning, Lars Nootbaar driving in Victor Scott II on a ground ball to the left fielder Duran. But Boston answered in the bottom half Carlos Narváez singling into right field and scoring Kristian Campbell to push the Red Sox lead to 6-1 after three innings.
St. Louis put together a bigger inning in the fourth, cutting the lead to two runs all with one swing of the bat. Catcher Iván Herrera, who hit three home runs in Wednesday's win against the Los Angeles Angels, hit his fourth home run in two games, a three run shot to right center scoring Nolan Arenado and Alec Burleson.
Brendan Donovan cut the Red Sox lead to one the very next inning, hitting a solo home run to right center. Boston though, added two back in the bottom half, Abreu singling to drive in Bregman, followed by a sacrifice fly to right field from Campbell, which was called on the field for fan interference but was overturned after review, scored Triston Casas.
Donovan singled in the top of the seventh inning, to score Nootbaar, but then in the bottom half of the seventh Boston struck for three runs. Ceddanne Rafaela grounded into a force out, which Abreu scored on, in the next at bat Duran singled to drive in Campbell and then Devers followed that with a single of his own to bring home Rafaela.
The Red Sox final two runs came in the bottom of the eighth. Abreu grounded into a double play, scoring Casas. Carlos Narváez hit his first double of the year driving in Campbell. St. Louis made a rally attempt in the ninth, scoring the final three runs. Willson Contreras singled to bring home Masyn Winn, followed by Donovan singling to score Nootbaar. The final run came thanks to Arenado reaching on a fielders choice, scoring Contreras.
Erick Fedde struggled in his second start of the year, pitching three innings and giving up six runs on five hits, walking four and striking out just one while taking the loss. Burleson led the way hitting going 3-4 with one run.
The Cardinals and Red Sox are back in action again tomorrow. Andre Pallante will start for St. Louis against Richard Fitts for Boston. First pitch will be at 3:10pm, pregame coverage starts at 2:15 on KY 102 (102.5 FM).
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