Wilyer Abreu Power Red Sox Homers to shake the victory of the opening day
ARLINGTON, Texas – In mid -March there was a point that the Boston Red Sox manager Alex Cora wondered if the Outfielder Wileer Abreu would have been ready for the opening day.
The twenty -five year old had lost most of the field, fighting a gastrointestinal virus and even after the disease passed, lingered in his laboratory work, keeping it aside, unable to participate in the games.
It was not until March 15 that Abreu played in his first spring game, but a day after he was out of training again, this time for a better reason: his wife was in labor with twins. Abreu was in the hospital of Fort Myers, Florida, for their birth and returned to the field the next day with only two weeks to prepare for the open.
After a swirling spring, one in which only 1 by 20 in six games of great alloy had gone, nobody would have questioned a slow start for Abreu. This made his two monstrous races in the house, including a shot in three non-inning shots that broke a 2-2 draw, all the more impressive while the red Sox beat the rangers 5-2 on the opening day.
“It was a very special moment for me,” said Abreu through the translator of the Team Carlos Villoria-Benítez. “Even better when you can start the season with a victory like this.”
FALE FOR WILYER !!
– Red Sox (@redsox.com) March 27, 2025 at 15:39
Almost exactly six months ago, the Red Sox made a trip to Texas, trying to stay in the Jolly race, when Abreu fueled the team to victory with two runs at home in this same baseball field. It was an emotional day for Abreu, Who had just learned that his grandmother had died.
Thursday Homer’s couple scored the first time since that August game that Abreu had hit two homers in the same game. For Elias, he became the first Red Sox player to hit more Homer on the opening day since Hanley Ramirez and Dustin Pedroia in 2015.
“He’s a good player,” said Cora. “Dynamic. Last year he had a great game when his grandmother died, and today he hit two homers for the twins.”
Abreu’s spring disease made him lose about 10 kilos and while he lost most of the great alloy field, he took more at-bad in the matches of the minor League to increase his promptness.
“This put me in a good position to be ready for the opening day,” said Abreu, who noticed despite Cora’s concern, never doubted that he was ready for the first game in Texas.
However, his 415 feet shot on the field on the right who linked the match to 2-2 in the fifth inning-that recorded a 108 miles out of the hour-showed a monstrous power for a player who had lost weight and just played.
Three inning later, Cora took a key decision to keep the game on the right in Abreu in the game even when the Rangers turned into a left -handed relief, Robert Garcia. While Cora had a hint of Abreu in such situations previously, he plans to let Abreu face the Mancini more often this season. The decision was rewarded later in the game.
“It was a great moment for me that Alex trusted me to that at that-Bat,” said Abreu. “If he leaves me, I will start hitting even more against the Mancini and I will be able to recognize more shots, so for me it was obviously a very important moment that let me hit against a left -handed.”
Abreu took a walk in the appearance of the dish, but Ceddanne Rafaela struck to finish the seventh, creating Abreu’s heroism in the ninth.
In the ninth, after Trevor Story had taken a nine -round walk and then pressing the lifter Luke Jackson on pressure stealing the second, Kristian Campbell recorded his first blow of great alloy with a hard helicopter who glanced the third base of Baseman Josh Jung. Cora Pinch -ran for Campbell with the rapid David Hamilton, further pressing the defense.
Abreu rewarded Cora’s decision to keep him in the game previously and crushed the second shot of 110 mph AT-Bat, leading him 394 feet on the field to the right for a Homer with three shots, taking the tie. Arolis Chapman had held the game linked to the eighth inning and Justin Slaten closed him easily to the ninth.
“We continued to fight,” said Cora del Star Game. “The two big swings were huge.”
Garrett Crochet was making his debut for the Red Sox and, at 25 years old, 277 days, became the youngest opening appetizer for Mancini for Boston from Babe Ruth in 1918 (23 years, 68 days). The crochet dominated in five spring departures, hitting 30 out of 66 jokes he faced while flashing at four sizes of 100 mph.
The opening day, it allowed two runs out of five shots and two walks while hit four out of five inning, its command is not as acute as in spring. He launched 88 shots, 61 for strikes. The domain that showed at the beginning of his career made his line on Thursday only pedestrian, an indication of the bar that has set himself this season.
Crochet admitted that he tried to do too early in the game, carrying out the count of his shot up to 47 shots through two inning.
“Trying to do Swing-and-Miss and a little bit dug me in a hole with the counting of the field soon,” he said. “Later in the game, I just started trusting the defense and trusting everyone beyond myself, and I just started trying to fill the area in the best possible way.
“I will move away from today, I am proud of the fact that I have been able to be much more efficient there before exiting,” he added.
Cora turned to Garrett Whitlock, launching in his first game since he suffered a guardian procedure in May, for two inning in the sixth and seventh before calling Chapman in a key point in the eighth and Slaten to the ninth.
On the other hand, Nathan Eovaldi kept the Red Sox bats at bay for most of the day, hitting nine jokes in six work inning, linking a record of the opening day of the Rangers.
While Abreu was undoubtedly the game of the game, it was Campbell who earned the souvenir scorecard from Cora after the game to commemorate his debut in a great league. Before his single Nono Inning, Campbell had hit, rooted and taken a walk while playing a solid defense at the second base.
“The second half (of the game) I started to settle down, but the first half I was decidedly nervous,” said Campbell, noting that his parents, brother, sister and girlfriend were all at the game, after flying from Georgia. “I was decidedly emotional even during the national anthem. I had some tears just thinking about my family and to what extent I arrived.
“It’s crazy. It was very much today. It was most of the people they ever played in front of it,” he added. “I certainly didn’t hear anything for the first half of the game.”
Campbell is 22 years old, 272 days, which made him the youngest Red Sox player to debut the opening day by Joe Lahoud in 1968 (20 years, 363 days).
After the game, a Club House by Rowdy Red Sox celebrated their first victory of 2025. The main owner John Henry and CEO Sam Kennedy had flown to Texas for the open and were hung in the post-match corridor with the director of Baseball Craig Breslow and several members of the Front Office.
After a long winter spent to support the list of red Sox, the group obtained comfort in a victory on the first day, but it also knows that there is a long way to go.
(Abreu’s photo: Richard Rodriguez / Getty Images)
