Boston Red Sox Tickets - Opening Day Winners and Losers by Brent Warnken

The Boston Red Sox and the Tampa Bay Rays last left off in the 2008 ALCS, when the Rays eventually went on to defeat the BoSox for the right to play in the World Series. For a while it seemed as though the Red Sox had been distracted from hating their arch rivals, the postseason-missing New York Yankees, with the idea of earning revenge on the Rays in the 2009 home opener. All winter long the date with the Rays stood out as a can't-miss event for anyone who would like to continue the series to an eighth game. However, when Monday, April 6th rolled around, the opening game had to be canceled due to weather. The Rays and the Red Sox played the following day. Below, we'll talk about the winners and losers from this important very early season game.

Winners:
Josh Beckett: Everyone who used Boston Red Sox tickets to see the game live commented that Beckett looked like his old self. Fans had the image of Beckett in the ALCS, giving up runs and losing games, and they were happy to see him come out with velocity. Said Beckett, "It's something you're always striving for as a pitcher, to get to that point in your career. It's awesome. This is a pretty cool place to be around on a home opener or opening day, period." Beckett pitched seven innings and only gave up two hits and one run. He struck out ten batters and only walked three.

Boston's offense: Over 37,000 opening day fans got to witness some fine hitting from the Red Sox. Five players had on RBI each, and there were two home run balls for fans to keep. Everyone but Jacoby Ellsbury, who had a fine hitting streak lasting from the previous season coming into the game, got at least one hit.

Evan Longoria: Longoria recorded two of the three RBIs for the Tampa Bay Rays who were lacking much in the way of offense. Only Longoria, Carl Crawford and Akinori Iwamura got safe hits. For the most part, the Red Sox pitchers were able to keep the Rays grounded. Despite the slow day for Rays batters overall, most experts believe this team could be an even better hitting team than they were last year, so expect sites like StubHub to field a lot of traffic for tickets to their home and away games this season.

Losers:
James Shields: Shields was pummeled with Red Sox hits and home runs from the very get-go. Dustin Pedroia hit a homer off him after only a couple of pitches, and the Red Sox were all over him after that. Shields ended the game with an ERA of 8.44 after he allowed nine hits, five runs three balls and two home runs in 5.1 innings.

Carlos Pena: The clean up hitter on the Rays needed some spring cleaning himself, as he went 0-4 with four strikeouts. Other batters on the Rays were similarly confounded by the Red Sox defense and pitching, but none were as unlucky as Carlos Pena.

Hideki Okajima: Coming in as a reliever, Okajima didn't fare so well. His ERA ballooned to 54.00 after allowing two runs in just 0.1 of an inning. This is an unfortunate position to be in after only a couple of pitches.

This article was written by Brent Warnken, sponsored by StubHub. For all the best sports tickets like Boston Red Sox tickets, concert tickets, theatre tickets or special events tickets, the best place to look is StubHub.com.

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