Red Sox bats stay hot in 13-9 home-opening win over Cardinals

The Fenway Park crowd got their money's worth for the Boston Red Sox' 2025 home opener, as the bats guided the Sox to a 13-9 win over the St. Louis Cardinals.

The Red Sox got it going quickly with five runs in the first inning. After Walker Buehler started with a 1-2-3 first, the Sox' bats picked up where they left off in Baltimore. Alex Bregman got the scoring started with a hard ground ball double down the third base line that drove Jarren Duran home from second to make it 1-0.

But the "story" of the first inning was the longball, starting with Trevor Story blasting a three-run home run over the Green Monster seats, his second of the year, to make it 4-0. Wilyer Abreu followed it up with a solo home run, his third, on the very next pitch to make it 5-0.

In the third, the Cardinals put some pressure on Buehler, getting a few batters on base and cutting the Sox' lead to 5-1 off a Lars Nootbaar RBI single to left. However, the Red Sox stymied the Cardinals with a 5-3 double play.

The Red Sox extended their lead to 6-1 in the bottom of the third, but the fourth inning spelled trouble for Buehler. He allowed hits to the first two batters, bringing up Ivan Herrera who made him pay by crushing his fourth homer of the season out to the bullpens in right to make it a 6-4 Red Sox lead.

Fedde's afternoon was done after three innings of work, allowing five hits, six runs (all earned), four walks and only one strikeout. Steven Matz came in relief for the bottom of the fourth.

The Red Sox extend their lead to 7-5 on an Abreu single, and later 8-5 on a Kristian Campbell sacrifice fly in the bottom of the fifth.

Buehler's afternoon was complete after five innings, allowing seven hits, five runs, and one walk, and striking out four. Greg Weisser took the mound in the sixth. Weisser was replaced by Zack Kelly for the start of the seventh after one inning, one hit, and one strikeout.

Brandon Donovan singled, knocking home a run to shorten the Red Sox lead to 8-6 in the top of the seventh. However, Kelly was able to mitigate the damage, retiring the next batter with a fly out to center field.

The seventh inning was another offensive onslaught for the Sox. Ryan Fernandez came in to pitch and immediately got into a jam, loading the bases with one out. Ceddane Rafaela knocked home one run on a ground ball to the shortstop that looked like it would be an inning-ending double play, but a missed throw from the second baseman kept the inning alive.

Following the Rafaela hit, John King came out of the Cardinals bullpen to try to slow the bleeding. But, Duran and Rafael Devers had other plans, knocking in one run apiece to make it 11-6 Red Sox.

The top of the eighth was a quick three-up-three-down inning for Brennan Bernardino, who retired the side all on strikes. Abreu hit into a 6-3 double play in the bottom of the eighth, but was able to drive in Triston Casas in the process to make it 12-6. Shortly after, reliever Chris Roycroft allowed a double to catcher Carlos Narváez that knocked in Campbell, extending the lead to seven.

To close it out for the Red Sox came Cooper Criswell to the mound. Criswell was hit around a bit in the ninth, allowing three runs, aided by fielding and throwing errors by Campbell and Bregman, making it a 13-9 game. Needless to say, Criswell did not finish the win.

He was promptly replaced by Aroldis Chapman with one out. Chapman walked his first batter, Luken Baker, to load the bases, but was bailed out by Herrera who hit into a 5-4-3 double play to close it out.

The Red Sox-Cardinals series resumes on Saturday at 4:10 p.m. ET.

Luke Graham is a digital sports content co-op for 98.5 the Sports Hub. He is currently a sophomore at Northeastern University studying communications and media studies. Read all his articles here, and follow him on X @LukeGraham05.