The Pawtucket Red Sox opening road trip of the season has not gotten off to the start Kevin Boles and company wanted as the PawSox fell 4-3 on Thursday to the Toledo MudHens despite Jeremy Barfield hitting his first home run of the season.

Pawtucket did have a rather valiant comeback effort scoring 2 runs in the top of the 9th trying to mount a comeback but that just wasn’t simply enough to get their first road win of the season.

Justin Haley (L, 0-1) was the starter in this one for Pawtucket going 5 innings giving up 3 earned runs on 5 base hits and 4 walks with 5 strikeouts. Behind Haley, Boles used Josh Smith for two scoreless innings and Roenis Ellias who pitched the 8th inning giving up a solo home run to Edwin Espinal that proved to be the difference maker.

Offensively the PawSox had a number of hot hitters including Rusney Castillo who stole a base along with going 3-for-5 with 3 singles. Jeremy Barfield hit his first home run of the season which is a good sign that he is coming out of the cold stretch he had in the Opening Homestand that saw him go 1-for-16. The other Red Sox home run came via Ramon Flores who hit his second home run of the young season in the 9th inning off MudHens reliever Louis Coleman.

Next up for the Pawtucket Red Sox is game 2 of the series on Friday with Jalen Beeks on the mound.

Red Sox Recall Marcus Walden From AAA Pawtucket, Poyner To DL

On April 8th, the Red Sox sent RHP Marcus Walden down to AAA Pawtucket to make room for Eduardo Rodriguez on the 25 man roster. Well Marcus Walden is now being recalled to join the major league roster on an emergency basis. Normally when a player is being sent down to the minor leagues, he can only be recalled on an emergency basis if a player is put on the disabled list.

Marcus Walden coming back up to Red Sox

— Evan Drellich (@EvanDrellich) April 12, 2018

Bobby Poyner is that player who is being put on the disabled list with a left hamstring strain. Last night, he didn’t seem to be his sharpest. In 2 innings of work, he gave up 4 hits, 1 run, 1 walk, and 1 strikeout on 37 pitches (25 strikes).

With Poyner being put on the disabled list, it would be the assumption that Brian Johnson will be the Red Sox left handed option out of the bullpen. That would mean when Drew Pomeranz is activated off of the disabled list, Hector Velazquez would be sent down to AAA.

Marcus Walden pitched well for the Red Sox during his first stint with the team. In 3 appearances, he went 5 innings, giving up 4 hits, 2 runs, 1 walk, and striking out 3 batters. Since he was sent down to AAA Pawtucket, he has not made an appearance. He was however supposed to be the starting pitcher late this afternoon for the Paw Sox as they take on the Toledo Mud Hens at 4:05 pm in Toledo.

The long-time rivalry between the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees seems to be back on thanks to Tyler Austin.

Austin slid into Red Sox utility player Brock Holt spikes first causing Holt to get agitated and creating a benches-clearing moment in Fenway Park.

This slide from Tyler Austin led to the dugouts clearing in Boston.#Yankees-#RedSox rivalry is alive and well. pic.twitter.com/QquZoA53vu

— Mark Suleymanov (@TheMARKOut1) April 12, 2018

Red Sox reliever Joe Kelly responded in the 7th inning throwing into the back of Austin and then beckoned Austin to come at him if he wanted to do something about it.

The rivalry is back. pic.twitter.com/T4doaVvODu

— NESN (@NESN) April 12, 2018

On top of all this commotion, the actual ball game included a number of compelling moments. This includes the fact that Red Sox starter David Price was only able to go 1 inning and had to leave due to “precautionary reasons”. Price in his one inning of work wasn’t so hot giving up 4 earned runs on 3 base hits and 2 walks with 35 pitches thrown, 16 for strikes.

The bullpen wasn’t much better for Boston with Heath Hembree getting tagged for three runs on 3 base hits, Matt Barnes allowing 2 runs on 1 hit and 1 walk. Boston’s bullpen did have a few bright spots including Bobby Poyner who threw 2 innings and only allowed 1 earned run on 4 base hits and 1 walk. Not exactly stellar, but given the night, not that bad for the left-handed rookie who was asked to come in to face New York in just the second inning.

Alex Cora also used Kelly recorded just one out before drilling Austin and getting ejected from the game. To replace Kelly, Cora called upon Brian Johnson to pitch on back-to-back nights in an extended action. Using Johnson will almost certainly rule him out from starting Saturday’s game which was a possibility.

As for the Red Sox offense, newcomer J.D. Martinez hit a Grand Slam in the bottom of the 5th inning to make it a 2-run ball-game at the time.

Going Forward This Could Make The Rivalry Great Again

With New York loading up this offseason landing Giancarlo Stanton to pair with their homegrown stud in Aaron Judge the idea of a renewed rivalry was brought up. But the issue with that thinking was there was a real lack of connectivity between the current rosters and the rivalry that once was the greatest in sports.

Full Red Sox telecast ratings update through 10 games:

Household rating - Up +47.4% (7.01 vs. 4.75)
Ages 18-34 - Up 110.0% (1.83 vs. 0.87)
Ages 25-54 - Up 74.9% (3.23 vs. 1.85)

— Evan Drellich (@EvanDrellich) April 11, 2018

Now with this nice back-and-forth between the two clubs, there is a real potential for the rivalry to return and considering NESN ratings are up and up big the fanbase will certainly be there to support it.

Should be a fun season if both of these teams are neck-and-neck going forward and slug each other every time they meet.