Red Sox-Padres Series Preview: Fenway Park Opening At Just Right Time

Red Sox-Padres Series Preview: Fenway Park Opening At Just Right Time originally appeared on NESN. Add NESN as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

Home sweet home!

The Boston Red Sox are still on the hunt for their first regular season series victory, with their next chance coming against the San Diego Padres at Fenway Park on Friday — with full coverage of the series beginning at 1 p.m. ET on NESN. If you want to know what’s coming and what to expect, check out our full series preview:

RED SOX (1-5) @ PADRES (2-4)

Dates: April 3, April 4, April 5
Location: Fenway Park
Series Record (All-Time): 18-12

THREE STORYLINES

1. HOME COOKIN’

The Red Sox didn’t exactly have much success at Great American Ball Park or Daikin Park, so perhaps another park will bring better results? Opening Day is always magical at Fenway Park — flyovers, big flags, decent weather, some team from the past being honored for whatever reason.

It’s great!

Caleb Durbin and Willson Contreras will all experience that for the very first time, and hopefully that helps turn things in the right direction. Jarren Duran, Trevor Story, Ceddanne Rafaela, and Carlos Narváez know exactly how much that environment can help, and much like we said about the new guys, there should be hope that helps turn things in the right direction.

2. ANOTHER GO ‘ROUND

Sonny Gray and Ranger Suarez weren’t very good in their first starts of the season, combining to allow seven runs in 8.1 innings pitched across respective starts against the Cincinnati Reds and Houston Astros — despite that kind of being the opposite of what they were brought in to do.

I don’t expect bad outings to become a trend with them, though. The Padres have an absolutely ridiculous lineup, so there could continue to be bumps, but one small step forward is all the organization can ask for at this point…

3. GOIN’ THROUGH CHANGES

Is Roman Anthony sticking in the leadoff spot? Is Trevor Story going to continue batting second? Is Masataka Yoshida going to continue getting opportunities? Is Marcelo Mayer going to get three consecutive starts against three right-handed pitchers? How are they going to turn things around with the ABS challenge system?

I’d expect those questions to be answered by Alex Cora over the weekend.

PROBABLE PITCHERS

Friday, April 3: RHP Sonny Gray (6.75 ERA, 4.0 IP, 5 K) vs RHP Michael King (0.00 ERA, 5.0 IP, 61 K)
Saturday, April 4: LHP Connelly Early (1.69 ERA, 5.1 IP, 6 K) vs RHP Randy Vásquez (0.00 ERA, 6.0 IP, 9 K)
Sunday, April 5: LHP Ranger Suarez (8.31 ERA, 4.1 IP, 3 K) vs RHP Walker Buehler (6.75 ERA, 4.0 IP, 6 K)