BOSTON — The first indication came when Brian Johnson began to throw in the Red Sox bullpen in the late innings on Sunday. Johnson was Boston’s scheduled starter on Monday, the traditional 11 a.m. Patriots’ Day game.


 


The second indication came when Red Sox players already were packing up duffle bags in the Fenway Park clubhouse after their 3-1 victory over the Orioles on Sunday evening.


 


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By Brian MacPherson Special to the Journal

BOSTON — The first indication came when Brian Johnson began to throw in the Red Sox bullpen in the late innings on Sunday. Johnson was Boston’s scheduled starter on Monday, the traditional 11 a.m. Patriots’ Day game.

 

The second indication came when Red Sox players already were packing up duffle bags in the Fenway Park clubhouse after their 3-1 victory over the Orioles on Sunday evening.

 

The Red Sox made it official shortly thereafter: For the first time since 1984, inclement weather forced them to call off one of the showcase events of the year at Fenway Park. Rather than wait to see if the forecast improved on a day when Boston Marathon runners would be making their way into the city from Hopkinton, the team made the announcement around 5 p.m. on Sunday.

 

Officially, Monday’s game will be made up on May 17, the day before the Orioles already were scheduled to begin a three-game series at Fenway Park.

 

It’s expected that the Red Sox will skip over Johnson and give the ball to David Price when they take the field on Tuesday night against the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. He’ll face two-way star Shohei Ohtani, who saw his scheduled start on Sunday postponed by cold weather in Kansas City.

 

Before Sunday’s postponement, the Red Sox would have missed Ohtani on the mound. They still would have — and still might — see Ohtani at the plate. In his first two weeks of his first season in the United States, Ohtani has a 2.08 ERA with 18 strikeouts and two walks in 13 innings pitched as well as three home runs and a .767 slugging percentage in 33 plate appearances.

 

“If you don’t respect that, I don’t know who you are or what you’re doing,” Boston ace Chris Sale said.

 

Good day to rest

 

Alex Cora could find two silver linings in the foot injury that prompted him to leave Mookie Betts out of his lineup on Sunday at Fenway Park.

 

The first was the opportunity to rest Betts, an opportunity the Red Sox manager had sought since the season began. Betts was the only Red Sox player to appear in each of the first 14 games of the season — and for good reason, as he was getting on base at a team-best .452 clip to go along with a .608 slugging percentage. But he was out of the lineup on Sunday, a day after he slid feet-first into one of the shin guards of Baltimore catcher Chance Sisco while scoring on an Andrew Benintendi double on Saturday.

 

Cora said he expects Betts to be ready to return by the time the Red Sox get to Anaheim to face the Angels.

 

“I’m not saying he was going to get the day off, anyway,” Cora said, “but it was getting close. Things happen for a reason. We know he’s going to be fine. It’s a good day for him to stay off his feet.”

 

The other silver lining was the opportunity to get the marginalized Blake Swihart some rare playing time. Swihart entered the game in left field as part of a shuffled outfield when Betts left the game — and he went 2-for-3 with a double, his most productive day at the plate this season.

 

Swihart slugged an impressive .485 in what looked like a make-or-break spring training for him, winning a spot on the Opening Day roster. That roster spot, however, didn’t come with a clear path to playing time. He’s the third catcher, the fifth outfielder, and the seventh infielder.

 

“He takes grounders everywhere — second, third, first,” Cora said. “He keeps swinging. It’s not an easy one, but he’s doing OK.”

 

With Betts out, Cora installed Jackie Bradley Jr. as his leadoff hitter — which allowed him to keep Benintendi, Hanley Ramirez and J.D. Martinez in their usual No. 2, No. 3, and No. 4 spots in the order. Before Sunday, Bradley had started a game as a leadoff hitter just once before in his career — the game in 2016 that saw him snap a 29-game hitting streak he’d put together while hitting exclusively in the bottom half of the order.

 

Bradley came into Sunday’s game hitting .209 with a .320 on-base percentage and a .279 slugging percentage. He then went 0-for-4, though he did steal a base and score a run.

 

Bradley also replaced Betts in right field, where he had made a spectacular diving catch to rob Baltimore’s Adam Jones in Saturday’s game. It was his first start in right field since 2015, when Betts was Boston’s regular center fielder.

 

Impressing the boss

 

Tzu-Wei Lin ripped a ground-rule double down the right-field line to score Moreland in the sixth inning on Sunday. It was the second double in five games for Lin since his recall from Triple-A Pawtucket. Lin also sparked the fifth-inning rally that led to Boston’s first run, smacking a single through the right side ahead of Benintendi’s run-scoring triple.

 

At a time when Brock Holt is hitting under .200, Lin is making a strong case to stick around ahead of Holt when Xander Bogaerts returns from the disabled list.

 

“He's doing what he's supposed to,” Cora said. “He'll show bunt. He swung the other way. On 0-2, he gets up over the plate. We're very happy with the way he's playing.”