BOSTON --- Even the most optimistic of Red Sox fans shouldn’t have dared imagining this.

Nathan Eovaldi looked as you might have hoped he would in mid-July. Boston bats up and down the lineup punished opposing pitching.

If there was a recipe for winning at Fenway Park – no matter how long this 2020 season was expected to last – this was it. The Red Sox celebrated the latest calendar Opening Day in franchise history with a 13-2 thumping of the Orioles. [...]

BOSTON --- Even the most optimistic of Red Sox fans shouldn’t have dared imagining this.

Nathan Eovaldi looked as you might have hoped he would in mid-July. Boston bats up and down the lineup punished opposing pitching.

If there was a recipe for winning at Fenway Park – no matter how long this 2020 season was expected to last – this was it. The Red Sox celebrated the latest calendar Opening Day in franchise history with a 13-2 thumping of the Orioles.

Newcomers Jose Peraza and Kevin Pillar combined for seven hits and J.D. Martinez added three of his own. Jackie Bradley Jr. doubled to left twice, singled to right-center, walked and scored three runs. Boston set a new club record in an opener with eight doubles and piled up 17 hits in all.

Baltimore had a left-handed starter on the mound as expected Friday night, but it wasn’t returning All-Star John Means. The Orioles ace was scratched earlier this week due to arm soreness and journeyman Tommy Milone took his place. He recorded just nine outs on 57 pitches and took the loss.

Peraza, Martinez and Pillar all banged RBI doubles in the third to build a 4-0 lead and it was off to the races from there. Cody Carroll didn’t retire any of the four men he faced in the fourth, and all four eventually came around to score. Former Red Sox right-hander Travis Lakins gave up a two-run double to Martinez and RBI singles by Xander Bogaerts, Pillar and Christian Vazquez.

Boston finished its bombardment in the sixth. Bradley found the Green Monster for a pair of RBI and Peraza followed by hitting the wall with his own RBI double. David Hess was the victim this time, and his career 5.84 earned-run average entering the game continued to rise.

The only good news for Baltimore is it can’t lose 100 games for the third straight season. Based on these nine innings of evidence, that’s certainly where the Orioles would have been heading over the full 162. Eovaldi helped shove them in that direction with six strong innings, scattering five hits and walking just one.

Eovaldi enjoyed one stretch where nine straight Baltimore hitters put the ball in play on the ground. He didn’t record the first of his four strikeouts until the fifth inning, dominating instead by forcing weak contact. Renato Nunez’s RBI double to left in the sixth was the only blemish on his final line.

Austin Brice was touched for a solo home run by Rio Ruiz in the seventh. Phillips Valdez cleaned up the rest, working around a pair of hit batsmen to log a pair of scoreless frames. Both Brice and Valdez were also making their Red Sox debuts.

bkoch@providencejournal.com

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On Twitter: @BillKoch25