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BOSTON — The game would certainly get closer for the Cardinals after a raucous first inning for the host Boston Red Sox, but it’s impossible to say the game got any better.

The Cardinals' unyielding lineup mustered enough of a rally three times to narrow the score on Fenway Park’s hand-operated tally at the base of the Green Monster only to watch the host Red Sox widen it again. A five-run head start in the first inning became a 13-9 drubbing of the Cardinals for Boston in its home opener.

When the Cardinals couldn’t complete a double play in the seventh, three more runs scored.

When the Cardinals did get a double play in the eighth, a run scored.

Boston's messy defense in the ninth helped the Cardinals tidy up the score but, same as every previous inning, not overcome it. Helped along by two errors and Brendan Donovan's third hit of the game, the Cardinals scored three runs in the ninth to get the potential tying run to the plate with one out. Ivan Herrera, whose homer earlier in the game reanimated the Cardinals, grounded into a double play to end the Sox's win in precisely 3 hours.  

It was that kind of afternoon with 29 hits and 39 baserunners.

Blink and a run scored.

By the end of the eighth inning, seven of the first eight Red Sox in their order had at least two hits and all eight had reached base at least two times. The Cardinals walked eight Boston players. Carlos Narvaez’s double off the distant center-field wall drove in a 12th run and put him in scoring position for the inning-ending lineout. Had Narvaez scored all nine of the Sox starters would have scored at least a run. Instead, Narvaez, the No. 8 hitter, had to settle for just chipping in two RBIs.

Ivan Herrera’s fourth homer in two games yanked the Cardinals within two runs of the Sox in the fourth inning. Donovan’s solo homer cut the lead down to a run in the fifth. Boston romped from there.

A Cardinals club weathered by back-to-back extra-inning losses earlier in the week got a needed off day to reset the bullpen. Just in time. The Cardinals had a reliever warming in the first inning as Erick Fedde neared 40 pitches, and the right-hander only provided three innings, leaving the rest for Steven Matz and three other relievers to shoulder. Boston scored seven runs on the Cardinals bullpen. Matz pitched three innings in relief, leaving Kyle Leahy as the long-relief option for the coming weekend. The forecast is cloudy, and it also calls for storms in the Boston area.

Fedde did not waste time giving Boston reasons to cheer in its first game of the year. Three batters into Fenway’s 114th season, the Red Sox had three base runners, one run in, and Fedde hadn’t figured a way to get an out.

The inning would get worse for the right-hander when the Red Sox hit home runs on back-to-back pitches. Trevor Story crushed a breaking ball for a three-run shot, and the next pitch Wilyer Abreu hit into the right-field seats to punctuate a five-run first inning. Boston had two walks, four hits, two homers, and three extra-base hits in the span of nine batters.

Fedde needed 34 pitches to survive the inning.

He would finish only two more.

Herrera (again!) rallies Cardinals

The Cardinals answered the six runs Fedde (1-1) allowed in his three innings, and most of that recovery came from catcher Ivan Herrera’s fourth homer in the span of six at-bats.

Two days removed from becoming the first Cardinals catcher with a three-homer game and sporting new batting gloves because he donated the three-homer pair to the Cardinals Hall of Fame, Herrera hit his fourth homer of the season. In the fourth inning, against Boston starter Walker Buehler, the Cardinals got a double off the wall from Nolan Arenado and the second of three consecutive singles for Alec Burleson.

The Cardinals young catcher, Herrera then lifted a ball that carried out to right field and over the wall there for a three-run homer. Dating back to the fourth inning Wednesday, Herrera had four homers and nine RBIs in his previous six at-bats.

Herrera’s homer off Buehler chomped into Boston’s lead to make it briefly 6-4.

Interference called, but run counts

Jordan Walker made the catch in foul territory despite colliding with a fan, but it was what happened next that determined whether Boston scored a run or not.

In the fifth inning, the Red Sox already had a run in and a runner at third base when rookie Kristian Campbell pulled a high fly ball down the right field line. Walker chased the ball to the low wall that barely separates the front-row seats from the field, right by where Boston has its tarp stashed. A fan in a white shirt and Sox cap reached over the wall and that is where he and Walker came together. Another fan in a blue Sox shirt was nearby as well.

Walker reached through the thicket of arms to make the catch, but he had to spin and get away from the fans to throw home.

The runner scored easily for an 8-5 lead.

Umpires at Fenway ruled that Walker encountered fan interference, but whether the run counted or not was left up to the replay officials in New York. A lengthy delay followed – during which the broadcast focused on the two fans awaiting results of their involvement – and ultimately runner Triston Casas was awarded home.

Story time

Before the game, Cardinals third baseman Arenado struck a note of caution about his close friend and former teammate, Red Sox shortstop Story.

“Once he gets going, it’s going to be hard to stop him because he can really do a lot of things,� Arenado said. “Hope it doesn’t happen in this series.�

It took an inning.

As part of the 2025 Boston Red Sox introductory inning to the home crowd, Story launched a three-run homer that provided the bulk of the five-run ambush on Cardinals starter Fedde. A former All-Star infielder, Story entered the Sox homer opener batting .217.

He came up two batters after a poetic confluence at third base. Playing the position for the Cardinals was Arenado, who Boston considered trading for this winter. And the Sox might have if not for signing Alex Bregman. In his Fenway debut as a home-team player, Bregman doubled past Arenado’s glove to keep the first inning rally humming for Boston. Bregman’s double moved Rafael Devers to third base.

To recap: The third baseman the Sox signed hit a double past the third baseman they considered trading for, and that brought their displaced third baseman Devers into third.

Bregman’s double drove home the game’s first run.

Story’s swing on a hanging, 83.7-mph sweeping slider drove Boston to a 4-0 lead.

Abreu followed with a solo homer to complete the five runs on four hits against Fedde that left the right-hander wobbling from the beginning.

Arenado extends hitting streak

His double off the Green Monster in the fourth inning that sparked the Cardinals’ three-run rally extended Arenado’s hitting streak to 13 games, including the final six of the 2024 season. His is the longest active hitting streak in the majors. In the first dozen games of the streak, Arenado batted .375 and slugged .500, including his 9-for-23 start to this season with more walks (five) than strikeouts (three).

The double improved his average during streak to 19-for-50 (.380).