BOSTON – For about two innings, it looked as though victory seemed possible if not plausible. The Mariners delivered a four-run punch to Boston starter Rick Porcello in the top of the first and figured to get more over the next eight innings, while their starter Felix Hernandez put up an easy 1-2-3 first inning and worked his way out of what could’ve been a calamitous second inning.
But this isn’t the same Boston team the Mariners faced early in the season. That version of the Red Sox was a disjointed mess that seemed to have skipped spring training due to an incurable World Series hangover.