Major League Baseball's owner-imposed lockout, which stretched 99 days and compromised the regular season, is now officially in the rearview mirror. On Thursday, the spring training schedule got underway, with a contest between the Minnesota Twins and the Boston Red Sox serving as the exhibition season opener.
It was only a matter of time before someone launched the first home run in what feels like an awfully long time. That someone, as it turned out, was Red Sox first baseman Bobby Dalbec. Dalbec got his money's worth, sending a ball up and over JetBlue Park's faux Green Monster while wearing Boston's green St. Patrick's Day threads:
Dalbec, 26, has accumulated 545 plate appearances at the big-league level over the last two years. He's batted .244/.308/.511 (112 OPS+) with 33 home runs and 29 doubles-plus-triples in that time span. The departure of Kyle Schwarber through free agency has cleared the way for Dalbec to be Boston's regular first baseman.
In addition to the Twins and the Red Sox, four other teams will open up their exhibition season schedules on Thursday: the Chicago White Sox and Chicago Cubs will play a pair of split-squad games, and the Arizona Diamondbacks will take on the Colorado Rockies. All three of those games will begin at 4:05 p.m. ET.
Friday, meanwhile, will feature 14 games, or close to a full slate.
