Mooooookie puts on a show in Red Sox home opener

BOSTON — He has the perfect name for a home crowd. Especially one that is just bursting to shake off the long, brutal winter to cheer for something – anything -- on a beautiful afternoon at Fenway Park.

With his team coming off a deflating loss in the Bronx in which their would-be ace was pummeled, having played 36 ½ innings of baseball in about 52 ½ hours, arriving home early Monday morning, weary and beleaguered, Mookie Betts – make that, Moooookie – gave the crowd plenty to cheer about.

After a pregame ceremony that was equal parts emotional and celebratory, the Red Sox played their 115th home opener, 104th at Fenway Park.

With a huge American flag draped across Fenway’s left field wall, Jane Richard, the sister of Martin Richard who was killed in the Marathon bombings, led the St. Ann’s children’s choir of Dorchester in the national anthem. A moment of silence was held for former Sox pitcher Bill Monbouquette and third base coach Wendell Kim, former Boston mayor Tom Menino and former PR guru Dick Bresciani, who all passed away in the last year. After a pair of fighter jets flew over Fenway, the Patriots’ Robert Kraft, Jonathan Kraft, Bill Belichick and Tom Brady emerged from behind the flag in left field to make their way to the mound.

Henry Richard, Martin’s older brother, brought a ball to Brady, who threw the ceremonial first pitch to David Ortiz.

Then, Peter Frates, surrounded by his family, made his way to the mound, where general manager Ben Cherington presented the former Boston College baseball captain with an honorary major league contract. The Red Sox then streamed out of the dugout to greet Frates and present him with the jerseys they wore in the spring training game against BC that bore his name and number on the back.

Newly minted Hall of Famer Pedro Martinez then joined Frates to bark out “play ball!” wrapping up the ceremony.

And then it was time for the Moooookie show.

Betts wasted little time on his opening act. With a runner on first in the first inning, Bryce Harper drove Rick Porcello’s 10th pitch of the game to the Red Sox bullpen. But Betts’ leaping catch pulled back what would have been a two-run home run for a long out – saving the momentum-changing play and setting the stage for the rest of the game.

Betts led off the bottom of the inning with a walk. With one out and the infield shifted for David Ortiz, Betts broke for second on the 2-0 pitch. Popping up safe at second and seeing no one guarding third, Betts then broke again, his head first slide beating Nationals’ right-hander Jordan Zimmermann, who was late to cover – and who looked as bad in this game as Clay Buchholz did the night before.

On the next pitch Ortiz laced a liner to left that befuddled Jayson Werth, with Betts scoring the Sox first run.

Betts’ three-run homer in the second, giving the Sox a 4-0 lead, made sure the momentum stayed in the home team’s dugout.

Betts had three plate appearances in the first three innings, going 2-for-2 with a home run, a single, a walk, two runs scored, four RBI, two stolen bases. And oh, yeah, that momentum-shifting catch in the first.

Through the first three innings, he was out-everything-ing the Nationals: outscoring them, 2-0; outhitting them, 2-1; out-RBI-ing them, 4-0; out-walking them, 1-0.

But, apparently he is not invincible and will not bat 1.000 at Fenway this season. He flied out in the fifth and struck out swinging at an Aaron Barrett slider to end the seventh. In all, he went 2-for-4 with a home run, two runs scored, four RBI, a walk, two stolen bases and a strikeout.

Still, it was an historic day. He is the first Sox leadoff hitter with at least one home run, four RBI and two stolen bases in a game since the RBI became an official stat in 1920. His two-base steal in the first was just the 11th time a player stole two or more bases on the same play since 1915. Dustin Pedroia was the last to do so, on Aug. 9, 2014, at the Angels.

“First two or three innings, Mookie took the game over single-handedly it seemed like,” said manager John Farrell. “He runs down Harper’s drive in the first and then with the over shift, we’re always leery of a the stolen base and the guy taking off for third and Mookie did just that and then comes up big with a three-run homer…He’s a talented exciting player.”

Of all his antics on the day, what was Betts’ favorite?

“The stolen bases thing was probably the favorite thing,” he said. “I think it gave energy to myself and the crowd. We had a long night and it gave us the lead, 1-0, and I gained a great deal of confidence as well.

"I got a pretty good jump and had a good idea I was safe at second. I looked up to see where the pitcher was and at that point I didn't think anybody could catch me. It was instinct mostly, but (first base coach) Arnie (Beyeler) talked to me a little bit about the shift. He just told me the shift is on and watch it. It just happened to open up for me.”

“That (catch) was a game changer right off the bat in the first inning,” said Porcello, who was the beneficiary of Betts’ performance. “The way he played today was a lot of fun to watch. He pretty much did everything today.”

Not a bad way to open up for the home crowd. So, how does the newest fan favorite celebrate?

He was going to get something to eat and then some ice cream. He eats ice cream every day.

Maureen Mullen can be reached at mmullen@itemlive.com. Follow her on Twitter at @MaureenAMullen.