The Red Sox held an intersquad scrimmage at Fenway Park on Thursday in preparation for their opening game against the Baltimore Orioles in two weeks.
Thursday’s atmosphere was noticeably different due to the pandemic, with the stands empty and manager Ron Roenicke sitting away from the players.
Former catcher Jason Varitek served as home plate umpire after volunteering his time during Red Sox training.
Trying to make the scrimmage as close to the real game as possible, starting pitcher Nathan Eovaldi stood at the mound and pitched four scoreless innings for the visiting squad.
He allowed one hit, one walk, and struck out four batters after throwing 58 pitches, 34 of which were strikes.
“I feel like this is going to be as close as we can get to having simulated games …. the biggest difference is definitely how quiet it is in the stadium,” Eovaldi said.
Roenicke said the team is planning on having an exhibition game, but are going to try to stay focused on intersquad games until then.