Last season it felt like no lead was secure for the Red Sox, whose leaky bullpen may by no means be trusted to shut out tight video games.
What a distinction a yr makes.
Boasting arguably its finest bullpen for the reason that 2018 playoffs, the Red Sox slammed the door on the Washington Nationals in emphatic vogue Tuesday, retiring 16 of the sport’s final 17 batters to tug out a 5-4 win. Pablo Reyes scored the go-ahead run on a wild pitch within the high of the fourth, and from there the Nationals solely received one baserunner the remainder of the way in which.
“They did an outstanding job,” Red Sox supervisor Alex Cora mentioned afterwards. “That’s the beauty of having (Garrett Whitlock) back, right? We know he can go two tomorrow, so we’ll mix and match tomorrow with him and take a chance, but they did an amazing job.”
Early on the sport felt like a throwback to the pre-pitch clock period, as beginning pitchers Josiah Gray and Nick Pivetta labored via some lengthy, drawn out innings. By the tip of the third the Red Sox had floor Gray down with 30-plus pitches within the first and third innings, placing him at 77, and Pivetta had issue together with his command, serving to push his pitch depend as much as 69.
The Red Sox wasted no time attending to Gray, with Alex Verdugo main off the sport with a solo house run. Boston struck for 2 extra within the third after Reese McGuire led off the inning with a single, stole second after which superior to 3rd after back-to-back walks by Rafael Devers and Trevor Story.
That set the stage for Triston Casas, who labored a full depend earlier than coming via with a two-run single to make it 3-0.
The Nationals answered again forcefully with an enormous third inning of their very own, capitalizing after Nick Pivetta allowed a leadoff single to Blake Rutherford and back-to-back walks to Lane Thomas and Joey Meneses to load the bases with one out. Keibert Ruiz lower into the deficit with a two-run double, and although Pivetta then received Dominic Smith to strike out, he couldn’t escape the jam. Stone Garrett got here via with an RBI double of his personal to finish the rally and provides the Nationals a 4-3 lead.
Credit the Red Sox, they instantly seized again the initiative.
Boston instantly loaded the bases with no outs on a Jarren Duran single, a Reyes double and after McGuire reached on catcher’s interference. Verdugo then tied the sport with a sacrifice fly, and whereas McGuire was doubled up attempting to take second on the play, the Red Sox retook the lead quickly after anyway after Reyes raced house to attain the go-ahead run on a wild pitch.
Cora mentioned afterwards they received fortunate with the wild pitch after making a foul baserunning mistake, however credited Reyes for his aggressiveness.
“That’s something we talk about and you’ve just got to be alert,” Cora mentioned. “He did an outstanding job going from second to third and then saw the ball in the dirt and took off, and we scored the run.”
Pivetta’s remaining line wasn’t something particular, however on Tuesday it was ok. The right-hander gave up 4 runs over 4.1 innings, permitting 5 hits and three walks whereas putting out seven, and after he handed the ball off the bullpen was totally dominant the remainder of the way in which.
Brennan Bernardino, John Schreiber, Chris Martin, Josh Winckowski and Kenley Jansen collectively threw 4.2 scoreless innings of reduction, with the Red Sox employees retiring 12 straight Nationals batters between the fourth and eighth innings. The solely blemish through the later innings got here when Smith hit a two-out double off Winckowski within the eighth, however the right-hander shortly ended the menace with an enormous help from Devers, who made a spectacular play at third to finish the inning.
That set the stage for Jansen, who despatched down the Nationals in fast succession for his twenty eighth save of the season.
With the win the Red Sox begin their longest street journey of the season off on a excessive word. Boston is now 63-56 on the season, together with an MLB-best 50-3 whereas main after six innings, to remain three video games behind Toronto within the Wild Card standings.
The Red Sox will go for the collection win in Washington on Wednesday. James Paxton (7-3, 3.36 ERA) is anticipated to take the mound towards Washington’s MacKenzie Gore (6-9, 4.62). First pitch is scheduled for 7:05 p.m.
Source: www.bostonherald.com