The Red Sox and Mariners motored through Thursday’s rubber match in Seattle.
It took Boston just two hours and 14 minutes to complete a 3-1 victory for their fourth consecutive series win.
Walker Buehler’s early implosion in Wednesday night’s loss had snapped Boston’s streak of quality starts, but Garrett Crochet began anew. After issuing five walks on 110 pitches when he faced the Mariners at Fenway on April 24, Boston’s new ace was unyielding in Thursday’s finale: he held the home team to one earned run on six hits and struck out eight in his six innings.
Crochet threw 96 pitches, 70 for strikes. His four-seamer played, and he complemented it with a cutter and sweeper.
Luis Castillo also gave his team six innings, walked two, and struck out five. He held the Red Sox to three hits, but two of them were home runs. Rookie infielder Marcelo Mayer went yard on the first pitch of the second inning, and Trevor Story retook the lead with a two-run blast to left-center in the fourth (scoring Mayer, who’d drawn a walk).
“That was a great swing by Trevor,” manager Alex Cora, who moved into a tie with Pinky Higgins for the third-most wins in Red Sox managerial history, told reporters. After an ice-cold stretch, the veteran shortstop is having a scorching June: through 16 games he’s hitting .283 with a 8.28 OPS, four doubles, three homers and 15 RBI.
The Red Sox went 1-2-3 in the fifth, seventh, eighth, and ninth, interrupted only by Roman Anthony’s walk and first career stolen base in the sixth. Boston did have several well-struck balls land where they shouldn’t, including a fifth-inning lineout from the slumping Jarren Duran, at 115.2 mph, it was the hardest-hit ball of the contest.
It’s been a low-production stretch in general; after putting up at least six runs in six of seven games between June 2-9 – including three double-digit games between June 4-8), Boston has scored no more than four runs in each of the subsequent eight games. Their ___ wins largely stem from stupendous pitching performances.
Cora threw a curveball of his own with his bullpen order. Garrett Whitlock pitched a perfect seventh inning, so it was surprising to see closer Aroldis Chapman take the mound in the eighth. The veteran closer hadn’t pitched earlier than the ninth inning since April 21, but he got the Mariners in order, too.
Greg Weissert’s ninth inning began on shaky footing when he had difficulty locating his four-seamer and issued a one-out walk to Randy Arozarena, but he was able to slam the door by getting pinch-hitter Dominic Canzone to ground into a double play.
The Boston bullpen pitched 10 ⅔ scoreless innings over the series.
“Everybody’s got a job to do,” Weissert told NESN’s Jahmai Webster. “As tough as it was trading Raffy (Devers), I think we all kind of banded together and just trying to squeak out wins here.”
The Red Sox are 39-37. They have Thursday off.
On Friday, they’ll face Devers.
