SEATTLE – “It's enjoyable to have Nicky P on the mound,” Alex Cora said before Nick Pivetta made his season debut on Friday night.
Indeed, Pivetta was almost unhittable in his first start; he allowed the Mariners only three hits, a solo home run, got 10 strikeouts, and did not give a walk.
Unfortunately, the performance was not sufficient to prevent the Mariners from shutting out the Sox 1-0, causing him to receive the loss.
Even though home-plate umpire David Rackley was making the strike zone smaller, Pivetta performed well. Equipped with a mix of four pitches (sweeper, four-seam fastball, cutter, curveball), the 31-year-old right-handed pitcher held the Mariners to two hits in the first four innings. Even Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh, who homered off him twice in a game last July, could not figure out how to hit against the Sox starter.
Unfortunately, the Red Sox lineup was missing Seattle-killer Rafael Devers – a late scratch from the lineup due to left-shoulder soreness – and they had no answer to George Kirby. The Mariners starter seemed unsteady in the first inning, giving a leadoff walk to Jarren Duran and a one-out walk to Masataka Yoshida. Duran quickly stole second base, making him the first Red Sox player to steal multiple bases within the first two games of the season since Xander Bogaerts in 2017, and only the third this century. late scratch from the lineup due to left-shoulder soreness – and they had no answer to George Kirby. The Mariners starter looked unsteady in the top of the first, issuing a leadoff walk to Jarren Duran and a one-out walk to Masataka Yoshida. Duran quickly stole second, making him the first Red Sox player to swipe multiple bags within the first two games of the season since Xander Bogaerts in 2017, and only the third this century.
But when Boston left the two players on base, Kirby settled in, and the game turned into a classic pitcher’s duel. Although the Sox increased the 26-year-old righty’s pitch count to 48 after three innings, his confidence grew as he worked deeper into the game without suffering any damage. He retired the visitors 1-2-3 in the second, fourth, and fifth innings. Until the seventh, the only hit they had was Tyler O’Neill’s single with two outs.
Due to the pitch clock and the almost complete lack of offense, the game was in the sixth inning after about 75 minutes and finished after 2:24.
The blanking continued until the bottom of the sixth. After Pivetta struck out the leadoff batter, J.P. Crawford hit a cutter just inside the right-field foul pole for a solo home run.
“Just down and in, and it backed up a little bit,” Pivetta said of where he was trying to put that cutter, “He put a good swing on a pitch.”
He quickly recovered to strike out the following two batters, taking his punch-out count into double digits. He did not have a double-digit strikeout performance once in the first half of last season, but one of his four such contests after the All-Star break was in Seattle. According to Stathead, he is the fourth pitcher in franchise history to achieve double-digit strikeouts without walking a batter within the team’s first six games of the season, joining Roger Clemens (1991), Dave Morehead (1965), and Dutch Leonard (1917). It was Pivetta’s sixth time starting a 1-0 Red Sox loss, tying Leonard, and Cy Young for the franchise record.
“I think my curveball getting over for first-pitch strikes was really beneficial, and then I was able to use my sweeper later to induce a lot of weak contact,” he assessed.
The manager praised Nick, saying he did very well in the game.
After three consecutive flawless innings, Ceddanne Rafaela finally forced Kirby out of the game with a two-out single in the seventh.
Cora said he's one of the top pitchers in the league. He didn't walk people, but he walked two in the first inning and we had a chance, we didn't take advantage, and after that he got into his groove… He's a challenging opponent.
Boston had chances to score due to Seattle’s relief pitchers. Pinch-hitting for Enmanuel Valdez, Pablo Reyes welcomed Mariners reliever Gabe Speier with a single. Unfortunately, it was a repeat of the first inning, as Bobby Dalbec struck out with two men on base. Ryne Stanek struggled when he took over in the top of the eighth, giving up a leadoff walk to Reese McGuire and a two-out single to Masataka Yoshida before Mariners manager Scott Servais called for Andrés Muñoz, who then got Trevor Story to ground out to end the penultimate frame.
Josh Winckowski pitched the last two innings for Boston. He was dominant, striking out four of his first five batters. However, after starting the bottom of the eighth with back-to-back strikeouts, he gave up a single to No. 9 hitter Luke Raley and loaded the bases with two walks. A lineout to first kept the score at 1-0, but it didn’t matter.
By the eighth inning, the Sox were 0-for-4 with runners in scoring position, having left seven runners stranded. The 1-0 deficit seemed insurmountable.
Cora admitted, “We had opportunities. We moved the line enough, but we didn't score.”
Muñoz returned to the mound for the top of the ninth, aiming for his first four-out save since 2022. He was aided by Rackley, who called Triston Casas out on strikes, all of which were outside the strike zone. “We didn’t agree with two pitches there,” Cora said diplomatically, but admitted, “We didn’t do much.”The Red Sox were struck out in order, resulting in a shutout loss.
After the game, Cora explained that Devers was “just sore.”
However, Devers then admitted that he started feeling some shoulder soreness late in spring training, and that it had been getting “worse and worse.”
Neither he nor Cora ruled out the possibility of him playing on Saturday, though.
Nick Pivetta struck out 10 and did not walk any batters in his 2024 debut, but the Red Sox still lost to the Mariners 1-0.
