OAKLAND, Calif. — Red Sox starter Nick Pivetta’s favorite statistic can’t be found on Baseball Savant, Fangraphs, Baseball-Reference or the back of his baseball card.
“Nothing really crazy. How good of a teammate I am I guess,” Pivetta said, laughing a bit when asked the stat most important to him. “How good of a person I am.”
But the 31-year-old righty also mentioned an actual stat, too.
“Obviously I like to punch guys out,” he said. “I think if I were to be selfish and picked one of all, I think it would probably be K per 9.”
Pivetta will start for the Red Sox against the Athletics on Wednesday. He struck out 10 batters in 6 strong innings in his first start vs. Seattle on Friday. He averaged 11.5 strikeouts per nine innings last year. He punched out a career-high 31.2% of the batters he faced.
Pivetta has evolved as a pitcher over the past year. He added a sweeper last June, then held opponents to a .114 batting average when he threw it. He has piled up strikeouts as his repertoire has expanded. But being a good teammate to the young pitchers who share a rotation with him is just as important.
“I think it’s just bringing good energy,” he said. “Being there for guys when they need you to be. And being able to help guys go through their big league careers in any which way. Always being able to be there for my teammates and leading by example.”
Pivetta posted a 3.05 ERA (97 ⅓ innings, 33 earned runs) and 3.27 FIP in his final 28 games (eight starts) last year. Opponents batted just .197 against him during the stretch. He was overpowering at times. Does he think he could post those numbers for a full season and be someone who receives Cy Young votes?
“Of course I do,” Pivetta said. “But it’s the same with Tanner (Houck). Tanner just struck out 10 guys (Monday) with no walks and no runs. He does a lot of the same things I do. (Brayan) Bello does some of the same things I do. Maybe he does it a little bit differently. I think we all have potential to win a Cy Young and we all have the potential to put together seasons like that.”
Bello has a goal to win 17 to 20 games. Pivetta’s goal is much more simple.
“Just to put together a healthy, full season,” said Pivetta, who is eligible for free agency after the 2024 season.
Pivetta has been a workhorse for the Red Sox, leading the team in innings in 2022 (179 ⅔ innings) and finishing second on the team in 2023 with 142 ⅔ innings despite 22 of his 38 appearances coming out of the bullpen. His 155 innings in 2021 ranked third among Red Sox pitchers behind Nathan Eovaldi and Eduardo Rodriguez.
“I think just keep it narrow-focused,” he added about his goals. “Go out, stay healthy, attack the strike zone. … I think if I throw strikes, not walk guys and put myself in advantage counts, then I should have success.”
Chief baseball officer Craig Breslow pointed to starting pitching as one of the team’s top needs at his introductory press conference and then at the GM Meetings. But the Red Sox’ Opening Day roster consisted of five starting pitchers who all were on last year’s team. Boston did sign veteran Lucas Giolito but he will miss the 2024 season after undergoing an internal brace procedure on the partially torn ligament in his pitching elbow in March.
“For the guys here, it puts a lot of confidence in them that we didn’t add and we’re comfortable with these guys,” Pivetta said. “They all put the work in all offseason. They’re very dedicated. I worked out with Tanner. Bello was working out all offseason between the D.R. and I think he came to Boston as well. (Garrett) Whitlock was doing his thing over in Alabama and then he was at the (JetBlue Park) facility with Kutter (Crawford). So I think us just being around each other all the time as much as we can. And then these guys, they are in their second, third year in the big leagues right now. So they’ve moved past their growing pains and now they are trying to develop who they are as big leaguers.”
Pivetta is pleased with how well all five starters pounded the strike zone in the first turn through the rotation. Boston starters had just one walk in 28 innings, which manager Alex Cora called “hard to do.”
“I think that’s probably the most important stat (from the rotation so far),” Pivetta said. “That just proves to us as a rotation that we’re going out there and attacking the strike zone, getting ahead of guys and executing pitches when we need to. The less walks we have the more success we’re going to have. Hitting is extremely hard, even if you’re throwing the ball down the middle.”
Pivetta is intense. His fiery celebrations during the 2021 ALDS and ALCS became popular among Red Sox fans. See a compilation video here. Fans certainly enjoyed his emotion, even making GIFs of him being fired up on his way to the dugout after recording a big out.
He has enjoyed pitching in front of the Fenway crowd.
“I mean, I like pitching anywhere,” Pivetta said. “I think it’s very special to be able to pitch for an organization that’s been around for so long and has had such a great history of winning. Really good standards. Really good community. Really good baseball fans that show up and just want us to have success. … I like the expectations of wanting to win and wanting us to show up and do our best every single day.”
He also enjoys the area beyond the baseball. Pivetta and his wife Kristen live outside of the city.
“We like to go to some of the farmer’s markets out there (Arlington/Winchester area),” Pivetta said. “We like to go walk the lakes. We have a dog so we find different parks to go to. We go into the city. We go eat food.”
One of their favorite spots is O Ya, a Japanese restaurant in Boston. He and his wife also enjoy eating out in the North End.
“We go down to little Italy,” he said. “And then we just enjoy the structure of the smaller, downtown space where you can walk around and gather the history of what Boston has.”
Fun fact: Pivetta writes left-handed
The righty actually writes with his left hand.
“My stepdad taught me to write,” Pivetta said. “He was sitting across from me. And then I just started picking up the pen with my left hand. My biological father is mostly left-handed though. So that’s probably where it came from.”
He does only one other thing left-handed.
“Fish,” he said. “Just fish.”
