BOSTON — For five innings, Red Sox starter Kutter Crawford had shut out the powerful Los Angels Dodgers lineup, limiting them to just two singles.
But Crawford appeared to run out of gas in the sixth inning, allowing a double to Mookie Betts and a single by Freddie Freeman, ending his night.
Reliever Nick Pivetta was summoned from the bullpen and things soon went downhill. Both inherited runners quickly scored, along with a run of his own doing. In the seventh, it went from bad to worse as two costly walks helped lead to a three-run inning for the visitors, and eventually, a 7-4 L.A. victory.
“Location-wise, he was off,” said Alex Cora of Pivetta, who was charged with four runs, the most he’s allowed in a relief outing this season. “We were asking a lot out of him, where we were in the bullpen today. We needed him to go multiple innings. It’s part of it, right? He’s not perfect. We had to push him today because of where we were at.”
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The Red Sox had hoped that Crawford might get them through the sixth, but after allowing two-hard hit balls to open the inning and nearing 90 pitches, turned to Pivetta. Garrett Whitlock and Josh WInckowski, who might otherwise have been mid-game options, were down Friday because of their recent workloads.
Pivetta has pitched in every role imaginable this season, from starter to bulk reliever and everything in between. On Wednesday night in Houston, he replaced an injured Kenley Jansen in the ninth inning and preserved a tie to send the game to extra innings.
Entering Friday’s action, Pivetta had posted a 2.90 ERA over his previous 21 appearances while limiting opposing hitters to a paltry .164 batting average while fanning 12.9 hitters per nine innings.
But Friday was not his night.
“Just didn’t have my best stuff today,” said Pivetta. “They took advantage of that when I got behind in counts and put some swings on some pitches I threw.”
When it was pointed out to Pivetta that he had been yanked back and fourth between numerous jobs of late, he cut off the questioning.
“There’s no excuses,” he said. “I’ve got to be top line every single time I go out, especially against a team like that. I didn’t put us in a great position to win today, but hopefully, the team bounces back tomorrow, continues to swing it like they’ve been doing. It just didn’t go my way today.”
