BOSTON — Steven Wright’s knuckleball is hard enough to control in ideal conditions. Add a steady rain to the mix, and finding the plate becomes nearly impossible.
Wright learned that the hard way Friday night in a departure from what has been an excellent start to the season for the Red Sox right-hander. The veteran pitcher allowed five runs on nine hits over just 4 1/3 innings — his shortest outing of the season — in a rain-soaked, 7-6 loss to the Houston Astros at Fenway Park.
“(The rain was) a huge factor,” Wright said. “It got to the point where I couldn’t keep anything dry, which, when you’re trying to throw a pitch with your fingertips, it makes it a little slippery; hard to get good finger pressure. They swung at some good pitches to hit, and the ball wasn’t moving as much because of the finger pressure issue.”
The Astros, who managed just one run the night before, jumped on Wright from the get-go. Jose Altuve led off the game with a frozen rope to left field and scored on an RBI single by Marwin Gonzalez, who scorched a knuckleball that stayed up in the zone.
Wright settled down to pitch a scoreless next three innings, but the soaking rain that began before first pitch continued to fall, making conditions worse for the 31-year-old. In the fifth inning, things finally fell apart — he allowed four consecutive hits and a walk to start the inning, as Houston plated four runs to erase a 5-1 deficit.
“My pants were wet, my jersey was wet, my hands — it was tough to keep anything dry out there,” Wright said. “So, it just makes it a little bit harder to keep a feel for the knuckleball.”
Wright said he thought about changing out of his uniform and into a drier one between innings, but concluded his new uniform just would get soaked again. Asked if he considered straying from the knuckleball to throw pitches he could better control, Wright provided a prideful response.
“I thought about it,” Wright said. “But at the same time, if I’m going to get beat, I’m going to get beat with my best pitch, regardless of the situation.”
Wright has plenty of evidence to back up his knuckleball’s effectiveness. He entered Friday’s game with a 1.52 ERA and had surrendered two runs or fewer in all six of his starts. In fact, Friday marked the first time since July 27, 2015, that Wright has allowed more than two runs in a start.
The good news for the Red Sox is that Wright, who still leads Boston’s pitching staff with a 2.36 ERA, sees no reason to panic. He understood the challenges he would face as a knuckleballer pitching in the rain and is ready to get back to his winning ways.
“Tomorrow’s a new day,” Wright said. “You’ve got to take the positives out of something and dismiss the negatives. I think it’ll be fine. It’s one game.”
Thumbnail photo via Mark L. Baer/USA TODAY Sports Images
