BOSTON — This is what you’re going to get from Steven Wright.
Through six starts this season with the Red Sox, the 30-year-old knuckleballer has been remarkably consistent — not dominant by any means, but consistent.
Wright has tossed between five and 6 1/3 innings in each outing while allowing either two or three earned runs. That included his most recent start Thursday, when the Minnesota Twins managed three earned runs and added another of the unearned variety against the right-hander in an eventual 8-4 win at Fenway Park.
Wright, who exited after the sixth inning with the score tied and thus did not factor into the decision, lamented the only major mistake he made in the ballgame: leaving a fifth-inning knuckler up in the zone that Torii Hunter deposited into the Monster seats for a three-run homer.
“He’s obviously been around the game for a reason,” Wright said of the veteran Twins outfielder, “and that’s the reason. He eats mistakes. It stayed up. It didn’t have the bite that most of my other (knuckleballs) had.”
It remains to be seen whether Wright will be around to make his next scheduled start. The emergence of rookie Eduardo Rodriguez and manager John Farrell’s desire not to employ a six-man rotation means that someone has to go. And that someone almost certainly will be either Wright or Joe Kelly, who’s shown an ability to pitch gems but not to do so on a consistent basis.
Wright said he’ll approach his next appearance with the same mindset regardless.
“It’s the same thing I say every time I get asked that same question,” he said. “I want to pitch. I don’t care if I’m starting or relieving. So for me, every time I go out there, I just try to throw quality knuckleballs in the zone. If I’m a starter, I’m just trying to go as deep as I can, and if I’m coming out of the ‘pen, I’m either going to eat up some innings or just try to keep the team within striking distance of the game. ”
— Mookie Betts batted seventh for the Red Sox for the second game in a row, with Hanley Ramirez hitting in the No. 2 hole usually occupied by the second-year center fielder. The Red Sox see the bump down as temporary, as Farrell explained before the game.
“In Mookie’s case,” the Red Sox skipper said, “he’s gotten pitched to over the past three weeks where there seems to be a clear-cut approach or pattern which some pitchers are using against him. Moving him down to the No. 7 hole is just to give him a little bit of a breather. We fully see him as a top-of-the-order type of guy, and we’re confident he’ll get back to that.
Betts went 2-for-4 with a double and a run scored in the loss, and Ramirez — for all his struggles in the field and on the basepaths — swung the bat relatively well, going 2-for-5.
— To make room for newly acquired outfielder Alejandro De Aza on the 25-man roster, the Red Sox designeated outfielder Carlos Peguero for assignment. Peguero appeared in four games for the team, going 1-for-5 with one walk, one run scored and one strikeout.
— The managers of these two teams share an interesting history:
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Thumbnail photo via Greg M. Cooper/USA TODAY Sports Images
