The Boston Red Sox weren’t able to extend their six-game winning streak Sunday afternoon, as the Seattle Mariners avoided the series sweep with a 5-0 victory at Fenway Park.
While Seattle’s run total wasn’t overwhelming, the visiting club had great success against Red Sox starting pitcher Rick Porcello. The Mariners jumped all over Boston’s ace, collecting 11 hits over the 6 1/3 innings he was on the mound.
Porcello did a good job of limiting the damage to only two earned runs during his outing, but the reigning American League Cy Young winner wasn’t pleased with his performance Sunday.
“Quick-pitch outs have not been my strength at this point,” Porcello said, as seen on NESN’s Red Sox postgame coverage. “I’d like to be more consistent early in the count and not give up as many hits and allow runners to get on base.”
Red Sox manager John Farrell echoed his starter’s sentiments and credited Seattle’s success at the plate to taking advantage of mislocated pitches.
“It comes down to consistent location,” Farrell said. “When you go back and review the video, many of the times its fastballs leaking back to the middle of the plate.”
Still, Porcello did more than enough keep his team in the game. But unfortunately for the right-hander, the Red Sox bats were stymied by Mariners starter Christian Bergman, who only allowed four hits over seven scoreless innings.
Sunday’s game marked the sixth time in his last nine starts that the Red Sox failed to score for Porcello, who’s season record fell to 3-6 following the defeat. Boston only notched five hits in the contest and grounded into a season-high four double plays.
Much of Porcello’s struggles this season can be pegged as lousy luck, but the Red Sox’s starter plans on keeping it simple in order to get back to his winning ways.
“You can’t go crazy and completely magnify every pitch,” Porcello said. “It’s more trends, mechanically and see how hitters are having success of me.”
Here are some other notes from Red Sox vs. Mariners.
— Dustin Pedroia went 2-for-4 with a double in Sunday’s game and has reached base in 13 consecutive contests.
— Xander Bogaerts logged a single in the first inning with a 3-2 count on him. The Red Sox shortstop leads Major League Baseball with 202 two-strike hits since 2015.
— Blaine Boyer made his Red Sox debut when he appeared with one out in the ninth inning. The 35-year-old journeyman turned away both batters he faced in the short outing.
— Porcello typically is at his best when the sun is up. Sunday’s loss was his first in a day game since October 2015.
Thumbnail photo via Bob DeChiara/USA TODAY Sports Images
