If losing Game 1 of their two-game set in London against the New York Yankees wasn’t enough, the Boston Red Sox’s pitching concerns continued Saturday afternoon.
Rick Porcello lasted just 1/3 innings in Saturday’s contest, giving up six earned runs off five hits in the process. Steven Wright was handed the loss after allowing the Yankees to take the lead for good in the second inning.
Boston utilized eight pitchers in total in Game 1 of the two-game set. Only two of them (Ryan Braiser and Hector Velazquez) threw hitless innings for the Sox. Colten Brewer also gave up no hits in 2/3 innings of work.
Manager Alex Cora acknowledged the pitching staff’s continued issues after Boston’s ugly loss.
“It just seems like we were in bad counts,” he said, as seen on NESN’s postgame coverage. “(The Yankees) did a good job playing off breaking balls and staying in the zone. They’re a great offensive team, we know that. But we weren’t as aggressive in the strike zone, (we) tried to get them out and we pay the price.”
The Sox have a chance to split the series with the Yankees on Sunday morning with Eduardo Rodriguez on the mound for his 17th start of the season.
Here are some more notes from Saturday’s Yankees-Red Sox game:
— It isn’t often both starters are pulled from the game in less than one inning, but that’s just what happened in Saturday’s game. Rick Porcello lasted just 1/3 innings, while Masahiro Tanaka lasted just 2/3 innings.
— Mike Shawaryn became the fourth reliever in Red Sox history to allow eight or more earned runs in 1 1/3 innings pitched and is the first to do so in the last 61 years.
Cora said the team needed someone to get at least three, if not six, outs when Shawaryn entered the game, which is why he was left in so long.
“It’s a tough one,” he said. “Obviously, we had to go through guys that we really didn’t want to use in certain situations, but its’ just the nature of the game.”
— Saturday’s game clocked in at 4 hours and 42 minutes, the third longest nine-inning game in MLB history. (Believe it or not, the three longest games all involved Red Sox-Yankees meetings.)
— This is the sixth time in two decades the Yankees and the Red Sox both have scored 10 or more runs in one of their meetings. It is the first time they’ve done so overseas.
