Rick Porcello was feeling it Monday night at Target Field.
The Red Sox right-hander posted one of his best outings of the season in the series opener against the first-place Minnesota Twins. Porcello hurled seven shutout innings in which he allowed just four hits as Boston claimed a narrow 2-0 victory on the road.
Porcello also had the punch-out pitch working, as he struck out eight Twins in his fifth win of the campaign. You can check out all eight Ks — which matched a season-high for Porcello — in the video below:
Rick Porcello appreciation tweet. pic.twitter.com/34NbABQtea
— Red Sox (@RedSox) June 18, 2019
The veteran righty would have had the chance to set a new season-high for strikeouts had his manager let him venture into the eighth inning. But Alex Cora made the wise decision to pull his starter while he was ahead and turned to the bullpen, which put the finishing touches on an impressive Red Sox win.