Nick Pivetta was prepared to put his blistering speed on full display if the situation necessitated it Friday night.
With Hunter Renfroe, Kiké Hernandez and Christian Arroyo all suddenly unavailable, the Boston Red Sox were running shorthanded on the bench. They had just Travis Shaw, J.D. Martinez and Kevin Plawecki available, none of whom present particularly appealing pinch-running options.
The Red Sox were also in a close game with the Cleveland Indians, so manager Alex Cora had to be mindful of how he was deploying reserves.
“I was actually thinking about pinch-running (for) Christian (Vázquez) if he got on base or if it was a 2-1 game,” Cora said Saturday afternoon. “Then I looked at the card and was like, ‘Wow, there’s not too many options.’
“Pivetta offered (to pinch run).”
That was met with a swift nope.
“I was like, ‘Nah, we’ll try to stay away from that one,” Cora said.
Even if the game went on and on, Pivetta, who pitched Wednesday, almost certainly would never see the mound in relief. So, if things got that short on the bench, he made sense as a potential pinch-running option.
And, from a practical standpoint, Pivetta makes the most sense as a pitcher-turned-pinch-runner since he came up with a National League team.
But, of course, such an offer ultimately wasn’t necessary, and the Red Sox ended up winning.
