Nick Pivetta turned things around Saturday and put in a solid six innings. However, the Boston Red Sox bullpen could not keep the 1-0 lead, and the Chicago White Sox beat the Red Sox 3-1 at Fenway Park.
Hansel Robles was brought on to complete the game and earn a save. The right hander started the ninth inning with a walk, and the White Sox made Robles pay, scoring the tying run.
Matt Barnes was brought in and the reliever gave up two runs, including Jose Abreu's game-winning RBI double. Alex Cora, who was ejected in the third inning, defended his decision to remove Matt Strahm and insert in Robles.
"To be honest with you, I trust Bushy (Dave Bush) and Will (Venable)," Cora said, as seen on NESN's postgame coverage. "We knew all those guys were available, and just watching the game and the pocket we had, eight, ninth and lead-off guys, all righties. He's done the job before. He had good stuff. It was a perfect pocket for Hansel. He just didn't make pitches on the first three hitters. The walk, the double and then Garcia puts in a good swing. And then after that, he limited the damage and gave us a chance to win the game, but we didn't do it."
The Red Sox's lone run of the game came in the fifth inning. Rafael Devers hit a double to deep left allowing first baseman Franchy Cordero to score. However, Boston was not able to provide support to Pivetta and the bullpen and build on their lead.
"We go out, we compete every single time," Pivetta said, as seen on NESN's postgame coverage. "We do the best we can to give our team a chance to win, and that's our job to go deep in baseball games and just do what we do. Things are gonna turn around, they always will.
"A stretch is a stretch. We just have to look forward, and you have to continue to compete, continue to go out there and just grind it out. We're a really good baseball team. We have really good promise. We just need to continue to go out. It's not easy all the time, but just go out and play the game."
Here are more notes from Red Sox-White Sox
-- Pivetta struck out eight White Sox batters and walked zero through a season-high six innings.
"(I had) good command of my fastball, slider," Pivetta said. "Curveball came around late, just competed in the zone. Just did what I did."
-- Saturday's loss continues a concerning trend for the Red Sox. Boston is now 0-6 in extra innings. MLB's "ghost runner" rule has helped speed up the game, allowing a potential game-winning run to start on second base. However, Cora is not making excuses for the Red Sox's efforts in extra-inning games.
"It's tough," Cora said. "I'm the biggest fan of the rule, and we're 0-6. You just gotta make good pitches, put up bats. We had a chance to actually finish the game in the ninth. Second and third, less than two outs and we didn't make contact with less than two outs, and that was it.
"Where we're at right now, any chance we have, we have to take advantage, and throughout the game, we had some chances to add on, and we didn't do it. For everything that is going on, everybody knows offensively -- we counted on the offense to help us, to carry us right, and I think we've done a pretty good job from the mound. There's no room to breathe for us right now. We have to get better offensively. That's the bottom line."
