Nick Pivetta had a rough start to season, but the right-hander put together the best outing for any Red Sox pitcher by throwing a complete game in Boston’s 5-1 win against the Houston Astros on Wednesday at Fenway Park.
The night did not start well for Pivetta as lead-off hitter Jose Altuve hit a solo home run in the first inning. However, Pivetta bounced back retiring 18 straight batters on just 56 pitches until he gave up the only other hit the Astros recorded.
“I’m just focusing on pitch to pitch, inning to inning, I’m trying not to make it too complicated out there,” Pivetta said to NESN’s Jahmai Webster, as seen on NESN’s postgame coverage. “I’m just trying to stick to the fundamentals and do the right things right.”
Pivetta’s complete game was the second of his career and the fourth of the 2022 MLB season. It was the first nine-inning complete game for the Red Sox since Chris Sale did it on June 5, 2019. The complete game was also the first at Fenway Park since Rick Porcello’s one-hitter against the New York Yankees on Aug. 3, 2018.
“I didn’t want to come out,” Pivetta said, as seen on NESN’s postgame coverage. “After the last game, I felt like I could go the extra two innings, pick up the bullpen a little bit. I felt good, felt confident. I was in the zone. They weren’t taking great hacks against me. So I just kind of ran with that.”
Here are more notes from Red Sox-Astros
— Pivetta struck out eight Astros batters in his two-hit complete game. The right-hander threw 112 pitches, nearly 70% were strikes. Pivetta will get a chance to repeat his stellar performance when the Red Sox travel to Chicago to play the White Sox on May 24.
“It was a lot of fun,” Pivetta said. “I don’t really know what to say, to be honest with you. It’s just a lot for me, but I just went out and competed. The guys behind me played really good defense. They got on the bats really early, driving in runs, really confident so just kind of fed off that. And then me and (Christian Vázquez) are on a really good page, communicating really well, same with Bushy (Red Sox pitching Dave Bush), so it was nice.”
— Rafael Devers batted 2-for-3, which included a triple and an RBI double. The third baseman’s first inning triple was his first of the season, and Devers extended his hitting streak to 12 games and his on-base streak to a career-high 22 games.
— Xander Bogaerts hit a solo home run in the first inning against Astros starting pitcher Luis Garcia. The homer was Bogaerts’ fourth of the season, and the shortstop now has six RBI over the last six games.
— J.D. Martinez hit a sacrifice fly ball to score the tying run in the first inning. However, the designated hitter did not record a hit Wednesday night snapping his hitting streak at 18 games and his on-base streak at 36 games — both were the longest of his career and the longest streaks in MLB. Martinez had a chance at a hit in the bottom of the seventh inning, but he was ruled out at first after an unsuccessful challenge.
— The Red Sox will invite the Seattle Mariners to Fenway on Thursday to start a four-game series. First pitch is set for 7:10 p.m. ET, and full coverage of the game will be on NESN following an hour of pregame coverage.
