Boston Red Sox starting pitcher Michael Wacha walked a tightrope to near perfection Monday night against the Los Angeles Angels.
Wacha had no wiggle room with the Red Sox scoring only one run, but the veteran right-hander made that stand up by tossing a three-hit, complete-game shutout in Boston’s 1-0 victory.
Wacha’s performance in that close of a low-scoring ballgame hasn’t been replicated often for the Red Sox. It came nearly 15 years to the date of the last time a Red Sox pitcher threw a complete-game shutout in a 1-0 win, according to The Boston Globe’s Alex Speier, with Curt Schilling accomplishing the feat on June 7, 2007.
Wacha did however continue a trend this season for Red Sox starting pitchers. Wacha became the third pitcher, joining Nick Pivetta and Nathan Eovaldi, on the campaign to go the distance.
“That’s what I told them in the high-five line right there, I said, ‘Just trying to be like you guys, man,'” Wacha told NESN’s Jahmai Webster following the game. “It’s just we feed off each other and try to just keep on going out there and giving our team a chance to win.”
That also made a bit of history, as the Red Sox haven’t had three pitchers throw a complete game in one season since 2017, per Speier. Boston had four pitchers hurl complete games that season courtesy of Chris Sale, Brian Johnson, Doug Fister and Rick Porcello.
Garrett Whitlock will try to keep things going for the Red Sox, who have won five straight, when he toes the rubber on Tuesday against the Angels. First pitch is scheduled for 9:38 p.m. ET, and you can watch the game, plus an hour of pregame coverage on NESN.
