The Red Sox shut out the Oakland Athletics on Saturday thanks, in large part, to Nick Pivetta's outstanding outing.
Boston scored eight runs to support Pivetta's performance as the right-hander went seven innings. Pivetta only allowed two hits and struck out seven batters as the Red Sox secured the win in the series. Boston is now 5-1-1 in its last seven series after starting the season 1-7-2.
"I think all the pitches are working, man," catcher Christian Vázquez told NESN's Tom Caron, as seen on NESN's postgame coverage. "He's consistent every inning. He can throw whatever. He's gonna throw with conviction and purpose, and I think the fastball and curveball is awesome right now."
Pivetta has rebounded from his early-season struggles and has brought his ERA down to 3.50.
Red Sox starting pitchers have not given up an earned run in the past six games as Boston has won three straight.
In his last 6 starts, Pivetta has a 1.32 ERA, 0.73 WHIP, and .153 opponent AVG, according to Red Sox senior manager of media relations and baseball information J.P. Long.
"We talk a lot about mechanics, and his timing was way off in spring training and early in the season," Cora told reporters. "He made some adjustments. I would say his fastball plays, regardless if it's 95, 96. The extension and the carry is there, and I think he's been able to, obviously, use secondary pitches, but everything starts with fastball command. And he's done an amazing job the last month."
Here are more notes from Saturday's Red Sox-Athletics
-- Pivetta threw 100 pitches and used his fastball 58% of the time, averaging 94 mph and topping out at 96.1 mph, per Baseball Savant, according to MassLive's Christopher Smith. Pivetta is now over .500 as a starter (5-4) after Saturday's decision.
"I'm just going out there and having fun, playing baseball, just repeating what I've been doing," Pivetta told reporters. "For me, I'm not trying to overanalyze it, just trying to go out, and compete and have fun, win baseball games. That's all I really care about, and that's all I really want to do."
-- Tanner Houck pitched one inning of relief after warming up Friday night and not playing. The right-hander struck out two batters and achieved his fifth straight scoreless appearance (12 innings pitched).
"We had to use Tanner today because he was up, and we were going to lose him for tomorrow," Cora said. "Give him one and hopefully, he can come back Monday or Tuesday."
-- The Red Sox outhit the A's 14-to-4 and scored half of their runs in the eighth inning. Boston continues to lead the league in doubles (134), adding five Saturday.
"We're looking good," Vázquez said. "I think we're not chasing a lot. We're getting good at-bats all game and got the results."
-- Trevor Story has raised his OPS to .790, a high mark this year, per Red Sox Stats. Story ended April at .596. The second baseman batted 2-for-5 Saturday scoring two runs and bringing in one RBI.
-- Xander Bogaerts passed Everett Scott's record of most games played at shortstop in Red Sox history, a record that stood since 1921.
-- The Red Sox will look to sweep the A's on Sunday at RingCentral Coliseum with first pitch scheduled at 4:07 p.m. ET. Full coverage of the game will be on NESN, including an hour of pregame coverage starting at 3 p.m.
