The red-hot Tampa Bay offense disrupted Garrett Whitlock’s first start of the season for Boston when they hit three long balls off the right-handed pitcher en route to the Rays defeating the Red Sox 7-2 on Tuesday night.
Whitlock pitched five innings, giving up five runs on eight hits and striking out five batters. The right-hander was tagged for three home runs before giving way to the bullpen.
“Obviously, not the way I wanted to go, but you know, good to at least be part of the team again,” Whitlock told reporters, as seen on NESN’s postgame coverage. “Need to get better going forward for sure.”
Whitlock said he missed the location on the pitches Tampa launched out of the park, but also credited the Rays for swinging the bat well.
“I mean, that’s the thing is they’re capitalizing on mistakes, and you know, that’s our bad for making them, but you just try and build on it going forward,” Whitlock said. “… They’re a very good lineup. The thing is, like in the big leagues, every lineup is a deep lineup, you know, but they’re swinging the bat really well right now. And so you know, you gotta tip your hat to them.”
Red Sox manager Alex Cora also complimented the still-undefeated Rays for their electric start to the season.
“They are playing great baseball right now. It’s 11 in a row playing good baseball,” Cora said, as seen on NESN. “They did a few things offensively that they have cleaned up compared to last year. Their approach is a lot different. They’re putting good swings on good pitches, you know, and hitting the ball out of the ballpark.”
Despite surrendering five earned runs, Cora wasn’t disappointed in Whitlock’s performance.
“It was okay. Obviously, the homers, you know, but I think the stuff was good in the fifth and fourth,” Cora said. “We have to push him right where he’s at right now. It’s what we needed. You know, it didn’t look great because of the home runs, but I think his stuff was was was was really good.”
Here are more notes from Tuesday’s Red Sox-Rays Game:
— Rafael Devers and Kiké Hernández struggled at the plate, combining to go for 0-for-8 and three strikeouts. Cora told reporters after the game said that Hernández or Christian Arroyo would not start in Wednesday’s game against the Rays. Arroyo went 0-for-3 with two strikeouts in the loss.
— Connor Wong didn’t have a good night at the plate, striking out in his two appearances, but threw out two runners trying to steal second. Wong became the first Red Sox catcher this season to nail out a runner, now a combined 2-of-18 with Reese McGuire.
— In his first start since being recalled from Triple-A Worcester, first baseman Bobby Dalbec went 1-for-1 with a single to left field and a stolen base before Cora elected to have Triston Casas pinch hit in the top of the seventh.
— The Tampa Bay offense has a +63 run differential in the first 11 games of the season and improve to 8-0 at home.
— The Red Sox and Rays continue their four-game series at Tropicana Field on Wednesday night. First pitch is scheduled for 6:40 p.m. ET, and you can catch the game, plus a full hour of pregame coverage, live on NESN.
