The Boston Red Sox have struggled to find stability and consistency in their starting rotation this season. That trend continued Sunday, leading to Boston's 7-0 loss to the San Diego Padres and the end of its four-game winning streak.
Corey Kluber took the mound for the Red Sox and struggled out the gate, as the Padres rallied for four runs in the first inning. The 37-year-old didn't last much longer on the mound, pulled after just 2 1/3 innings after allowing five runs off three hits and a walk with three strikeouts, giving Kluber his sixth loss of the season.
Despite failing to make it out of the third inning, Red Sox manager Alex Cora assured Kluber's place in Boston's rotation moving forward after already shifting Nick Pivetta from the rotation to the bullpen.
"He pitches Sunday. He'll pitch Sunday in Arizona," Cora told reporters, as seen on NESN's postgame coverage.
For the bulk of the year, Kluber has struggled with both location and velocity, which the Padres took advantage of, especially in scoring opportunities.
"He's gonna keep working," Cora said. "Like I said before the game, he's gonna get ready for the next one. When he's around the plate and ahead in the count, he's been tough. But today you saw it. He had (Matt Carpenter) with two strikes, right? Ended up with a walk. He had (Xander) Bogaerts with two strikes, he walked him. And he battled with (Rougned) Odor. Had him 1-2 and 3-2, he threw it in the zone and (Odor) put a good swing on it."
Here are more notes from Sunday's Red Sox-Padres game:
-- Infielder Enmanuel Valdez was pulled from the game before the start of the seventh inning, replaced by Pablo Reyes at second base. The move was made due to precautionary reasons, as was noted during NESN's live broadcast.
"He's OK. We just took him out just to make sure," Cora said, per NESN. "But he should be OK for tomorrow."
-- Left-hander Joely RodrÃguez made his second appearance of the season, pitching a scoreless eighth inning with two strikeouts.
-- Pivetta made his first relief appearance of the season and allowed one earned run off two hits with three strikeouts through 2 1/3 innings pitched.
-- Masataka Yoshida went 2-for-3 with two singles and extended his hitting streak to five straight games.
-- Former Red Sox pitcher Michael Wacha dominated for San Diego, pitching six scoreless innings while allowing five hits and striking out four hitters. Wacha is 3-0 with an 0.36 ERA in his last four games, allowing 11 hits over the course of 25 innings.
"That's who he is. A guy that is gonna pound the strike zone with whatever he has that day," Cora explained. "He's been able to mix his breaking ball against lefties, something that he's done the last two weeks. He didn't do it last year. ... He did what he usually does."
-- The Red Sox will remain on the road and begin a three-game series with the Los Angeles Angels on Monday. First pitch for the series-opener is set for 9:38 p.m. ET, and you can watch the full game, along with an hour of pregame coverage, live on NESN.
