‘Tinkering’ Influenced Nick Pivetta’s Sudden Red Sox Emergence

There was a point during this calendar year where Nick Pivetta’s future with the Boston Red Sox was in doubt.

In fact, it was just three months ago that Pivetta was pulled from the starting rotation. He had a 6.30 ERA after making eight starts to open the season and wasn’t giving the Red Sox a consistent chance to win, so Boston elected to send him out to the bullpen.

In the 20 appearances Pivetta has made since the perceived demotion, he’s been dominant. The 30-year-old has a 2.67 ERA across that span, striking out 78 while walking just 19 across 57 1/3 innings pitched. He’s even made a pair of (pretty dang good) starts.

What changed? Well, Pivetta has a new pitch in his arsenal, adding a new slider with more of a horizontal break during Boston’s three-game series in Cleveland from June 6-8.

“I was just messing around with some pitches in the outfield and then it was working well, and I brought it into a game to see how the pitch would play,” Pivetta told Ian Browne of MLB.com. “It seems to work really well off of my curveball and off of my fastball up.”

The change has been noticeable to anyone paying attention, which obviously includes Red Sox manager Alex Cora.

“The game changer has been that cutter/slider/sweeper, whatever they put out there (on the scoreboard),” Cora told Browne. “It gives him four pitches now. He has the fastball, curveball, the short (slider) and the big one, so it’s hard to hit him now. It’s not just a vertical attack of fastballs up, breaking balls down. It’s something sideways, especially with righties. We always talked about his fastball; it always plays. There’s confidence now, too. You can see it.”

The goal for Pivetta will now be replicating success. The Red Sox have used him as both a starter and reliever in August, and it appears his new role will just see him eat innings whenever Boston needs him to.

Chris Sale returns Friday, setting Boston up with a staff of Brayan Bello, James Paxton, Kutter Crawford and Sale for the time being. Garrett Whitlock and Tanner Houck are on their way back, too, which gives the Red Sox two more options to start. Where does that leave Pivetta? Wherever Cora wants him. That’s the beauty of having a Swiss Army Knife.