The Boston Red Sox have benefited from quality starting pitching all season long.
Friday night against the Milwaukee Brewers marked a rare slip in a 7-2 loss.
Kutter Crawford took the ball for the Red Sox against a top-5 lineup in the sport in several offensive categories. The right-hander slightly varied his arsenal in the outing, focusing on his cutter while, for the most part, staying away from his breaking ball. For the Red Sox starter, the few breaking balls he threw made all the difference in the outing.
Milwaukee had two separate three-run innings against Crawford, who allowed six earned runs -- the highest total by a Boston starter this season. William Contreras turned around a belt-high sweeper for a two-run homer over the Green Monster while Christian Yelich flicked a knuckle-curve off the center field fence for a run-scoring double.
Story continues below advertisement
That sweeper is a major factor in Crawford's expedited production this season. He just didn't have it on Friday night for Boston.
The two breaking balls led to the most hard contact in exit velocity (96.8 AVG on sweeper, 101.3 on knuckle-curve) for the Brewers in the outing. A quality lineup hit the ball hard against a normally productive Red Sox starter.
That's bound to happen during the course of the season. This time, it snapped Boston's four-game winning streak.
Here are more notes from Friday's Brewers-Red Sox game:
Story continues below advertisement
-- Jarren Duran extended his hitting streak to nine games with three hits on Friday night.
-- Ceddanne Rafaela continues to turn in sparkling plays defensively, robbing an NL Central team of a hit for the second time in a week.
-- Crawford allowed a home run for the fourth time in five starts during the month of May.
Story continues below advertisement
-- The Red Sox fall to 6-11 in series openers and 10-14 at Fenway Park this season.
-- David Hamilton also tallied a three-hit night for the Red Sox and has hit safely in six of his last eight games.
-- Former Boston College standout Sal Frelick made his return to Fenway Park, making an athletic catch in right field.
-- The Red Sox and Brewers continue the series at Fenway Park on Saturday afternoon. First pitch is set for 4:10 p.m. ET. You can catch the game, plus an hour of pregame coverage, on NESN.
Story continues below advertisement
Featured image via Gregory Fisher/USA TODAY Sports Images
