Red Sox Notes: Kutter Crawford Fighting Around Home Runs

The Boston Red Sox have not been able to reward Kutter Crawford with wins, falling to 4-12 in his starts after a 5-2 loss to the Cincinnati Reds on Friday night.

Crawford dominated his way through the month of April, missing bats and going deep into games while keeping the ball in the ballpark. Now, Crawford has entered a troubling stretch of the season, allowing seven homers over his last three outings after a trio of solo shots allowed to the Reds.

"It was actually an interesting outing for Kutter, right?" Cora told reporters, as seen on NESN's postgame coverage. "The homers and the traffic early on. After that, he was dialed in."

"The homers are the homers," Cora added. "(Jeimer) Candelario swung the bat extremely well for them. We threw strikes, right? They were solo shots. Three first-pitch homers. Overall, really good. He gave us a chance to win."

After allowing a second home run to Candelario, Crawford reset on the mound and retired the next 10 batters he faced. That ability to respond against adversity helped out the Red Sox rotation.

"At that point, I really try to lock it in and stay on the attack," Crawford told reporters, as seen on NESN's postgame coverage. "Try to execute pitches. I think I was able to do that from there on out."

Crawford still worked into the seventh inning for Cora and the Red Sox after allowing the early trio of home runs. That's been a needed priority for the Boston pitching staff in 2024 in a collective elevation in durability.

"I appreciate that," Crawford added. "It means a lot for him to run me out there in that situation. Obviously, it didn't go as we planned. It shows he's got trust in me."

Here are more notes from Friday's Red Sox-Reds game:

-- The Reds snapped Boston's five-game winning streak dating back to June 15.

-- Crawford allowed two home runs for the third consecutive outing and at least one home run for a seventh-straight start.

-- Jarren Duran homered for the second consecutive game for the second time this month after doing so on June 5 and June 6.

-- Friday marks just the third loss for the Red Sox in Cincinnati in regular-season meetings.

-- Both Duran and Connor Wong extended their hit streaks to 11 games.

-- The Red Sox made three errors and struck out 14 times in the loss.

-- Friday's game marked the eighth time this season that Crawford worked with two runs of support or less.

-- The Red Sox and Reds continue the series 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.