Red Sox Notes: Alex Cora Will ‘Take’ Loss Given Kutter Crawford’s Record

Red Sox pitcher Kutter Crawford entered Friday night’s matchup with the Chicago Cubs at Fenway Park with the lowest ERA in baseball (0.66) through his first five starts of the season.

Unfortunately for Crawford and the Red Sox, his sixth outing brought his ERA to 1.35 and also gave the right-hander his first loss of the season, as Boston fell 7-1 against Chicago.

“All and all, I think I pitched pretty well,” Crawford told reporters after the loss, as seen on NESN. “Some things didn’t go my way behind me as far as making a pitch (…) But overall, I can’t have my head down after an outing like this.”

Crawford threw 85 pitches across six innings of work, giving up four runs, three earned; on 10 hits.

“My main goal every time I take that ball is to try and throw as many strikes as possible and attack hitters,” Crawford said. “I feel like if I look back at this outing, I thought I was able to do that.”

Crawford threw 78.8% of his pitches for strikes (67-of-85 pitches) and struck out four Cubs’ batters in the loss. In his two previous starts, Crawford pitched 11 2/3 innings allowing one run on nine hits while striking out 12 batters.

Red Sox manager Alex Cora knew Crawford’s outing wasn’t his best, but he still felt the pitcher put Boston in a position to win the game.

“If that was the bad one, we’ll take it,” Cora told reporters, as seen on NESN. “That outing it was probably 4 1/3 (innings), five runs, going to the bullpen, put us in a bad spot the rest of the weekend and he battled through six.

“We didn’t make a play, and that’s part of it, right? I think overall for him, it wasn’t good, but for me as a manager, you see it now. He gave us a chance to win the game. Six innings, four runs, that’s not great, but it’s good enough for us to at least come back.”

Here are more notes from Friday’s Red Sox-Cubs game:

— Tyler O’Neill hit his eighth home run of the season for Boston’s lone run in the game.

“I like hitting at Fenway for sure, I love being at home in front of the home fans,” O’Neill told reporters, as seen on NESN’s postgame coverage. “Too bad we couldn’t get the win for them today. We’ll try again tomorrow.”

— With the loss, the Red Sox fell to 3-8 at home this season with a negative-28 run differential in those games. Hitting has not been the only issue at home; the starting rotation has a 2.37 ERA at Fenway Park, and the bullpen has a dreadful 6.40 ERA compared to 2.00 and 1.47 on the road, respectively.

— Zack Kelly pitched two innings of relief with one hit and a strikeout. He has retired 12 of the 13 batters he’s faced since being recalled from Triple-A Worcester on April 24.

— The Red Sox continue their three-game set with the Cubs at Fenway Park on Saturday. First pitch is scheduled for for 4:10 p.m. ET. NESN has you covered with all the action, starting with an hour of pregame coverage.