Fresh off COVID-19 list, Christian Arroyo hits tiebreaking homer to help Red Sox beat Guardians
CLEVELAND — The Red Sox knew they were in for a tough test entering Friday’s matchup with the Guardians. Likewise, the Guardians knew they would have their hands full with the Red Sox. So when Tanner Houck got into some trouble with the bases loaded in the ninth inning, he had to sink his cleats into the ground a bit more. This would be a grind. He had already yielded a run with the bases loaded on a single by Steven Kwan. He struck out Amed Rosario for the second out, but then had to dig deeper with Jose Ramirez representing the winning run. Houck got Ramirez to ground out to end a 6-3 win for the Red Sox.
Observations from the game:
▪ The Sox got just two runs off Cleveland starter Cal Quantrill, beginning with a Christian Arroyo hit by pitch with the bases loaded in the second, and then a Rafael Devers solo shot in the third. It was Devers’s 17th homer of the season. If you look at Quantrill’s overall body of work, 5 innings pitched, 5 hits, 4 strikeouts, you might assume he had a solid day. Not quite. Quantrill threw a whopping 36 pitches in the second inning that included two walks that ultimately loaded the bases before the Arroyo hit by pitch.
The Sox made him work, too, fouling off 21 of his pitches and swinging and missing just eight times. That helped drive his pitch count up to 89, forcing the Guardians to dig into their bullpen, and that’s when the Sox really went to work.
▪ With the game still tied in the seventh, the Sox put together a three-run inning to make it a 5-2 ballgame. Manager Alex Cora pinch hit Rob Refsnyder for Jackie Bradley Jr. and Refsnyder negotiated a walk to get things going against reliever Bryan Shaw. Then with no outs in the inning, Christian Arroyo, who was just activated off the COVID-related injured list, belted a two-run shot. Alex Verdugo doubled down the line in left, extending the Sox’ lead to three.
▪ Nick Pivetta has been the Sox’ best starter this year. He went into Friday with a 1.77 ERA and 0.84 WHIP over his last nine starts while holding opponents to a .163 batting average over that span.
He matched some of that brilliance, going seven innings against the Guardians, surrendering just two runs to pick up his eighth win of the season. Pivetta got off to a rocky start but wiggled his way out of it in the the first. The top of the Guardians’ order had Pivetta timed up in. Steven Kwan and Amed Rosario delivered back-to-back singles. After a José Ramirez pop out, Josh Naylor belted a ball into the right-center field gap that Jarren Duran tracked down for the out. Kwan tagged up, moving to third. With two outs, Pivetta had to battle Oscar Gonzalez, who wouldn’t give in. Gonzalez fouled off five pitches during the at-bat. He worked the count to 3-2 and finally, on the eighth pitch, Pivetta got Gonzalez to swing through a curveball out of the zone. That was arguably Pivetta’s most crucial out of the game.
He threw 18 pitches in the first and 15 in the second. But at the completion of Pivetta settled down and following a 10-pitch sixth, he had thrown 79 pitches.
Julian McWilliams can be reached at julian.mcwilliams@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @byJulianMack.
