Garrett Whitlock has shown this year he’s capable of being an effective starting pitcher, but so far he’s lacked the consistency that made him such a dominant weapon out of the bullpen.
Case in point, his forgettable showing Tuesday night.
Whitlock got rocked in the series-opening 10-1 loss to the Miami Marlins, who tagged the Red Sox starter for six runs on 11 hits over a laborious 4.2 innings of work. Whitlock allowed a pair of home runs, including a two-run shot by Bryan de la Cruz in the first and later a solo homer by Jean Segura in the fifth, and struggled to keep the Marlins off the base paths.
The Marlins kept pushing even after Whitlock came out, and by the end they’d recorded 19 hits, the most allowed in a game by the Red Sox since allowing 21 against the Toronto Blue Jays on Oct. 1 last season.
Whitlock started off on a strong note, becoming the first person to strike out Marlins leadoff hitter Luis Arraez in nearly two weeks, but then things quickly went south. He allowed four straight hits, including De La Cruz’s home run and a double by Jazz Chisholm Jr., to put the Red Sox in a 3-0 hole right out of the gate.
Meanwhile, Boston reverted back to some bad habits defensively and endured one of the club’s worst performances of the year in the field.
Though the Red Sox officially did not make any errors, they probably should have been charged with five. Rookie David Hamilton had a rough day in the field with three miscues, including two poor throws to first, and Triston Casas misplayed two balls, one of which came on a wide but catchable throw by Rafael Devers.
Those didn’t mean the difference on Tuesday, but they didn’t help the Red Sox case.
Boston scored its lone run in the bottom of the first when Justin Turner and Alex Verdugo tagged Marlins ace Sandy Alcantara for back to back doubles. The reigning National League Cy Young Award winner has endured a down season and came into Tuesday’s start at 2-6 with a 5.08 ERA, but he was dominant after the first, limiting the Red Sox to the one run on six hits over seven innings.
Miami stretched its lead to 5-1 in the fourth on a Jorge Soler RBI double and an RBI single by Chisholm, and tacked on a sixth run in the fifth on Segura’s solo shot, only his second home run of the year. Finally the Marlins broke open the floodgates with a four-run eighth, with Chisholm delivering a two-run single and Garrett Cooper following that with an RBI double to make it 10-1.
Chisholm, the exciting Marlins center fielder, led Miami offensively by going 3 for 4 with three RBI and a hit by pitch in his first game back off the injured list. Shortstop Joey Wendle went 4 for 4 with four low-probability singles, and Arraez finished 2 for 5 to keep his batting average at .399 for the season.
For Boston, Verdugo went 2 for 3 with a walk, an RBI and two doubles, and Casas went 3 for 4.
With the loss Boston (40-40) falls back to .500 and has now dropped five of its last six games. The Red Sox will use an opener on Wednesday to face Miami (46-34) starter Braxton Garrett (3-2, 3.64 ERA). First pitch is scheduled for 7:10 p.m.
Towards the end of Tuesday’s loss, the Red Sox announced that right-handed pitcher Tanner Houck underwent successful surgery on his facial fracture earlier in the day.
According to the club, Houck had an open reduction and internal fixation of a right orbito-zygomatico-maxillary complex fracture. The procedure was performed by Dr. Branko Bojovic at Mass General Hospital.
Houck suffered his fracture after being hit in the face by a line drive during Boston’s 15-5 win over the New York Yankees back on June 16. Prior to Tuesday’s game Red Sox manager Alex Cora indicated they didn’t have a timetable for Houck’s return but expected to have more clarity within a few days of Houck’s surgery.