Over the years Marcell Ozuna has had Nick Pivetta’s number. Coming into this week the Atlanta Braves slugger has taken the Red Sox right-hander deep six times while batting .308 with 14 RBI and a preposterous 1.296 OPS in 27 career at bats.
But this time Pivetta flipped the script on his longtime nemesis.
Pivetta held Ozuna hitless in three at bats, striking him out swinging twice to highlight perhaps the most dominant performance of his career. The right-hander carved the Braves up over seven scoreless innings, striking out nine while allowing just one hit, and Rafael Devers hit a pair of home runs to help lead the Red Sox to a decisive 9-0 win in Wednesday’s series finale.
The at bats against Ozuna set the tone for the whole game. In the first inning Pivetta beat him with three straight fastballs, the first two going for called strikes before Pivetta got Ozuna to chase above the zone for strike three. The second time Pivetta mixed in his sweeper and curveball, getting ahead 1-2 in the count before painting the corner with a 2-2 sweeper that Ozuna swung right through.
That prompted an angry outburst from Ozuna, who clearly wasn’t happy with himself for missing, but none of his teammates fared any better either. Austin Riley recorded Atlanta’s only hit with a fourth inning single, and the Braves’ only other baserunners against Pivetta came on a pair of walks.
When all was said and done, Pivetta became the first Red Sox pitcher to pitch at least seven innings with one or fewer hits, no earned runs and at least nine strikeouts since Chris Sale on June 30, 2018. It was also Pivetta’s second straight gem, following his last outing against Detroit when he allowed two runs over 5.1 innings and struck out nine in a tough-luck 5-0 loss.
Unlike that outing, Pivetta got plenty of run support this time.
The Red Sox batters jumped all over the Braves’ pitching staff, tagging starting pitcher Spencer Schwellenbach for three runs in the second inning and three more in the fifth. In the second Devers broke the ice with a solo home run, David Hamilton added an RBI double and Reese McGuire a sacrifice fly. In the fifth Jarren Duran led off with a triple, Enmanuel Valdez drove him in with an RBI double, Tyler O’Neill had an RBI knock in his return from the injured list and Dominic Smith hit an RBI double of his own.
Devers delivered the exclamation mark with a two-run home run in the seventh, giving him a team-high 13 on the season. It was also his 17th career multi-home run game, tying him with Nomar Garciaparra for ninth in team history.
Jarren Duran finished the scoring with a solo shot in the ninth, and rookie Jamie Westbrook, who was called up over the weekend after toiling in the minors for 11 seasons, recorded his first career MLB hit.
With the win the Red Sox salvage a two-game split with the Braves and move back to .500 at 31-31 overall. The club now hits the road and will play a four-game series against the woeful Chicago White Sox, who entered Wednesday with the worst record in MLB at 15-46.
Tanner Houck (5-5, 1.85) is scheduled to face Chicago’s Jake Woodford (0-1, 6.23). First pitch is scheduled for 8:10 p.m.