The Red Sox bullpen was in bad shape. Zack Kelly was already on the injured list and Chris Martin was set to join him. Kenley Jansen was down after pitching back-to-back nights and John Schreiber, Josh Winckowski and Kutter Crawford were all unavailable as well.
With the staff so short Alex Cora said pregame they needed their starter to go deep, and Garrett Whitlock took his manager’s words to heart and delivered.
Whitlock pitched the best game by a Red Sox starting pitcher this season, allowing one run over seven innings in Boston’s 2-1 win over the Los Angeles Angels. Whitlock allowed three hits and two walks with five strikeouts and faced the minimum 15 batters from the third to the seventh inning. In doing so he became the first Red Sox starter to record a quality start on the year, and not a moment too soon.
“We needed an outing like that,” Cora said. “We were very short.”
Whitlock was highly efficient throughout the afternoon, working quickly to keep the Angels hitters on their heels. The only significant danger he faced came in the second inning, when Anthony Rendon led off with a double and came around to score on an RBI single by Brandon Drury.
That threat ended when catcher Connor Wong caught Drury stealing to end the inning, and the following frame Justin Turner hit his first home run as a member of the Red Sox, a two-run shot into the Monster seats to give Boston the lead for good.
“(That felt) real good,” Turner said. “Especially when it holds up and is the deciding run of the game.”
In addition to becoming the first Red Sox starter to complete the sixth inning this year — much less the seventh — Whitlock also pitched his longest outing as a big league pitcher. The last time he went seven innings was on July 11, 2018 with the Tampa Tarpons, the New York Yankees’ High-A affiliate.
“It’s good to know confidence going forward that I can go out and do that,” Whitlock said.
The Red Sox still needed to cover the eighth and ninth after Whitlock was finished, and Kaleb Ort and Ryan Brasier both stepped up to nail down the close win.
Ort had trouble with his command early and allowed two men on with one out, but he then got Logan O’Hoppe to fly out after falling behind 3-0 and then picked off pinch runner Brandon Phillips at second on a play called by bench coach Ramon Vazquez to end the threat.
Then in the ninth Brasier sent down Zach Neto, Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani 1-2-3 for his first save of the season, wrapping up a brisk game that only took 1:57 to complete.
With the win the Red Sox (8-8) clinch the series win and will go for the sweep of the Angels (7-8) Monday morning. Brayan Bello is expected to be activated off the IL and make his first big league start of the season against Ohtani (2-0, 0.47 ERA) in the club’s traditional 11:10 a.m. Patriots Day game.
