Red Sox
Pivetta gave up four runs in two innings of relief work in the Red Sox’ loss to the Dodgers on Friday.
Nick Pivetta has been used in almost every way imaginable this season for the Red Sox.
Just in the last two weeks, Pivetta has been used as a starter, a long reliever, and in the ninth inning of a tied game. In Friday’s game against the Dodgers, Pivetta was once again used in a different role, entering the game in the sixth inning as a middle reliever with the Red Sox holding a 3-0 lead.
Unlike most of the summer, Pivetta wasn’t able to pull through. He allowed the two runners he inherited from starter Kutter Crawford to score in the sixth inning. He gave up another run later in the inning and allowed three more runs in the seventh as he pitched two full innings of work in the Red Sox’ 7-4 loss.
As Pivetta gave up four runs on four hits, two walks, and three strikeouts, the righty shot down any idea that the constant changing of roles got to him on Friday.
“There’s no excuses,” Pivetta told reporters. “I’ve got to be top line every single time I go out, especially against a team like that. I didn’t put us in a great position to win today, but hopefully, the team bounces back tomorrow, continues to swing it like they’ve been doing. It just didn’t go my way today.”
Pivetta, who’s spent most of his big league career as a starter, appeared to grow into a solid role of being used as a long reliever over the last couple of months after his struggles in the rotation to start the year. Those long relief outings ended up being pivotal to the Red Sox’ summer surge as their rotation was down to just three normal starters for much of July and part of August.
Chris Sale and Tanner Houck’s returns to the rotation from injury over the last couple of weeks have allowed the Red Sox to use Pivetta a bit more liberally. He had a long relief outing against the Yankees on Sunday before filling in for Kenley Jansen after the Red Sox’ closer got injured in the ninth inning of a tied game against the Astros on Wednesday.
Pivetta gave up just two runs in five innings in the outing against the Yankees and kept Wednesday’s game tied during his brief appearance, giving him a 3.17 ERA in the 54 innings he’s pitched since June 18 as the Red Sox went 11-3 over his 14 previous appearances.
So, Friday was definitely a bit of a change. Pivetta acknowledged that being the case.
“Just didn’t have my best stuff today,” Pivetta said. “They took advantage of that when I got behind in counts and put some swings on some pitches I threw.”
Pivetta’s workload on Friday was a symptom of the Red Sox not having an off day since Aug. 14 as they also kept their bullpen busy from Sunday through Wednesday this past week.
“Location-wise, he was off,” Red Sox manager Alex Cora said of Pivetta’s outing and usage on Friday. “We were asking a lot out of him, where we were in the bullpen today. We needed him to go multiple innings. It’s part of it, right? He’s not perfect. We had to push him today because of where we were at.”
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