*Photo from BoSox Injection*
Out of all the starters in the Boston Red Sox rotation, which are Nathan Eovaldi, Eduardo Rodriguez, Garrett Richards, Nick Pivetta, and Martin Perez, who would've guessed that Perez would've been the most successful one out of that bunch two months into the season? Christian Arroyo homered, Perez made the longest start of the season, and the Red Sox topped the Houston Astros 5-1 Thursday afternoon.
Perez made the longest start of the Red Sox season by a starting pitcher, and put on a show, allowing no runs on 6 hits and one walk, recording 4 strikeouts over 7 2/3 innings pitched. After a somewhat shaky start to the season in April, Perez has been on his game in his last 7 starts, pitching to a remarkable 1.98 ERA in that time.
Perez said "I just go out there and compete, man. Just pitch for contact. I know these guys swing a lot, and they're aggressive at home plate. I'm just trying to throw quality pitches and get out of the inning quickly. I was throwing a lot of fastballs up, two-seamers down and away, changeups. I think I threw everything tonight, and it was a fun game. I enjoyed it, and we got the win."
It was Christian Arroyo who got the scoring started, snapping a homerless streak with a 3 run homer to left field in the second inning, giving Boston a 3-0 lead to start the game off. It remained that way until the 7th inning, when Xander Bogaerts broke out of an 0-24 slump with a two run double to left field, making the Boston lead 5-0. In the 9th, Houston got one run on a Yuli Gurriel solo homer, but that was all they could manage against the Red Sox.
Red Sox manager Alex Cora said of Arroyo's homer that "It was a big at-bat, especially the way we swung the bats in the first three nights. You got first and second, 3-2 count, we’ve been chasing a lot of pitches, and he put a good swing on it. It was actually a really good at-bat, and you could feel it in the dugout, kind of like we were able to breathe. For him to hit that home run, it was big for us."
Astros starter Jake Odorizzi got hit with the loss for Houston, as they couldn't finish off a sweep of the Red Sox. Odorizzi allowed 3 runs on 4 hits and 3 walks, getting just two strikeouts in 3 innings pitched. Enoli Paredes then came out of the bullpen and threw a scoreless 4th inning, followed by 3 innings of two run ball from Cristian Javier. Joe Smith and Blake Taylor also pitched.
Odorizzi said of his start that "I was kind of erratic with the release point and got frustrated. Just a bad command start. That’s how I would sum it up. It’s one thing if you have good stuff and it happens, but I wouldn’t say my stuff was good at any point today. I’m just going to work on getting back in the zone and having better command and control and filling up the strike zone."
Houston travels to Buffalo to face the Blue Jays, with Zack Greinke pitching game one of the series tonight. The Red Sox head to New York to square off with the Yankees, where Nathan Eovaldi starts the opening game.
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