From start to finish, Saturday night’s 2-1 loss was a grind for Boston on both sides of the plate.
After homering five times off the Angels in the series opener, the Red Sox found themselves in a bat-power outage in the middle contest, held to one run on three hits.
The rotation opened the season with seven consecutive starts of at least five innings, but in the first two contests in Anaheim, neither Kutter Crawford nor Garrett Whitlock could complete the fifth. Whitlock managed to make it through Saturday’s outing without allowing a run, but it was a true team effort. Over 4 ⅓ innings, he gave up four hits, walked four, and only struck out four. Beginning with a leadoff single to Anthony Rendon and one-out walk to Mike Trout in the first, the right-hander allowed at least one baserunner in four of five innings he was on the mound.
No Sox starter had exceeded 90 pitches in their first eight games; Whitlock exited after 101, but only 64 were for strikes.
“His secondary pitches weren’t sharp so he battled through it,” Alex Cora told reporters.
While Whitlock slogged his way through, Angels starter Reid Detmers mowed down the Sox lineup, striking out 12 to match his career-high. He held Boston to three hits and a walk, and got them 1-2-3 in three of six frames.
In general, the pitching staff looked tired and ready to be done with the long west-coast trip. Pitching for the second night in a row, Greg Weissert bailed Whitlock out of his fifth-inning jam, only to leave behind a mess for Isaiah Campbell in the following frame.
By comparison Justin Slaten’s appearance was a breath of fresh air. The Rule 5 rookie punched out the side in the seventh, then opened the eighth with his fourth consecutive swinging strikeout. He completed his second 1-2-3 frame with a flyout to center and strikeout looking.
“That was electric,” Cora said with a smile. “That was fun to watch.”
Slaten’s outing was a highlight on a night in which positives were few and far between. Jarren Duran’s continued hometown heroics were another. The SoCal native drove in Wong for the only Sox run of the contest and made some stellar defensive plays, including a diving catch to rob Mike Trout of a hit.
But without the injured Trevor Story, there was a palpable energy shift. By and large, the defense stepped up, but it was still the reason for the loss. A fielding error by Devers gave the Angels a 2-1 lead in the bottom of the sixth, meaning they won without scoring an earned run; six of their eight runs in the series were unearned.
“That’s a routine play, he knows it,” Cora admonished.
Of course, routine plays have been something of an Achilles heel for the third baseman throughout his career. It’s the tricky ones he often makes look effortless.
Speaking of, Story’s postgame scrum did little to quell the fear that the Sox will be without the shortstop’s effortless-looking defense for a long time. After initially calling the shoulder subluxation “a freak thing,” he then described it a “significant injury.”
“I’m gonna miss games,” he said, visibly emotional. “Gonna miss a little time for sure.”
Asked if he thought he’d play again this year, he could only say, “I always have hope for that.”