FORT MYERS, Fla. — After allowing a leadoff home run to Edouard Julien, Lucas Giolito started cruising and was on his way to another nice outing. The Red Sox starting pitcher retired seven of the next Minnesota Twins batters he faced, but then things quickly went south in the team’s eventual 5-3 loss.
In the bottom of the third Giolito got a flyout before allowing three straight baserunners to load the bases, including back-to-back walks. He was then pulled after 48 pitches, and minor league reliever Jordan DiValero proceeded to serve up a grand slam to Royce Lewis.
Three of those runs were charged to Giolito, whose final line was an ugly four runs on two hits and three walks with one strikeout over 2.1 innings.
The rest of Boston’s pitchers afterwards fared much better, with Justin Slaten, Chris Murphy, Isaiah Campbell and Justin Hagenman all posting scoreless outings. Murphy went two innings with no hits and a strikeout, and Hagenman was particularly dominant, striking out all three batters he faced.
Offensively, Red Sox outfielder Wilyer Abreu got his first hit of the spring on an RBI single in the top of the first, David Hamilton had an RBI single in the second, and Romy Gonzalez hit a solo home run in the ninth. Ceddanne Rafaela continued to impress at the plate as well, going 1 for 2 with a walk and a run.
Who’s up next?
The Red Sox will play a pair of split squad games on Saturday, when they host the Washington Nationals at JetBlue Park and face the Tampa Bay Rays up the road in Port Charlotte.
Brayan Bello will get the start against the Nationals, and he’ll be followed by Tanner Houck, Brennan Bernardino, Zack Kelly and Greg Weissert. Nick Pivetta will make his first start of the spring against the Rays, and Wikelman Gonzalez, Jorge Benitez, Luis Guerrero and Cam Booser will come out of the pen afterwards.
Both games are scheduled to begin at 1:05 p.m.