Nick Pivetta fired a complete game two hitter on Wednesday night, as the Boston Red Sox took a series win over the Houston Astros with a 5-1 victory at Fenway Park in Boston.
After Nathan Eovaldi struggled by allowing five homeruns in the second inning on Tuesday night in a 13-4 Houston win, Pivetta sparkled in this one. The right hander got touched up by a leadoff solo homerun by Jose Altuve in the top of the first inning, and then allowed just one other hit in the game. Boston got all the offense they needed in the bottom of the bottom of the first on a JD Martinez RBI sacrifice fly, and a solo homerun by Xander Bogaerts over the monster in left field. They added on with a Rafael Devers RBI double in the third inning, and then in the fourth with RBI singles from both Christian Vazquez and Kike Hernandez. The series also saw former University of Maine product and now Houston starting shortstop Jeremy Peña return to New England for the first time as a big leaguer.
Pivetta (2-4) threw 112 pitches (78 for strikes), allowing one run on two hits not walking anyone and striking out eight. He becomes the first Boston pitcher to throw a complete game since Chris Sale did so back on June 5, 2019 against the Kansas City Royals. Devers had two hits as the Red Sox improve their record to 15-22. Luis Garcia (3-2) took the loss on the mound for Houston allowing five runs on five hits in 4.0 innings. The Astros (24-14) had won 13 of their last 14 games entering the series. Boston starts a four game home set with the Seattle Mariners on Thursday night at 7:10 p.m. The Sox will send LHP Rich Hill (1-1, 2.89 ERA) to the hill, while the Mariners counter with RHP George Kirby (0-0, 0.90).
