For the second time in two years, the Red Sox managed to find a way to win a game started by Jacob deGrom.
Christian Vazquez delivered an RBI double in the second inning -- one of just four hits by the Sox all night -- and Nick Pivetta and three relievers made sure it stood up to give the Red Sox a 1-0 win over the New York Mets and a sweep of the interleague series.
deGrom allowed just one run on three hits while fanning nine in six innings, but as has so often been the case, got no run support.
WHO: Red Sox (15-9) vs. New York Mets (9-9)
WHEN: 6:40 p.m.
WHERE: Citi Field
SEASON SERIES TO DATE: Red Sox 1-0
STARTING PITCHERS: RHP Nick Pivetta (2-0, 3.48) vs. RHP Jacob deGrom (2-1, 0.31)
TV/RADIO: NESN; WEEI-FM
LINEUPS
RED SOX
Hernandez CF
Verdugo RF
Martinez LF
Bogaerts SS
Devers 3B
Vazquez C
Gonzalez 2B
Dalbec 1B
Pivetta P
METS
Nimmo CF
Lindor SS
Alonso 1B
Conforto RF
Davis 3B
Smith LF
McNeil 2B
McCann C
deGrom P
IN-GAME OBSERVATIONS:
B8: What a play by Marwin Gonzalez, who skies to snare a bullet of a liner off the bat of Francisco Lindor.
B6: How can you not be impressed with Garrett Whitlock? A rookie who's never pitched above Single A before this year, who doesn't look a bit out of place in high-leverage situations. Works around a ground single and a walk in the middle of the Mets lineup and gets through the sixth.
T5: deGrom getting locked in, striking out the side in the fifth on just 13 pitches. He's fanned four in a row going back to the fourth and five of the last seven.
B4: Pivetta has shut out the Mets for the first four innings, but he's hard to work to do it. With a pitch count of 74, he's probably only get an inning (or two, max) left in the tank.
T4: Vazquez, who had such a good at-bat against deGrom in the second inning, goes chasing a slider out of the strike zone, stranding Devers (double) in scoring position.
B3: Scary moment at Citi Field as home plate umpire Jerry Layne takes a ball flush in the facemask and leaves the game.
T3 Pivetta makes deGrom work, forcing him to go to 10 pitches before going down swinging.
T2 Before the game, Alex Cora said he wanted slumping Christian Vazquez (2-for-21) to focus on hitting the ball to right-center. As if on cue, Vazquez drives a double to the alley in right-center, scoring Bogaerts.
T2: A rocket grounder off the bat of Rafael Devers nearly decapitates Jeff McNeil at second, but moves Bogaerts to third.
T2: Mets left fielder Dominic Smith plays a relatively tough fly ball into a double for Xander Bogaerts
B1: Pivetta works out of a major (first-and-second, no out) jam but retiring three in a row, leaving two stranded.
B1: Already, with walks to the first two hitters, Nick Pivetta has walked two more hitters than Eduardo Rodriguez and Garrett Richards had in the previous 14 innings combined.
PRE-GAME STATS: The Red Sox' win in the series opener Tuesday guarantees that the Sox will do no worse than gain a split of this two-game series in New York. That, in turn, means the Sox will have not lost a series since their first of the season, when they were swept by Baltimore. Heading into Wednesday night, the Sox are 3-0-3 in their last six series. A win Wednesday would make them 4-0-3 while a loss would make them 3-0-4...The Red Sox' winning percentage of .625 is second-best in the game to that of the Kansas City Royals (.636)....The Sox have held sole possession of first place in their division since April 10...Boston owns the best road record in either league at 7-1...The Red Sox also have 12 comeback wins, tops in MLB....Red Sox starters have gone at least five innings 18 times in the first 24 games, second-most in the AL behind only Oakland (19)....In each of the last two games. Red Sox starters have gone seven innings and issued just one walk combined to go along with 18 strikeouts...The last time the Sox got consecutive starts of at least seven innings from their starters was in May of 2019 (Eduardo Rodriguez and Chris Sale)...The Red Sox lead the majors in average (.272), slugging (.451), OPS (.786) and doubles (56)...J.D. Martinez leads the majors in extra-base hits (17) and total bases (61) and tied for the leads in RBI (21) and doubles (10)...Since taking over the closer's role last August, Matt Barnes leads the American League with 14 saves and is second in MLB...The Red Sox are fifth in the AL in ERA and 11th in MLB at 3.81...They've surrendered just 0.64 homers per nine innings, the lowest figure of any staff in the American League and second in MLB to the Mets (0.60)...Red Sox relievers have combined for a 3.21 ERA, sixth in the AL and seventh overall in MLB...Dominic Smith is 4-for-9 lifetime with a homer off Nick Pivetta while Michael Conforto is 2-for-9 with two homers....Hunter Renfroe is 3-for-9 with two homers in his career against Jacob deGrom and J.D. Martinez is 2-for-6...After going hitless in his first six games, Bobby Dalbec is hitting .325 (13-for-40) with a .922 OPS since...Alex Verdugo has a seven-game hitting streak....Kike Hernandez has scored five runs in the last five games.
NOTES:
- The Red Sox are well aware that they have their work cut out for them in facing Jacob deGrom. "He pounds the strike zone with outstanding stuff,'' said Alex Cora, "he has a great tempo and he's a great athlete on the mound. For me, right now, he's the best of the best. The way he goes about it, the swing and misses...He can expand with the slider down-and-away to righties and he can expand with his fastball up. '' Cora said the Sox' hitters need to "control the strike zone, put the ball in play, avoid the strikeouts, use the whole field and put pressure on them.''
- Cora noted that Nick Pivetta had better command of the strike zone in last outing. "I do believe that was his best outing because he was able to throw strikes with his fastball,'' said Cora.
- Catcher Christian Vazquez was 0-for-3 with three strikeouts Tuesday night and has just two hits in his last 21 at-bats. "When Christian is going well,'' said Cora, "just like everybody here, he hits the ball the other way. We saw it early on. But he has a tendency of getting big (with his swing) and starts hitting too many fly balls and he starts getting long. The good hitter is the one who is short to the ball and starts hitting the ball to right-center. When you start seeing him staying inside the ball and going the other way, that's a good sign.''
- Rafael Devers leads all hitters since the start of 2019 in tying or go-ahead RBI. "He's important,'' said Cora. "There's a reason he's hitting behind (J.D. Martinez and Xander Bogaerts), right? He's going to have a lot of traffic in front of him and he does a good job with the game on the line and men in scoring position. For him, he's just happy. He's a happy guy. The moments aren't too big for him. He trusts himself, trusts his ability and at the same time, he's so relaxed that he's able to produce in those situations.''
- Christian Arroyo (left hand contusion) is improving and is available off the bench.