The Red Sox opened up Saturday’s doubleheader with the Guardians with a three-run blast off the bat of Wilyer Abreu. It gave Boston a 3-0 lead before turning the ball over to starter Tanner Houck.
With the lead in the first, Houck quickly coughed it back up, allowing four runs on five hits, which was the catalyst to the Guardians defeating the Red Sox 5-4.
Boston is back at .500 (14-14) and has lost three straight games and four of their last six.
Stephen Kwan led off the inning with a double. Nolan Jones followed with a line drive to right field for a double. Kwan didn’t attempt to score on the hit due to Abreu’s strong throwing arm in right field.
Guardians’ José Ramírez began to chip away at the lead with an RBI single into right field, plating the Guardians' first run. Ramírez stole second and then moved to third when Carlos Santana’s fly ball to center scored Jones. Infielder Gabriel Arias followed with a single, and the Guardians had a 4-3 lead.
“He was good after the first inning,” Alex Cora said to reporters after the game. “The first inning they put the ball in play. Seems like we made some adjustments or game-planning wise. They got three or four hits on the split, their lefties, and they scored four.”
The Guardians feasted on Houck's splitter in the first.
“Put some decent swings on some splits down and away that they pulled,” Houck said. “It’s kind of like that in-between pitch where I’ve gotta be a little bit more fine with it, get it under there in advantage counts. But take that away, take that information away and keep storing it.”
Houck pitched five innings, four scoreless following his miserable first inning, allowing four runs off eight hits with a walk and six strikeouts.
" It’s a shutdown inning,“ Cora said. ”But that’s what they do. They put the ball in play. They put pressure on you. But credit to the guys that kept battling. But obviously a 3-0 lead, you feel good about yourself."
Over his first six starts this season, he’s been relatively ineffective, recording a 7.58 ERA (25 earned runs) in 29 2/3 innings of work.
ABREU’S BLAST
Abreu entered Saturday’s game hitless in his last eight at-bats, and in his last 16 games, he was just 9-for-56 (.161) with one home run, three doubles, and eight walks, with 20 strikeouts.
In the top of the first inning, Rafael Devers worked a one-out walk, followed by an Alex Bregman single into right field. The slumping Abreu had runners on the bases looking to do damage and get to Guardians starter Ben Lively.
Wilyer Abreu gets the @RedSox on the board first with a 3-run shot 💥 pic.twitter.com/viYE14pF52
— MLB (@MLB) April 26, 2025
Abreu crushed a 390-foot three-run homer into the right field seats for his fifth big fly of the season. He would get on base another time in the loss, walking in the fifth, finishing 1-for-3 with the home run, three RBI and a strikeout.
Cora called Abreu’s current dry spell at the plate “nothing” on Friday before the game was postponed due to rain.
“Putting up good at-bats and swinging the bat well without getting results,” Cora said. “But I think he’s in a good spot. Obviously teams are going to make adjustments, and we have to keep making adjustments, but he’s in a great place.”
HARD HIT HOMER
Rafael Devers entered Saturday’s game just 4-for-44 (.091) and hit his hardest-hit ball of the season in the third inning. With the Sox down a run, Devers launched a 381-foot home run to right field that left his bat at 110.9 mph, according to Baseball Savant.
GUARDIANS GRAB THE LEAD FOR GOOD
Red Sox left-hander Brennan Bernardino replaced Houck in the sixth inning with the game knotted 4-4.
The southpaw opened the inning by hitting Will Wilson and then giving up an infield single to Angel Martínez that deflected off Bernardino. The Guardians dropped a sac bunt to put both runners into scoring position.
Kwan then flared a 143-foot single into left field, out of reach of Trevor Story at shortstop. Wilson would score on the single, and the Guardians took the lead, 5-4.
Greg Weissert and Luis Guerrero both worked 1-2-3 frames in the seventh and eighth in relief of Bernardino.
THREATENED IN THE NINTH
The Sox were looking to avoid another loss, threatened in the ninth inning after Ceddanne Rafaela singled and Jarren Duran walked to lead off the frame.
Duran saw his 11-game hit streak come to an end following a 0-for-4 day at the plate. Devers lined out to left field, and Bregman flied out to right field, which took Guardians outfielder Nolan Jones to the warning track.
Story, who came into the game 0-for-12, was hitless through his first four at-bats on the afternoon and would strike out to end the game.
Guardians reliever Cade Smith left two runners stranded in the ninth inning to pick up his third save.
The Red Sox were 1-for-11 with runners in scoring position in the loss, they also left nine on base and struck out 10 times.
MR. 1000
Cora managed his 1000th game as Red Sox manager. He is joined by Joe Cronin (2,007), Terry Francona (1,296), Pinky Higgins (1,119), and Bill Carrigan (1,003) as the only five managers to reach that franchise milestone.
The Sox' skipper is four games shy of tying Carrigan for fourth most in Red Sox team history. He’s also 25 wins shy of tying Higgins (560) for the third most wins all-time.
ON TO THE NIGHT CAP
The second game of the day/night doubleheader is scheduled to start at 6:10 p.m. Boston will send right-hander Walker Buehler (3-1, 4.23 ERA) to the mound and will oppose Guardians lefty Doug Nikhazy, who will be making his MLB debut.
Buehler's last outing came on Patriots' Day where he stifled the White Sox lineup tossing seven innings, allowing just one run off four hits while walking three and striking out nine batters.It was the longest outing for Buehler since May 8, 2022. He threw 100 pitches, 63 of them for strikes, with 11 swings and misses.