FINAL: Milwaukee Brewers 6, Red Sox 2 - Early Hitting Troubles Bite Sox Late

The Red Sox (26-26) drop their record to .500 with the 6-2 loss to the Milwaukee Brewers (30-21).

Boston went hitless until the bottom of the seventh, where Rafael Devers hit a double, which was followed by a Wilyer Abreu double to bring Devers in to score. Ceddanne Rafaela would then single to bring in Abreu. The last Sox run would score in the bottom of the ninth with two gone, when Rafaela hit another RBI single, bringing in Devers after he hit a leadoff single.

Nick Pivetta got the start in today's game, and he reached a milestone in his career. Pivetta struck out his 1,000th batter today, with a swinging strikeout from William Contreras. Other than that, he had a poor outing, throwing only three and a third innings, giving up five runs on seven hits, and walking three. The bullpen played well, as appearances were made by Cam Booser, Zack Kelly, and Greg Weissert. Kelly pitched three innings today, where he gave up two hits and a run.

My Player of the Game: Rafael Devers - The bright spot in the Sox lineup today, Raffy went 2-4 with a double, and he also scored two runs.

The series finale will be played tomorrow at 1:35 p.m.. Probable starters are Tobias Myers (1-2, 5 ERA) and Tanner Houck (4-5, 1.94 ERA).
                                                                                                                                                                                                                          ____________________________________

WHO: Milwaukee Brewers (29-21) at Red Sox (26-25)
WHEN: 4:10 p.m.
WHERE: Fenway Park
SERIES TO DATE: 0-1
STARTING PITCHERS: LHP Jared Koenig (4-1, 2.61 ERA) vs. RHP Nick Pivetta (2-2, 3.04 ERA)
TV/RADIO: NESN, WEEI-FM 93.7

LIVE BOX

LINEUPS

RED SOX

Jarren Duran CF
Connor Wong C
Tyler O'Neill LF
Rafael Devers 3B
Romy Gonzales DH
Wilyer Abreu RF
Dominic Smith 1B
Ceddanne Rafaela SS
David Hamilton 2B

SP Nick Pivetta

OPPONENT

Brice Turang 2B
William Contreras C
Christian Yelich LF
Willy Adames SS
Jake Bauers 1B
Gary Sanchez DH
Sal Frelick RF
Joey Ortiz 3B
Blake Perkins CF

SP Jared Koenig

WHAT'S UP

The Red Sox lost last night’s series opener against the Brewers, 7-2. Jarren Duran went 3-for-5 with a double...David Hamilton went 3-for-4 with an RBI double, setting a career-high in hits...Dominic Smith (2-for-3, 2 R) hit a solo HR in the 6th inning.

Starting pitcher Garrett Whitlock just announced to reporters that he will be missing the rest of the season, as he is set to undergo an internal brace procedure in his elbow. This procedure has a recovery time of about one year, as opposed to Tommy John surgery, which is around 15 months.

The Red Sox trailed in 5 of their last 8 wins, compared to just 2 of their first 18. The Sox hadn’t overcome a multi-run lead through their first 48 games, but did so in back-to-back games on Tuesday and Wednesday at TB. They trailed 2-0 after the 1st inning Tuesday (won 5-2) and trailed 3-0 through 4 innings Wednesday (won 8-5).

The Sox will wear their Nike City Connect Series uniforms today...They’re 31-8 overall when wearing them, including 16-4 since the start of 2023 (4-1 in 2024). They’ve outscored opponents 215-131 in the jerseys.

Boston will play 3 consecutive day games–today and tomorrow vs. MIL, and Monday at BAL...10 of the club’s last 11 games were at night. The Sox are 12-6 during the day and 14-19 at night. Boston owns a 2.36 ERA in 18 day games (3.48 at night), allowing 3 runs or fewer in 14 of those games.

LHP Jared Koenig will start against the Red Sox for the 2nd consecutive game. The last time Boston faced the same starter in back-to-back games was in September 1958, when Pedro Ramos started for the Washington Senators on 9/27 (1.0 IP, 4 R) and 9/28 (8.0 IP, 6 R) (source: Elias).

Nick Pivetta enters today with 997 career SO. He’d be the 6th Canadian-born pitcher to record 1,000 SO, joining Fergie Jenkins (3,192), Ryan Dempster (2,075), Erik Bedard (1,246), John Hiller (1,036), and Kirk McCaskill (1,003).

Rafael Devers’ 420 career XBH are 2 shy of tying Jim Rice (422) for most in Red Sox history prior to turning 28 years old. Devers is 17 XBH shy of tying Manny Ramirez (437) for 5th-most by a Dominican-born player prior to age 28.

Jarren Duran is on a career-long 9-game hitting streak, batting .378 with a 1.250 OPS during that span...10 of his 14 hits during the streak have been XBH (14-for-37, 6 doubles, 2 triples, 2 HR). Duran leads MLB with 8 triples...He also ranks among AL leaders in doubles (T-2nd, 15), XBH (T-4th, 26), SB (T-5th, 11), hits (T-7th, 58), and fWAR (7th, 2.2).

Isaiah Campbell is scheduled to make a rehab appearance today for Triple-A Worcester vs. Norfolk. Campbell made his 1st rehab appearance with the WooSox on Wednesday vs. Norfolk, striking out 3 of his 4 batters faced (1.0 IP, BB, 20 pitches).