The Boston Red Sox last night started their series against the Oakland A’s after splitting the first four games of the 2024 season with the Seattle Mariners. The Red Sox beat the A’s 9-0 in front of 6,618 fans at the Oakland Coliseum to improve to 3-2 on the year while the A’s fell to 1-4 on the young season; the attendance last night was the second largest in the five games for the A’s behind Opening Day which had 13,522 fans in attendance. The Red Sox won last night behind the offense and the impressive pitching performance by Tanner Houck who made his first start of the 2024 season.
Starting Pitching
Houck last night went six innings and didn’t allow a run or a walk, he did give up three hits and he struck out ten. With Houck’s start, all five Red Sox starters have made a start in the 2024 season and after this past offseason of wanting to add a starting pitcher, they showed that they just might be up for the task. Now let’s not get ahead it’s only been five games, but they did look good combining to pitch 28 innings giving up 17 hits, only four earned runs, one walk, and 37 strikeouts good enough for a 1.28 ERA and a 0.64 WHIP. The Red Sox have two starters tied for third in the American League in strikeouts with Houck and Nick Pivetta who each have ten and trail Corbin Burnes from the Orioles and Shane Bieber from the Guardians who have 11. It’s amazing to see what having a pitching coach like Andrew Bailey can do to this staff and what they’ve been able to produce through their first turn in the rotation. It’ll be interesting to see how they all do on their second trip through with two more games against the A’s and three games against the Los Angeles Angels this weekend before the Home Opener against a division rival who’s also the favorite to win the American League East in the Baltimore Orioles.
Bullpen
The Red Sox last night after taking Houck out after 83 pitches went to Chase Anderson who they signed just before the season started to be their long reliever. Anderson in his debut with the Red Sox would finish out the game going three innings only allowing one hit, he also didn’t issue a walk and he recorded three strikeouts as he picked up his first save of the 2024 season.
Lineup
The Red Sox lineup put up nine hits to equal the nine runs scored, the leaders were Jarren Duran who had three hits, and Triston Casas who had two; Trevor Story, Tyler O’Neill, Enmanuel Valdez, and Resse McGuire each also had a hit. Story and Ceddanne Rafaela each had two RBI in the win. Duran was the big story with his three hits, he went 3-5 with an RBI, two runs scored, and he had three stolen bases bringing his season total to five stolen bases which is good enough for the league lead not just the American League but all of baseball. Casas and Masataka Yoshida also drove in a run to complete the nine runs scored.
What’s Next
The Red Sox will take on the A’s for the second game of their three-game series with Bryan Bello (1-0, 3.60 ERA) on the mound going up against Alex Wood (0-1, 16.20 ERA) with the first pitch at 9:40 PM EST. Tomorrow in the finale it will be Nick Pivetta (0-1, 1.50 ERA) taking on Ross Stripling (0-1, 7.20 ERA) with first pitch in that one set for 3:37 PM EST.
