BOSTON — Nick Pivetta is known to get emotional after big moments, and on Wednesday night, he deserved to get a little bit fired up. After striking out Yuli Gurriel to end the seventh, Pivetta walked off the mound with a scream and a pounding of his chest.
Lately, the Red Sox right-hander has rightfully been feeling himself.
Pivetta continued his dominant run in a big way Wednesday and in a spot the Red Sox needed as he fired a rare complete game in which he allowed just two hits. One night after they teed off against Nathan Eovaldi, Pivetta silenced an explosive Astros lineup with his best start of the season – and the best outing by any Sox starter this season – in the Red Sox’ 5-1 victory at Fenway Park.
With the win, the Red Sox (15-22) won their first home series of the season in five attempts.
Pivetta’s complete game was an unexpected throwback of a performance as he became the first Red Sox starter since Chris Sale in 2019 to throw one.
On Tuesday night, the Astros played their own version of home run derby with six homers – including a record-tying five against Eovaldi in one inning – and for a moment, it looked like it would carry over into Wednesday. In a 10-pitch at-bat to begin the game, Jose Altuve took Pivetta to the Monster seats to give Houston a 1-0 lead.
But Pivetta was nearly spotless after that moment.
The right-hander was exceptionally effective, spraying his fastball and curveball the best he has this season. After the Altuve homer, he retired 18 Astros in order – including strikeouts of Altuve to end the third and sixth innings before Michael Brantley opened the seventh with a ground-rule double.
That was no trouble for Pivetta, who set down the next six batters he faced. It looked like he might be done after the punchout of Gurriel to end the seventh with his emotion coming off the mound, but he came back out to become the first Red Sox starter of the season to record an out in the eighth. He surprisingly came back out for the ninth, where he set down the Astros order again with great delight to the Fenway crowd.
The Red Sox’ offense gave Pivetta more than enough to work with. After they fell behind in the first, the Red Sox brought it back right away in the bottom of the first. Rafael Devers hit a triple – with an assist from the right-field wall, where it stopped in the corner – before J.D. Martinez drove him in with a bid for a home run to right that Kyle Tucker caught at the wall but still good enough for the game-tying sac fly.
The next batter, Xander Bogaerts, hit his fourth home run of the season with a shot over the Monster to give the Sox a lead they wouldn’t relinquish.
The Red Sox gave Pivetta insurance in the third with Rafael Devers’ RBI double before Kiké Hernández and Christian Vazquez hit RBI singles in the fifth for a four-run cushion.
