Boston Red Sox starting pitcher Cooper Criswell throws against the San Francisco Giants line up at Fenway Park in Boston on Tue Apr 30, 2024 (AP News photo)
By William Espy
The San Francisco Giants (14-16) started a three-game series against the Boston Red Sox (17-13) on Tuesday evening. Coming off of a series win against the Pittsburgh Pirates at Oracle Park, the Giants find themselves second in the National League West, behind only the Los Angeles Dodgers.
On this road trip, they’ll visit Fenway Park in Boston before heading off to Philadelphia and then Colorado, returning home on May 10th. Logan Webb started on the mound for the Giants, while the Red Sox went with Cooper Criswell.
Both pitchers have had a strong start to the season, so it seemed this game may not be heavy on offense, however, almost instantly the first inning challenged that idea. Red Sox pitcher Cooper Criswell and four relievers combined for a four hit 4-0 shutout against the Giants.
With two outs in the inning, Rob Refsnyder of the Red Sox came up with runners on first and second. A single to the outfield allowed Tyler O’Neill to score from second, and Wilyer Abreu advanced to second. Enmanuel Valdez came up next and after a lengthy nine-pitch at-bat, he flew out to Mike Yastrzemski. Also, it’s worth noting, that Yastrzemski was returning to the ballpark where his grandfather, Carl, spent his legendary career.
Webb struggled with control early on, throwing a lot of pitches and not hitting the strike zone when ahead in the count. Even the strikeout to start the second one was a generous call by the umpire. Having eclipsed the 40 pitch mark before recording the second out of the second inning, he was going to need to improve his efficiency drastically or the Giants would need to call on the bullpen much earlier than they had hoped.
This was reinforced by the Red Sox scoring their second run of the game when Jarren Duran singled to center and Reese McGuire scored from third base. He got out of the inning on a ground out from O’Neill, but he was already nearing the 60-pitch park. Refsnyder got hit second RBI of the night with a single to right field which allowed Abreu to score from second base.
It took until the fourth inning for the Giants to get a base runner when LaMonte Wade Jr walked, however, they had still been held without a hit up to that point. Webb remained in the game to start the bottom of the fourth.
Duran started the inning with a single, stole second then advanced to third on a ground ball. With two outs, a line drive by Abreu went straight down the first base line and Duran scored on the resulting triple. Sean Hjelle came into the game at this point, ending Webb’s disappointing start with 90 pitches, four earned runs, three walks, and nine hits allowed over 3.2 innings pitched. Hjelle immediately got them out of the inning by striking out Refsnyder.
Michael Conforto got the Giants their first hit of the ball game to open the fifth inning with a groundball single, however, Patrick Bailey immediately grounded into a double play. Hjelle hit Garrett Cooper with a pitch in the bottom of the fifth, it appeared to hit the Red Sox’ first baseman right in the wrist and he exited the game in clear discomfort.
Boston seemingly made it 5-0 on a groundball to short, the runner on third scored and the throw was too late. However, the Giants didn’t agree and initiated a manager’s challenge. Upon replay, it appeared that the first baseman caught the ball a split second before the runner made it to the base and the umpire overturned the call. As a result, the Giants got out of the inning and trailed 4-0.
Brennan Bernardino took over on the mound for the Sox to start the sixth inning, while Bobby Dalbec came in for the injured Cooper. Yastrzemski got hit by a pitch to start the inning, it looked fairly similar to what happened to Cooper, but Yastrzemski remained in the game.
Bernardino wouldn’t make it through the inning though as he was replaced by Greg Weissert with two outs. Taylor Rogers took over pitching duties for the Giants for the bottom of the sixth. After walking the first batter, he struck out the next two and Refsnyder grounded out on the first pitch to end the inning.
After a couple of uneventful innings, the Giants found themselves with runners on first and second in the bottom of the eighth. O’Neill grounded to Matt Chapman who stepped on third, and threw it to second where they got the out and the shortstop threw it to first where the umpire called the runner out, seemingly giving the Giants a triple play.
After a manager’s challenge though, it would be overturned as the runner was safe at first. Eventually, Landen Ruopp would get a strikeout to end the inning, and the Giants had their final opportunity to get some offense on the board.
Justin Slaten entered the game to close it out for the Red Sox who led 4-0 entering the top of the ninth. The first batter of the inning, Jung Hoo Lee flew out to right field. Wilmer Flores was the next batter up and he singled up the middle.
Chapman then hit a soft liner up the middle, putting runners on first and second. Kenley Jansen started warming up for Boston at this point as well. Conforto grounded out to the second baseman, so the runners advanced and the Giants were down to their final out. Bailey struck out on three pitches, and the Red Sox walked away with a shutout win to start the series.
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