The Boston Red Sox will be looking to revive their offense when they open a three-game series against the visiting Washington Nationals on Friday night.
Boston is coming off Wednesday’s 5-0 loss to Atlanta that left the Red Sox with a 1-4 record during a five-game road trip. Boston scored five runs over the four losses.
Wednesday’s setback against Atlanta was Boston’s fifth loss in its last six games. It was also the fourth time the Red Sox have been shut out this season.
Boston is 2-13 when it scores fewer than four runs and 0-14 when it trails after six innings.
“We need to be better,” Red Sox manager Alex Cora said. “We have to. We didn’t hit throughout the road trip.
“You start looking at our offense and we fall into this trap that it looks really, really good because we score runs, but look at the shutouts and the percentage of games where we haven’t scored more than two runs. … The story should be offensively we have to be better.”
Boston’s offense will face left-hander Patrick Corbin (0-3, 6.45 ERA) on Friday. Although he hasn’t put up impressive numbers this season, Corbin turned in a quality start in his last outing when he allowed three runs in six innings in a 9-3 victory over Toronto. Corbin threw 92 pitches (61 for strikes), walked two and struck out three as the Nationals overcame a 3-0 deficit.
Corbin has a 1-2 record and a 5.27 ERA in three career starts against the Red Sox. He’s allowed 21 hits and recorded 14 strikeouts in 13 2/3 innings during those three starts.
Washington erased a two-run deficit twice before dropping a 7-6 decision to Baltimore in 12 innings on Wednesday. The Nationals split the two-game series with the Orioles.
“They battled all night long,” Washington manager Dave Martinez said following Wednesday’s loss. “To me that showed unbelievable character, it really does. We fell short, yeah, but they put two on, we come back, they put two on, we come back. That says a lot about this ballclub.
“The Orioles came in here pretty hot, right? They’re one of the best teams in baseball. They’ve got one of the best records, we could have easily — they could have easily just said, ‘Hey, we’re down 3-1.’ We don’t do that, we keep fighting. And you saw it tonight. That should be a pretty good wake-up call for those guys that we can play with anybody.
“So, we’re going to take a day off (Thursday) and rest. Hopefully, these guys will sleep and come back Friday and try to go 1-0 again.”
Tanner Houck (3-3, 1.99 ERA) is scheduled to start on the mound for Boston. Houck’s only career appearance against the Nationals came in 2021, when he pitched five perfect innings and struck out eight during Boston’s 5-3 victory.
Houck gave up four runs (three earned) on six hits in six innings during his last start, a 5-2 loss to Minnesota. He walked two and struck out five.
Friday’s game is the beginning of Boston’s seven-game homestand.
–Field Level Media