The Boston Red Sox have built their playoff push on strong pitching, and they will count on one of the headliners — resurgent right-hander Lucas Giolito — when they face the Arizona Diamondbacks on Saturday in Phoenix.
The Red Sox had two starters ranked among the top seven in ERA in the American League entering the weekend, left-hander Garrett Crochet and right-hander Brayan Bello. Giolito would be 11th if he had enough innings to qualify.
Giolito (10-2, 3.38 ERA) is set to oppose Arizona right-hander Brandon Pfaadt (12-8, 5.33) as the Red Sox look to even the series. The Diamondbacks won 10-5 on Friday.
Boston manager Alex Cora is putting his faith in his pitching staff.
“I think we have to continue to pitch,” Cora said. “That is something I always thought we were going to do from the get-go. We were going to be OK because we were going to pitch.”
The Red Sox (78-64) dropped 4 1/2 games behind Toronto in the AL East and remained one-half game behind the New York Yankees in the first AL wild-card position.
Arizona (71-71) has won three in a row and seven of nine to climb to .500 for the first time since July 20. They are 5 1/2 games out of the third NL wild-card spot with 20 to play.
“It is not our final destination, either,” Arizona manager Torey Lovullo said of returning to .500. “We want to fight every night, see where this takes us. We just have to keep our heads down, keep working, because we can get back into this thing by playing games like that.”
Giolito has pitched 125 1/3 innings, short of his 184 1/3 in 2023. He missed 2024 after undergoing surgery on his right elbow and was delayed out of spring training with a left hamstring strain before joining the rotation April 30.
He has won his past four decisions — and the Red Sox have won seven of his past eight, a span in which he’s thrown five quality starts. He had his best outing Aug. 26, when he gave up four hits and struck out eight in eight scoreless innings of a 5-0 victory at Baltimore.
Giolito, who has pitched all but six of his 202 career games in the American League, has made one relief appearance against Arizona and will see Chase Field for the first time.
Pfaadt is tied with sixth others for fourth in the NL in wins, but opponents have found occasional bursts of success. Opponents are hitting .287 against him, the highest in the league, and his ERA is the fifth-highest.
“What has happened this year, maybe some growing pains, some very normal growing pains, where teams have figured him out and understood what he is using and what he is doing and what the pitch shape looks like,” Lovullo said.
“He’s carried us a little bit, and he’s been very consistent in taking the ball every fifth day.”
Pfaadt gave up 10 runs in seven innings in his last two outings, no-decisions against the Milwaukee Brewers and Los Angeles Dodgers.
“The good outings that he has had, it has been a three- or four-pitch mix that he can get to,” Lovullo said.
“For me, it is predicated on the sweeper. If the sweeper lands, he is going to have a really good day.”
–Field Level Media
