By Gabrielle Starr
Copyright bostonherald
Kyle Harrison warmed up for his ninth start of the season.
Then, he waited over three months to throw its first pitch.
On June 15, the left-hander, 24, had been minutes away from taking the mound when the San Francisco Giants pulled him off the field and told him they had just traded him for Rafael Devers. Wanting their new pitcher to build a stronger supplemental arsenal to complement his fastball, the Red Sox immediately optioned him to Triple-A until early September. His debut, in Sacramento, came in relief.
On Saturday night in Tampa, Harrison finally got to make start No. 9.
It was worth the wait. With the Red Sox clinging to their Wild Card for dear life, Harrison gave his new team six innings of one-run ball en route to a crucial 6-3 win over the Rays. He scattered four hits, walked two, and struck out five in his first start for his new ball club. Undeterred by traffic on the bases, Harrison forced the Rays to go 0 for 6 with runners in scoring position and leave five men on base during his six frames.
Though Harrison worked on adding a cutter, sinker, and what he described to the Herald last week as a “new changeup” in Triple-A, Saturday was still a majority four-seam and slurve affair. Among his 86 pitches, 60 of which he threw for strikes, were 42 four-seamers and 29 slurves. He threw 13 cutters and one changeup. One pitch defied MLB’s pitch-tracking technology; ‘Unknown’ was a first-pitch ball to Nick Fortes in the bottom of the second.
Harrison racked up 11 swing-and-misses, seven on his four-seamer, four on his slurve. He recorded 10 outs with his four-seam, six via slurve, two on the cutter. The cutter helped Harrison stymie the Rays; after traffic in each of the first two innings, he used the new pitch to complete a 1-2-3 third. In the sixth, when he found himself in immediate trouble after a first-pitch Yandy Dìaz leadoff single and four-pitch walk to Junior Caminero, Harrison went back to the four-seamer, which he used to induce all three outs and strand both runners.
Rays starter Adrian Houser delivered a shaky performance, but managed to last six innings thanks to a Red Sox offense that pushed very little across the finish line. After a 1-2-3 first inning, the Rays starter struggled to keep traffic off the bases, but the Red Sox bailed him out with inning-ending double plays in the second – leaving the bases loaded – and third, after taking a 1-0 lead on a Jarren Duran single, stolen base, and two wild pitches.
Beginning in the second, the Red Sox stranded at least one man in seven consecutive innings.
So Boston had virtually no breathing room when Justin Wilson and Justin Slaten struggled in the seventh. Taking over for Harrison, Wilson issued a leadoff walk to Josh Lowe, who stole second and scored on Fortes’ RBI double before Wilson could record an out. The veteran lefty induced a Carson Williams pop-out and Chandler Simpson ground-out, which moved Fortes to third.
With Fortes 90 feet from home, Slaten immediately yielded a game-tying RBI single to Díaz, one of the league’s most underrated lethal hitters.
The Red Sox responded by leaving runners on the corners in the top of the eighth. In total they compiled 10 hits – to Tampa’s seven – but went 3 for 13 with runners in scoring position and left nine on base.
Helped along by a Caminero fielding error, which allowed Ceddanne Rafaela to reach base to begin the ninth, the Red Sox finally broke through. Trevor Story’s RBI single ensured Aroldis Chapman would pitch with a lead. It was the first of three straight singles: Alex Bregman, then Masataka Yoshida, whose knock brought Story home. Pinch-running for Yoshida, David Hamilton stole second, putting two in scoring position.
When Bregman exited a late-May game with a quad strain, the Red Sox expected to lose him for at least two months, as the Astros had when he suffered the same injury years earlier. When the All-Star third baseman returned barely seven weeks later, it was with the proviso that he proceed with caution; running at full speed was for exigent circumstances only.
Romy Gonzalez’s fly ball to right qualified as such. Bregman made the mad dash home to score the sixth Red Sox run.
“Big time,” Bregman told NESN’s Jahmai Webster of the team’s late rally. Of his fast-and-furious race home, Bregman smiled and said, “Once in a while.”
The Rays, even as owners of a losing record and fourth place in the division, never go quietly. With two outs, Carson Williams forced Chapman to walk him on 11 pitches before the All-Star closer forced Simpson to ground out.
Abreu’s activation
The Red Sox expect to activate Wilyer Abreu on Sunday. The ‘24 Gold Glove right-fielder last played Aug. 17.
Wild Card watch
On Saturday, the Yankees defeated the Orioles 6-1 and the Guardians defeated the Tigers in both ends of a doubleheader.
The Red Sox are four games back in the AL East, and have a half-game lead on the Astros for the second AL Wild Card.
Facts and figures
At 85-70, the Red Sox are in the midst of their first winning season since 2021, when they went 92-70. They are 58-21 when they score first.
