Kutter is our king
The Red Sox finally overcame the power of the sausage to defeat the Minnesota Twins and snap their winning streak at an impressive 12 games. Now they hope to keep the good times rolling against the Atlanta Braves.
Kutter Crawford, who has seen his ERA balloon to 1.56 recently, take the ball. Kidding about ERA aside his last start was one of his best. Over 7 innings he allowed 2 runs while striking out 6 and walking just 2. Now, the San Francisco Giants aren’t the Atlanta Braves but Acuña, Olsen, Riley, and Albies have not been the dominant forces projected coming into the season. That’s fine, still early enough for them to get into a groove – hopefully sometime after this two game series.
No, it’s been the pitching that has carried Atlanta so far. Reynold López made 32 starts in 2018 and 33 more in 2019 but started just 1 game over 2022 and 2023. And the starter-turned-reliever-turned-starter has been amazing thus far. Over five starts he’s allowed 5 runs. And averaged about six innings! He’s struck out 31 in 30 innings and walked 10. Can he keep it up? The answer is starting to look like yes.
First pitch is at 7:20 PM ET on WEEI and NESN.