The Red Sox headed into the game yesterday riding a 5 game win streak and looking for six. The Sox called up Brian Johnson for a spot start vs. Rob Whalen for the Mariners. Johnson’s first outing this year with the Sox didn’t go so well, but he would make that a distant memory when he took the mound yesterday. Johnson put on a show pitching a complete game shutout. We also got to see some great defensive plays from Mookie Betts and Jackie Bradley Jr. It was a great game all around.
The Sox bats gave Johnson an early lead when they scored 3 runs in the bottom of the 1st. Bogaerts, Benintendi and Leon all hit RBI singles to put the Sox up 3-0. Whalen was having problems locating in the inning. He walked one batter and hit 2 in his first inning of work. Whalen settled down after that and the Sox didn’t score again until the bottom of the 6th. Jackie Bradley Jr. had a spectacular play in the field in the previous inning and then came to the plate and smacked a 2 run homer to put the Sox up 5-0.
Johnson kept putting up scoreless inning after scoreless inning. He looked like a guy who is making the case that his future is in this rotation for good. The Sox tacked on another run in the bottom of the 8th when Moreland hit an RBI single to score Ramirez. Sox 6-0. I initially thought Johnson would be done after 8 innings since he was at 100 pitches, but he came back out for the top of the 9th to finish the game off. Johnson had a 1-2-3 inning to put the complete game shutout into the books. Johnson was optioned back to Pawtucket after the game, but there is no doubt we will be seeing him again.
Red Sox 6 Mariners 0 BOXSCORE
WP: Johnson (2-0) LP: Whalen (0-1)
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
