SEATTLE — The post-Rafael Devers Era began much like the end of the Rafael Devers Era:
With a 2-0 Red Sox victory.
After the front office made one of the most stunning trades in franchise history on Sunday evening, and hours after chief baseball officer Craig Breslow insisted the move was not “a waving of the white flag on 2025,” the team stepped into their unexpected new chapter on the right foot.
That was intentional, starter Lucas Giolito told reporters after the win over the Mariners.
“I think that that was hugely important for us, to continue the positive vibes, continue to have high energy,” the veteran right-hander told reporters after the win. “I could tell today, I had a feeling we were going to be in a good position to win just because despite everything that had happened, we were able to come together and maintain a very positive attitude. Everyone seemed loose, and having fun before the game, so when it came time to compete, we competed.”
The result is Boston’s first six-game winning streak in almost two full years (July 14, 2023).
Devers’ absence was briefly felt in the early moments of his former team’s first game without him on Monday night. The Sox are in Seattle, where Devers made his Major League debut on July 25, 2017, and blasted his first career home run the following day.
He was the only Red Sox player to hit his first career homer in Seattle, until two outs into Monday’s game, when Roman Anthony went yard. Baseball’s No. 1 prospect clubbed a 2-2 sinker from Logan Gilbert, and watched the ball soar 391 feet to right-center for an early 1-0 lead.
“The homer kind of like, gave us energy right away, and the Gio with the shutdown (first) inning, and we just continued,” manager Alex Cora said.
Giolito was the true star of Monday night’s series opener. He turned in his best start of his Red Sox tenure thus far: six scoreless innings of three-hit ball, which set the stage for the pitching staff’s first combined shutout in Seattle since June 12, 2022.
“All four pitches were working pretty good, fastball especially,” the veteran righty told reporters. “I’m in a good place mechanically, so we’re able to attack with the heater in the top of the zone.”
“I think everything started with the fastball,” Cora concurred. “They were late on it, they chased with it.”
Giolito struck out 10, his highest single-game total since Sept. 15, 2023, and faced the minimum in every inning but the third. His only free pass was a leadoff walk to J.P. Crawford in the first, which Julio Rodríguez promptly erased by grounding into a double play.
Warning lights flashed in the third, when the Mariners loaded the bases on three straight singles. Giolito responded by striking out Crawford, Rodriguez, and Cal Raleigh to leave the diamond full. According to Red Sox game notes, he’s the team’s first pitcher to strike out the side with the bases loaded without allowing a run since Brad Ziegler on Aug. 13, 2016.
“I think the first inning set it up well for me,” Giolito explained. “I walked the leadoff guy, which you never want to do to start the game. Kind of puts your back against the wall a little bit. We got the quick double-play, got out of it.
“Then the third inning, back up against the wall again. I think it was, I benefitted from already being in that kind of situation in the first inning. Obviously, it’s higher stakes with bases loaded but at that point, for me, I just gotta turn my brain off and rip it as hard as I can.”
It was the beginning of 12 consecutive batters Giolito retired over the remainder of his start. He walked off the mound having completed his second consecutive start of six innings, three hits and no earned runs (he allowed an unearned run the last time out).
The Red Sox rotation’s hot streak is starting to look less like a flash in the pan, and more like the real thing. Over the last nine games, they’re 7-0 with a 2.34 ERA, 54 strikeouts and just 12 walks. They’ve made seven consecutive quality starts
As a result of this newfound pitching excellence, the Red Sox have managed to win six in a row in which they’ve scored no more than four runs and won each game by a margin of one or two runs; as noted by Alex Speier of the Boston Globe, no team has done so over a streak this long since the 1972 California Angels. Over the win streak, the rotation owns a 0.89 ERA, the bullpen a 1.84.
“Our pitching staff has been unbelievable,” Anthony told NESN’s Jahmai Webster. “We’re rolling right now. It’s fun. Winning’s fun.”
It was an otherwise quiet night at the plate for both sides, with each lineup collecting just four hits. Jarren Duran’s two-out triple and Abraham Toro’s subsequent RBI single in the third netted Boston’s only other run of the contest. The Boston bats struck out 12 times, including 10 in starter Logan Gilbert’s five innings. The Mariners punched out 15 times.
Justin Wilson pitched a scoreless seventh, working around a hit and walk. Greg Weissert, who made his own Red Sox debut against the Mariners during the ‘24 season-opening series in Seattle, wriggled out of his own jam in the eighth. The righty, 30, who’s been so reliable in this shaky Boston bullpen, opened his outing with eight consecutive balls for a pair of walks.
Then, like Giolito, he went full Houdini on the home team. Weissert got Rodriguez to line out, struck out Raleigh, and finished the inning with a Jorge Polanco pop-out.
After being rested since his Friday outing, Aroldis Chapman took the mound in the ninth and slammed the door with three swinging Ks.
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