Pivetta, Red Sox are taken deep by Braves

braves 5 red sox 0

AtlAntA — the braves came out swinging out of their cleats against nick pivetta Wednesday evening at truist park.

the Atlanta hitters weren’t cheated, almost as if they knew what was coming.

in his first start since being reinstated from the injured list, pivetta was roughed up for five runs, all of which came on the long ball, in a 5-0 loss to the braves, who swept the two-game series.

“i’m in a big-league baseball game,” said pivetta, who didn’t lean on rust as an excuse. “i expect myself to be the same and go out there and produce the way that i want to. but things happen and i would like to have done better, but it is what it is.”

the braves’ onslaught began in the first when marcell ozuna pounded a three-run homer to right field off pivetta’s four-seam fastball.

then, orlando Arcia took an 0-and-2 slider on the outer half for a solo shot to right, giving the braves a 4-0 lead.

it was a bad inning that pivetta almost avoided. With one out and a runner on first, Austin Riley hit a grounder to ceddanne Rafaela at shortstop. Rafaela had to charge the ball, making a stellar backhanded play, and converted a force at second base to vaughn grissom.

grissom made the transfer and initially got the out at first for an inningending double play. but the braves challenged and the call was overturned to keep the inning alive. the next batter was matt olson, who tapped a slow dribbler to the left side for a hit, setting the table for ozuna.

“We were shaking hands, giving high fives because of the double play,” cora said. [but] Riley hustles to first, he’s safe, then olson had the swinging bunt. the pitch to ozuna wasn’t bad. the one to Arcia was better. obviously, for [pivetta’s] first outing, it was oK.”

that wasn’t the last time ozuna tagged pivetta. the braves slugger hunted down pivetta in the third inning, belting a first-pitch cutter to leftcenter, marking ozuna’s sixth career homer against pivetta in 26 at-bats.

pivetta chalks up ozuna’s success against him to just the sport itself.

“i’ve attacked him the same way that i’ve always attacked him,” said pivetta. “i’ve had some good at-bats against him and had some bad ones. it’s just how baseball goes”

pivetta lasted just four innings, yielding seven hits and walking one. He struggled to land his cutter, slider, and sweeper for strikes and the braves weren’t biting on either of those pitches off the plate. it made it easier for Atlanta to sit on pivetta’s four-seamer.

“i don’t think they were competitive, to be honest with you,” said cora. “it wasn’t as sharp. but ozuna is one of the best hitters in the big leagues. When you make mistakes, he hits it out of the ballpark. Sometimes you make pitches and he hits it out of the ballpark.”

on the other side, former Red Sox ace chris Sale got the win, going six scoreless innings and striking out a season-high 10 batters.

even though Sale was near 60 pitches through three innings, the Red Sox could not solve him. the Sox had some traffic, but they left six runners in scoring position and were 1 for 20 for the series.

the Red Sox had runners on first and second with two outs in the first, but a Devers ground out and grissom strikeout ended the threat. in the fifth, the Sox had runners on first and second again with one out, but tyler o’neill and Devers both struck out.

“i think we made it tough on ourselves, to be honest with you,” said cora when asked how tough Sale made it on his club. “i mean, we put some pressure on him and we didn’t cash in. He was good. We’ve seen that before, but we need to be better.”

this is the fourth time the Sox have been shut out this season, and they finished the road trip 1-4.

“We have to keep grinding out Abs,” said Wong, who had two of the Sox’ seven hits. “We can’t think about this too much.”