Red Sox Notes: Bullpen Dominance Vs. Rays Backed By ‘Electric’ Performance

Alex Cora made sure to applaud Michael Fulmer after the Boston Red Sox beat the Tampa Bay Rays on Wednesday night, even though Fulmer had no part in the win.

But Fulmer eating up a couple of innings in a lopsided loss to open the series Monday at George M. Steinbrenner Field saved some bullpen arms and they were the difference with little room for error in a 1-0 victory to close out the three-game set.

Greg Weissert, Garrett Whitlock and Justin Slaten combined to throw 4 1/3 scoreless innings in relief, in which they combined to give up just one hit and strike out nine Rays batters.

“It was awesome,” Weissert told reporters of the bullpen’s performance, per NESN. “I mean, everybody did their job top to bottom and the bullpen going out there and shutting the game down is nice to see.”

The bullpen only had to get out of one jam and it came in the bottom of the fifth inning. Weissert came on for starting pitcher Sean Newcomb with two on and two outs and the right-hander got Yandy Díaz to strike out to end the threat.

Weissert pitched one more scoreless frame before giving way to Whitlock, who was the most impressive out of the trio of relievers the Red Sox used. Whitlock struck out the side on 11 pitches in the seventh and worked around a two-out single by Díaz for a clean eighth. He recorded four strikeouts in two innings and threw 21 of his 24 pitches for strikes.

Whitlock, who, like Weissert, pitched at the minor league ballpark when in the New York Yankees farm system, might just be the most important arm in the bullpen outside of Aroldis Chapman. He showed why on Wednesday with his ability to throw multiple high-leverage innings.

“It’s important. He has struggled the last three I think and hasn’t been efficient. A lot of foul balls,” Cora told reporters, per NESN. “But today, it was electric. I was joking with (Rob Refsnyder), ‘Weissert and Whitlock, they probably pitched in this stadium coming up with the Yankees.’ So they felt very comfortable on the mound.”

Cora then turned things over to Justin Slaten to close things out. And feeding off what the two relievers did previously, Slaten pitched a 1-2-3 ninth inning to record his second save of the season.

“You come in the game one after another like that, it’s like, ‘That guy did his job. It’s time to do my job,’ and it keeps rolling,” Weissert said. “I think everybody gets fired up when it happens.”

Here are more notes from Wednesday’s Red Sox-Rays game:

— Cora opted not to go with his closer in Chapman for the ninth inning due to his heavy usage as of late. The Red Sox have leaned on Chapman with the veteran lefty pitching in five of Boston’s last seven games.

— Newcomb set the tone for the Red Sox pitching staff by throwing 4 2/3 scoreless innings — Cora took the left-hander out so he wouldn’t face Díaz for a third time. The Middleboro, Mass. native allowed four hits and two walks while striking out four. He felt like it was his best start out of the four he has had in a Red Sox uniform.

“I feel like usually it takes me couple outings to kind of lock in with all my stuff. Typically, I would say like 10 to 15 innings, somewhere in there. I think that’s where I was at,” Newcomb told reporters, per NESN. “So now I kind of feel locked in and ready to roll.”

— David Hamilton provided the only run of the game when he lined a solo home run 335 feet that just got over the right-field wall against Rays starting pitcher Zack Littell. The round-tripper snapped a 1-for-21 stretch to start the season for Hamilton.

“Not at all,” Hamilton told reporters if he thought he had a homer off the bat, per NESN. “Honestly, I was hoping it would get down for the most part. I didn’t think it was going over. It was a great feeling. I’ve been struggling as I’m sure you all know. To help the team, it means a lot.”

— Rafael Devers played in his 1,000th career MLB game. He is the 31st player in Red Sox history to reach that feat and one of 12 to do so before turning 29. The left-handed slugger went 1-for-3 with a walk in the win.

— The Red Sox have an off day Thursday before opening a four-game set starting Friday against the Chicago White Sox at Fenway Park. It looks like a pitching prospect will be on the mound for Boston in the first game of the series. First pitch is scheduled for 7:10 p.m. ET and you can catch complete coverage of the game on NESN.