Red Sox Notes: Silent Bats Spoil Lucas Giolito’s Shutout Performance

Lucas Giolito did what no other Red Sox starter, aside from Garrett Crochet, had accomplished over the extended homestand — pitch deeper than five innings.

Unfortunately for Boston, the offense couldn’t get anything going Saturday night in Game 2 of the doubleheader against the Baltimore Orioles and dropped a 2-1 decision at Fenway Park.

It was far from perfect, but Giolito threw 63.6% of his pitches for strikes (63-of-99 pitches), striking out six batters and walking two batters across seven scoreless innings.

“I didn’t feel like I had my best stuff, but we had a good mix going,” Giolito told reporters after the loss, as seen on NESN’s postgame coverage. “Connor (Wong) did a wonderful job back there (behind the plate) calling the game. … Saw a pitch mix and the defense was incredible behind me. … So it was a group effort for sure.”

Even though the offense collected just five hits and went 0-for-5 with runners in scoring position, leaving six men on base, Giolito’s performance gave the bullpen a much-needed break.

“I knew that it was really important to go deep into the game considering the bullpen usage,” Giolito said. “Our starting staff, we haven’t gotten the job done, I’d say, the last week or couple of weeks. So, it was the most important thing for me to get into the sixth inning and beyond. I was able to accomplish that and help out a little bit. But, we lost so that sucks.”

Here are more notes from Game 2 of the Red Sox-Orioles doubleheader Saturday:

— Marcelo Mayer made his Red Sox debut after being called up from Triple-A Worcester earlier in the day. Boston’s top prospect went 0-for-4 at the plate with three strikeouts in his first game.

“It’s the big leagues,” Red Sox manager Alex Cora said, as seen on NESN’s postgame coverage. “It was a great experience for him. Played good defense. Obviously, offensively, not much happened, but he’s a big leaguer, and nobody can take that away from him.”

— Abraham Toro scored the lone run for Boston when he launched a 386-foot home run into the bullpen in the bottom of the ninth inning. It was his third longball of the season. Toro hit a home run in the first game of the doubleheader, becoming the first Red Sox player to hit a homer in both games since Bobby Dalbec on Sept. 8, 2020, against the Philadelphia Phillies.

— The Red Sox lost their 13th game, which was decided by one run this season; they are tied with the Atlanta Braves for the most losses in that fashion.

— Boston wraps up its four-game series with Baltimore and its 10-game homestand Sunday afternoon. The Red Sox are 5-4 during that stretch. First pitch from Fenway Park is scheduled for 1:35 p.m. ET, and you can catch full coverage on NESN starting at 12:30 p.m.