Garrett Whitlock stifles the Diamondbacks lineup in win
Garrett Whitlock returned to the Red Sox rotation on Saturday night and he dominated the Diamondbacks lineup, en route to a 2-1 win.
The right-hander showed no signs of rust tossing five innings, giving up three hits, one earned run, no walks, four strikeouts.
He threw 92 pitches, 58 for strikes (63%) and had eight swings and misses. Whitlock faced 18 batters, he threw 14 first-pitch strikes and retired 13 of his last 15 batters faced.
The only run allowed by Whitlock came in the first inning when he surrendered a 382-foot home run to Ketel Marte. That would be his only flaw of the game, improving to 2-2 on the season.
While Whitlock was on his rehab assignments with Triple-A Worcester, the team had the righty work on his changeup.
“The changeup I think got away from him for a while there,” manager Alex Cora said this week to reporters. “It was actually too hard so we’re making adjustments and I think it’s getting back to the changeup he used early in his career, ‘21. If we can get that one, I think we’re going to be fine.”
Whitlock threw 35 changeups (38%), he was sitting at 82.1 mph and maxed out at 83.7 mph. He threw his changeup about 3 mph slower than he has in the past.
“That was the big difference between before [when] I was working on it, and then now,” Whitlock said. “I just got to keep focusing on that and keep working on that.”
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