Nick Pivetta struggles in debut: Raimel Tapia, Josh Winckowski impress as Red Sox tie Astros 4-4

Photo via Boston Red Sox Twitter

The Red Sox hosted the Astros on Saturday for the second time this Spring. Unlike the last two games for the Red Sox offense, there were wasn’t much luck for any of the regulars in the lineup. Three hits would be what the team ended up with and a combined 1-13 from Red Sox regulars up until the bottom of the 8th.Not much more would come on the way to the 4-4 tie to the Astros for the second time this Spring.

Debuts would be the theme of the day for Red Sox pitching, as we saw Nick Pivetta make his Spring debut. Pivetta had a rollercoaster of a start, giving up five hits and had four strikeouts to go along with it. He also gave up a home run that cleared the left field wall.

Kenny Van Doren @thevandalorian

Julks clubbed his first home run of the Grapefruit League off Nick Pivetta. He scored Jake Meyers, who reached on a single.

Pivetta finds himself as an important member of the rotation that finds itself possibly without a few starters in Paxton, Bello, and Whitlock to begin the year.

Ian Browne @IanMBrowne

Nothing is set in stone, but it would not surprise me to see Whitlock, Bello and Paxton on the injured list to start the season. That would lead to a rotation of Sale, Kluber, Pivetta, Houck and Crawford until reinforcements are ready.

We saw a couple new bullpen members for the Red Sox on Saturday in Kenley Jansen and Chris Martin. Both pitched scoreless innings in their debuts and Martin walked a couple and struck out one.

The most positive thing coming from the game was Josh Winckowski’s scoreless three innings he pitched.

Tyler Milliken ⚾️ @tylermilliken_

Josh Winckowski with 7 strikeouts in 4 innings this spring. He didn’t miss enough bats last season. Hopefully this is a sign of things to come. He spent time working on a slider this offseason.

With all of the talk focused around the higher prospects like Walter, Murphy, and Mata this Spring, Winckowski is showing his name can and will be in consideration for innings on the major league club.

Raimel Tapia continued his hot Spring with another good performance at the plate. Tapia has shown the ability to all sides of the field and went opposite field to plate his two RBIs on Saturday. Tapia raised his Spring average to .357 with a 1-2 showing.

SoxSpects @SoxSpects

Raimel Tapia has gone opposite field a bunch all spring.

Not much happened for the Red Sox regulars at the plate, as Triston Casas was the only starter to record a hit. Jorge Alfaro is inching closer to a roster spot after Connor Wong went out with an injury this past week. Alfaro is hitting .571 and added another hit on Saturday.

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