Richard Fitts handed first big-league loss; scoreless streak ends at 18 2/3 innings while giving the Red Sox four solid starts in September
Richard Fitts isn’t a finished product, but the right-hander gave the Red Sox four good starts over the last month to help stabilize the starting rotation.
Fitts was hit with his first big-league loss on Wednesday night, giving up four runs off six hits while walking two and striking out two over five frames. The rookie came into his fourth start not having allowed an earned run over his first three starts.
He ran into trouble in the fourth inning after Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Alejandro Kirk led off with back-to-back doubles. Kirk’s double ended Fitts’ scoreless streak in the majors. His scoreless streak ended at 18 2/3 innings, the longest streak by a Red Sox pitcher to begin his career.
He would later allow a single to Ernie Clement to stretch the Jays’ lead to 2-0. One inning later, Kirk’s two-out, two-strike, two-run, opposite-field single down the right-field line put the Jays up, 4-0.
The righty wraps up his brief cup of coffee in the bigs with a 1.74 ERA and 1.26 WHIP with nine strikeouts to seven walks over 20 2/3 innings.
Fitts is still developing; he was working on going deeper into games while with the WooSox this summer and improving his secondary pitches. Boston liked his development enough this season to promote him in September to see what they could do at the big league level. They also did that with Zach Penrod, who was primarily a starter this season before moving to the bullpen to open a clearer path to the Red Sox later in the season.
“Yeah, for those two in particular, it was a really; you had to weigh the long-term development versus the short-term gain in terms of winning at the big league level,” said Red Sox pitching coordinator Justin Willard on NESN's "310 to Left" podcast. “We just overweighed or really thought their long-term development was the most important thing. And cool, let's find opportunities to get them up, but let's make sure we're not doing that and regressing kind of their overall long term development.”
Fitts worked on developing his slider and changeup all season.
“To start the year, it was a lot of bigger issues,” Fitts said to Beyond the Monster. “I was trying to fix my changeup, fix my sweeper, and get my fastball exactly how I want to. I am starting to get closer to where I want them to be at. Now, it is fine tuning them into how I can go deep into games with them for six or seven innings and get guys out for the third time through the lineup. I want to get everything perfect to where it feels like I am playing MLB the Show, where I am throwing it exactly where I want to every single time. If I can get to that point, I feel I would be doing pretty good.”
WooSox skipper Chad Tracy told reporters this season he was impressed with Fitts’ self-assessment of himself and really being coachable and willing to learn as part of his ongoing development.
“He's had a really interesting kind of development curve throughout the season. Really starting off with just, hey, raw stuff. Let's push the floor up,” said Willard.
“Let's really continue to develop his just pure stuff because he's shown a great ability to command the baseball throughout his minor league career. So hey, let's sacrifice a little bit of that command and really push the stuff up, knowing that you're not going to lose this skill. We're just going to raise the floor in terms of your stuff.
“Then once he settled, and we saw that happen in about July, the stuff really settled; fastball velocity was up. We had to spread out the arsenal throughout his career. The slider had always blended. He never really had a change up. So really creating clear and distinct pitches to get to different parts of the zone and attack hitters with was super important. Then additionally, that last month of August really put everything together, maximized the locations of all those pitches, and we saw him have a great August. I think he was punching out over 30 percent during that month. So really, really exciting progression for him.”
Overall this season, Fitts is 9-5 with a 4.17 ERA and 1.28 WHIP in 24 outings (23 starts) for the WooSox. Fitts has struck out 111 batters with 37 walks over 116 2/3 innings. His only relief appearance came back on May 11 in Buffalo. When asked why he didn’t start, the team said they didn’t want Fitts’ first time out of the bullpen to come in the big leagues if they needed him.
The 6-foot-3, 230-pound righty is currently ranked as the Red Sox’ No. 15 prospect with Baseball America, No. 12 with SoxProspects, and No. 13 with MLB Pipeline.
Fitts should be part of the Red Sox 2025 roster construction and an option for the back-end of their rotation. He could also provide depth out of the bullpen as a bulk-innings reliever. If he doesn’t make the Red Sox rotation out of camp, Fitts is better suited for time with the WooSox and pitch every fifth day at the Triple-A level.
