BOSTON — Red Sox starter Lucas Giolito failed to make it through the fourth inning on a rainy evening at Fenway Park.
“It was terrible,” Giolito said, summing up his start. “I gave up a bunch of base hits in a row. Just not doing my job.”
Giolito allowed six runs, 10 hits and one walk while striking out two in 3 ⅔ innings. The Red Sox lost 6-1 to the Rangers to drop below .500 (18-19).
Boston has lost five of its past six games.
“Didn’t have command. That was probably what did me in,” Giolito said. “Threw one slider, bounced it. Led to (them) scoring a run. We kinda shied away from it.”
All but two of Giolito’s 74 pitches were fastballs and changeups. He threw 45 four-seamers, 27 changeups, one slider and one curveball.
“Unlike last outing, I didn’t have the same juice behind it (the fastball),” Giolito said. “I didn’t have command either. Yanking a lot of pitches across, leaving a lot of pitches middle. They didn’t let me get away with mistakes.”
Giolito spent last year on the 60-day IL after an internal brace procedure to repair his damaged right elbow. He began this season on the IL with a left hamstring strain before returning last Wednesday to pitch against the Blue Jays in Toronto. He was much more sharp at Rogers Centre, allowing three runs, five hits and two walks while striking out seven in 6 innings.
“I think command was off compared to Toronto,” manager Alex Cora said.
Giolito’s fastball velocity also was down. He averaged just 91.6 mph, a drop from a 93.3 mph average in his first start.
“We’re getting to know him,” Cora said. “This is his second start with us. And he did an outstanding job last week. Today he struggled.”
The start of the game was delayed a half hour due to rain. Giolito slipped on the mound while throwing a warmup pitch before the second inning.
“I’ve pitched in rain games before, like way worse than that actually,” Giolito said. “I actually thought I pitched better when it was raining harder. Once it let up, the fourth inning really did me in.”
Giolito faced nine batters in the fourth, giving up five runs on nine hits, including back-to-back ground-rule doubles to begin the inning.
“I wanted to keep building off of last week,” he said. “In a sense it was a step back and just an inability to control where the ball was going and have that good command that I had last week. So just gotta get back to work this week and get it right.”
Giolito worked during this past offseason to throw a harder slider. He knows it’s a pitch he needs to throw effectively.
“I’d like to get my slider going better,” he said. “And then just getting the command of the fastball and changeup to both sides of the plate.
“I have the ability to pitch with two pitches but they have to be good and they weren’t good today,” he added. “So they made me pay for it.”
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