The Boston Red Sox saw their six-game winning streak come to an end on Tuesday following an 8-0 loss to the Seattle Mariners. The offense didn’t record a hit until the 5th inning, but the game was out of hand long before that.
Starting pitcher Walker Buehler pitched a clean first inning, but ran into trouble in the second when he issued three walks and a couple of hits before allowing a grand slam to Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh.
After the game, Buehler gave a very matter-of-fact assessment of his performance.
“At the end of the day it sucks to fail on that kind of level,” the pitcher said, as seen on NESN postgame coverage. “To be an older guy that was brought in here to try and help lead and to perform the way I have been is tough and embarrassing.”
Buehler has been up and down this year. During poor outings, his fastball command has been an issue. On Tuesday, that was the story once again. His four-seam was generally upstairs, but just two of his 16 four-seams found the strike zone, and the pitch only returned two whiffs.
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Buehler also struggled to put lefties away. The starter threw 17 two-strike pitches to left-handed hitters and only managed one out in those counts. Six of the eight hits Buehler allowed came with two strikes. He’s getting to good counts, but he needs to find a way to convert count leverage into outs.
