Masterson fights off weather, quiets Orioles bats

Share

BOSTON - Say what you want about the Red Sox pitching staff, but the team is now 3-0 with Justin Masterson on the mound.

He needed a lot of help from the bats in his second start, but that wasn't the case this time around.

Masterson improved to 2-0 on the season, pitching 5.0 innings of one-run ball. He allowed three hits and three walks with six strikeouts.

Masterson wasn't just going up against the Orioles, but also the cold, rainy morning - three things that don't exactly scream "baseball".

Nonetheless his slider was working. Of the nine outs that didn't come by way of the K, six of them were on the ground.

"He battled the elements but he was able to use his fastball-slider combination effectively," John Farrell said. "I think the most impressive thing, we had a couple of long innings, he was still able to come out and get loose and keep the feel of the baseball on a day when the conditions probably weren't the greatest."

Masterson hit 90-91 MPH a few times in the game, but his fastball sat in the upper 80's for most of it. Despite the fact he doesn't blow hitters away, he's able to mix up the slider and get batters out.

"Even right now with Justin pitching with probably a little bit less than his normal velocity," Farrell said, "he's made very good adjustments. The slider has become a true weapon against both lefties and righties, and he's been able to double and triple use of the pitch to keep more hitters from guessing."

Masterson held righties hitless on Monday (0-for-6) and on the season has held them to a .185 average. He also won his second game on Patriots' Day, one of four Red Sox since the current holiday tradition of playing a single game with a morning start time began in 1968 to do so.

"Slider was working real good, control was pretty good too," Masterson said. "Sinker didn't sink as much as I would have liked it to, but really being able to mix and match as we've talked about the last couple. The slider is going to be key throwing that for strikes and was really able to do that and was working pretty good until [Alejandro] De Aza got up there and fouled off a million pitches and worked my pitch count up pretty quick."

Masterson understood the situation: The Red Sox were ahead, the rain was allegedly closing in, and the Sox needed to get through five in order to make it official. That said, he wasn't about to change his approach on the mound. That, he said, is when pitchers can get into trouble.

"My take was, rain aside, I'm just trying to go out there and pitch because we're up 5-1 at the time. Let's make this quick, let's get out there, let's try and get some guys out but also compete. We're not just laying balls in there because that's kind of the way things snowball in a rain game. You have a guy who's trying to work extra quick because it's like, 'Oh, the rain's coming, we gotta leave.' All of a sudden now you've got a bases-loaded [situation] and you're giving up a grand slam or putting people in a bad spot."

There were no grand slams - or home runs at all - on Monday. That's a change from the day before, when Rick Porcello gave up two home runs. This staff as a whole has been inconsistent and unable to go deep into games. But Masterson's hope is that the second time through the rotation was more of the exception, and things will right themselves going forward.

"There's gonna be bumps and grinds and ups and downs," Masterson said. "That's a part of the whole process. But I think we're going out understanding who we are, encouraging each other, and hoping for warmer weather as we go just the same. But the great thing about it is we're going out there, giving 100-percent and everything we got, and I think you're starting to see that come together."

Contact Us