The Red Sox haven’t won a series in two weeks.
They will have a chance Thursday evening after beating the Royals, 4-3, Wednesday, snatching a 2-1 lead in the four-game set.
The Sox needed a solid performance from a starter.
The bullpen was depleted, forced to cover two rotation spots for over a month. Coming into Wednesday, Red Sox relievers had thrown the fifth-most innings in baseball (460⅔) since July 1. That workload had begun to show, with Sox relievers posting a 9.00 ERA in their previous 34 innings dating back to Aug. 1.
So the Red Sox turned to Nick Pivetta, who was working on just three days of rest following a four-inning outing Saturday against the Blue Jays.
Pivetta turned in five quality innings for his club, a much-needed and significant boost. The only damage against the Red Sox righthander came on two solo shots by MJ Melendez, who tagged Pivetta in the second and fourth innings. Yet Pivetta managed to navigate his way through an outing where, although there was some hard contact early on, he ultimately fanned eight and limited the Royals to four hits.
“He’s so strong,” said manager Alex Cora of Pivetta pitching on just three days of rest. “He works so hard in between outings. He’s a big kid and he cares. I mentioned a few weeks ago, he’s very similar to David [Price] in that he enjoys coming to the ballpark and just wanting to compete.”
One of the separators for Pivetta was his curveball, but it was aided by the slider and sweeper. Over his career, Pivetta has made his living on his four-seam fastball and curveball mix, threw his slider just 2.1 percent of the time last season. This year, it’s up to 19.1 percent. The implementation of the sweeper, although it’s thrown at just a 3.2 percent clip, gives Pivetta another weapon. Instead of living vertically in the strike zone — four-seamer and curveball — the sweeper and slider allow Pivetta to have more horizontal attack, too, changing the eye-level of hitters, making it difficult for opponents to pick up.
Case in point: Pivetta drew 16 swings and misses. He tossed his curveball 10 times and a whopping seven of them ended with a whiff.
“I think it was all the way back when we were in Cleveland [in June],” Pivetta said. “I was just messing around with some pitches in the outfield and then [the sweeper] was working well and then I basically just brought it into a game to see how the pitch played. It seemed to work really well off of my curveball and off my fastball up. So I think just harnessing that and focusing on that allows me to utilize it in certain counts. I think it’s really important.”
The Red Sox offense had struggled this month, batting .223 with a .686 OPS and scoring just 4.3 runs per game in their first seven games in August, compared to 5.39 runs per contest in July.
The offense tallied just seven hits Wednesday and Pablo Reyes had three of them. Nevertheless, the Red Sox hitters came up with hits when it mattered most, starting with Triston Casas’s solo poke to right-center off Kansas City starter Jordan Lyles which tied the game, 1-1, in the second.
Following Melendez’s homer in the top of the fourth, the Red Sox put together a three-run frame. With two on and two outs, Alex Verdugo scalded a double to left that clipped off the glove of the diving Melendez to plate two runs. Then the Sox got some good fortune when Luis Urias lined out to third, but a catcher’s interference call kept the inning alive for a Reese McGuire RBI single.
“It was big. I mean, every run. Every run was big today,” said Verdugo.
It was Verdugo’s first opposite-field double since June 27 against the Marlins’ Sandy Alcantara. Verdugo, who is working his way out of a rut, sees the left-center two-bagger as a promising development.
“Maybe like during the Seattle series, I started to feel a lot better in the box,” said Verdugo. “I’ve been able to control my at-bats a lot more and also just control my body. I was just putting my body in a bad situation to get off a good swing.”
Kenley Jansen shut the door in the ninth inning, registering his 25th save of the season. However, it didn’t come without some uneasiness for the Red Sox after Freddy Fermin made it a one-run game with his solo home run. The homer made McGuire’s RBI single, and the sharp liner to left field by Kyle Isbel in the third that would have scored a run from first but instead was ruled a ground rule double after it went through a light on the Green Monster, even more crucial.
With one out, Jansen walked Edward Olivares to put the tying run on base. The Royals called on Dairon Blanco to pinch run. Blanco attempted to steal second, but was gunned down by McGuire from his knees.
“Kenley was quick and the throw was amazing,” said Cora.
The Red Sox (59-55) are still five games out of a playoff spot. But a series victory is in front of them Thursday.
Julian McWilliams can be reached at julian.mcwilliams@globe.com. Follow him @byJulianMack.