SEATTLE — It was just one pitch that doomed Nick Pivetta Friday night at T-Mobile Park. He controlled the Mariners’ at-bats for most of the contest, suffocating their aggressive approach at the plate with first-pitch breaking balls, freezing them on his heater, before inducing the chase for the strikeout. He had 10 of them on the evening.
Pivetta matched George Kirby, an established young starter for Seattle, with every pitch, every strikeout.
But in the bottom of the sixth inning with one out, Pivetta hung a low and inside cutter to J.P. Crawford. As such, Crawford deposited the pitch into the right field seats for a solo home run, which proved to be all the Mariners needed to pin the Red Sox with a 1-0 loss.
“It was down and in and it backed up a little bit,” said Pivetta. “He put a good swing on it.”
It was the only blemish for Pivetta, whose start was nothing short of excellent. To go along with his 10 strikeouts, Pivetta yielded just three hits without conceding a walk.
This is the Pivetta the Sox expected when he came into spring training. Cora was adamant that his late-season success last year wasn’t a fluke, that Pivetta had finally put it all together, intertwining his promising metrics with actual performance.
“You saw the stuff, it was really good today,” said Cora. “Finally, the breaking ball played. He struggled with it the whole spring and, tonight, he threw it for strikes. The cutter was good. The sweeper was great. The fastball at 93-94 miles per hour. It was a good one.”
His opponent in Kirby, combined with a lackluster Red Sox offense that languished in the absence of Rafael Devers (left shoulder soreness), led to Pivetta’s misfortune.
The Sox had Kirby in a corner during the first inning when he walked two batters, which is uncommon for the righthander, known as one of the best — if not the best — strike throwers in the game.
Yet with runners on the corners and one out, Trevor Story struck out and Triston Casas flied out to end the threat.
“Good stuff on the other side,” said Cora. “He’s one of the best pitchers in the league. He doesn’t walk people, but he walked two in the first and we had a shot to cash in and we didn’t. He found his rhythm. Good fastball mixed with a slider, splitter, and knuckle curve. That’s why he is who he is. He’s a tough customer.”
The Sox threatened with two out in the seventh when Ceddanne Rafaela reached on a single to right that sent Kirby to the dugout. Pablo Reyes, pinch-hitting for Enmanuel Valdez, ripped a hard-hit single to right to put a pair of runners aboard for Bobby Dalbec, who wound up striking out against reliever Gabe Speier.
The Sox mounted another threat in the eighth when Reese McGuire drew a leadoff walk from Ryne Stanek, the second of three Seattle relievers to enter the game.
After Stanek fanned Jarren Duran and induced Tyler O’Neill to pop up, Masataka Yoshida reached on a single to center that sent McGuire to third and Stanek to the showers. Righthander Andres Munoz entered and induced Story to ground out to third for an inning-ending out that prevented the Sox from scoring.
Josh Winckowski kept the Sox in the game, recording four strikeouts and allowing one hit, but started to falter in the bottom of the eighth when he issued a two-out walk to Julio Rodriguez that loaded the bases. However, Winckowski was rescued when Casas made a stab of a hard-hit line drive by Jorge Polanco that ended the inning.
Munoz struck out the side in the ninth to pin the Red Sox with their first loss of the season.
Despite the loss, the Sox have received five-plus innings from both Brayan Bello and Pivetta in their first two games, a promising development.
“If we get three more starts of five or more, if we do that we’re going to have a chance to win a lot of ball games,” said Cora.
Julian McWilliams can be reached at julian.mcwilliams@globe.com. Follow him @byJulianMack.