Red Sox right-hander Richard Fitts turned the second pitcher in Main League Baseball historical past to perform a feat on Friday evening in opposition to the Minnesota Twins (GameTracker). Fitts joined Cincinnati Reds lefty Andrew Abbott by starting his big-league profession with three consecutive scoreless begins of no less than 5 innings, according to Ian Browne of MLB.com.
Fitts, 24, threw precisely 5 shutout frames in opposition to the Twins. He allowed 5 hits and walked one, all of the whereas punching out three of the 21 batters he confronted. The Purple Sox inserted reliever Luis Guerrero to start the sixth inning.
In keeping with Statcast, Fitts’ fastball averaged 93.5 mph on Friday and generated 4 whiffs on 17 swings. His different 4 swinging strikes got here courtesy of his slider.
Fitts had beforehand delivered 5 2/3 scoreless innings in his big-league debut in opposition to the Chicago White Sox. He then threw one other 5 shutout innings on the highway in opposition to the New York Yankees. That begin needed to be significantly rewarding for Fitts, who was picked by the Yankees by the use of Auburn within the sixth spherical of the 2021 newbie draft.
Fitts was subsequently traded to the Purple Sox final December as a part of the deal that despatched outfielder Alex Verdugo from Boston to New York. The Purple Sox additionally obtained fellow pitchers Nicholas Judice and Greg Weissert as a part of the settlement.
At publication time, the Purple Sox held a 1-0 lead because of an RBI single by veteran infielder Trevor Story within the fourth inning of the competition.
Abbott, for these questioning, has since upped his profession complete to 46 begins. His big-league ERA is 3.78 ERA (119 ERA+) and he has a 2.44 strikeout-to-walk ratio. Total, his contributions have been price an estimated 5.7 Wins Above Substitute, per Baseball Reference’s calculations.
