SEATTLE -- There’d be no stressing, considering or ignoring a no-hit bid Saturday, but that doesn’t mean Connelly Early was any less dominant in a 5-1 win over the Mariners at T-Mobile Park that clinched the Red Sox their second series win of the month.
Early walked J.P. Crawford to lead off the bottom of the first, then gave up a single to Cal Raleigh. A batter later, another single drove a run home and put Boston in an early hole.
From there, the 24-year-old lefty cruised through the Seattle order, not allowing another hit in the next five frames and lowering his ERA to 3.64 with six innings of one-run ball. Seattle’s two hits matched the fewest Early has allowed in a start in his career, and both his seven strikeouts and his 13 swings-and-misses were one off his season highs.
It was the third straight quality start for the Red Sox -- following Ranger Suarez’s brilliant night Friday and Sonny Gray’s series finale vs. the Blue Jays on Thursday.
“Pretty much anybody that takes the ball, I feel pretty good about walking in the dugout and feeling like we’re going to be in the game,” interim manager Chad Tracy said. “I don’t think that’s been inaccurate. It seems like the sixth inning arrives, and we’re right there. That part has been great. It could be worse than that. We’re not getting beat up. We’re in the game, we have a chance. Our starters have done that.”
Wilyer Abreu got the Sox on the board in the top of the fourth inning with a two-run home run that came off his bat at 106.3 mph and traveled a Statcast-projected 414 feet out to dead center. Two innings later, Boston broke out the ground attack, plating three runs in an inning that saw just one hit reach the outfield, thanks to two walks, two steals, two wild pitches and back-to-back RBI infield singles by Caleb Durbin and Marcelo Mayer.