FORT MYERS, Fla. — Garrett Whitlock delivered another strong performance in his second start of the spring, striking out six over three innings in the Red Sox 5-2 win over the Detroit Tigers on Thursday.
Whitlock retired the first eight batters he faced before running into some adversity with two outs in the third. The right-hander allowed three straight singles, two on unlucky bloopers, to score a run and put runners at the corners. He escaped the jam without further damage, however, striking out Andy Ibáñez to wrap up his day.
Whitlock said afterwards he was happy with his outing, even if the line score wound up looking a tad misleading.
“The way I take it is it’s weak contact so that means I’m making quality pitches, so just trying to build those up and those are going to fall in, that’s baseball,” Whitlock said of the bloop singles, before adding of the strikeouts, “that surprised me, I’m not a strikeout guy so I guess that means the changeup was working good.”
Rafael Devers hit his second home run of the spring, once again going opposite field over the JetBlue Park Monster for a solo shot, and he finished the day 2 for 3 with the homer, an RBI and two runs scored. Trevor Story also went 1 for 2 with two RBI, including an RBI double in the bottom of the first and a bases-loaded walk in the fourth.
Playing in his second big league game of the spring, top prospect Roman Anthony had another strong showing, going 2 for 2 with a run scored. Red Sox manager Alex Cora said afterwards he continues to be impressed by the 19-year-old outfielder, and Anthony
“Any opportunity I get I try to take advantage of it,” Anthony said. “I’m super thankful they’ve given me the opportunity being in minor league camp to come over and play and start, so I just try to take advantage of it and have fun.”
First base prospect Niko Kavadas also got a start and went 1 for 2 with an RBI single in the fourth, and Red Sox pitchers Cooper Criswell, Lucas Luetge, Chase Shugart and Andrew Politi all pitched scoreless outings in relief, with Criswell striking out three over two innings while the others threw one inning each.
Detroit scored its last run on an RBI single by Trei Cruz in the top of the ninth, but minor league reliever Brendan Cellucci finished the job from there to close out the win.
