Lucas Giolito roughed up as Red Sox fall to Rangers on soggy night

Mac Cerullo, Boston Herald on May 6, 2025

Published in Baseball

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BOSTON — Lucas Giolito’s first start off the injured list was highly encouraging. The right-hander shut down the Blue Jays for most of his outing, and while he eventually ran out of gas, Giolito gave good reason for optimism going forward.

But Tuesday night marked a concerning step backwards.

Playing in soaking wet conditions amid steady rainfall, Giolito was roughed up for six runs and couldn’t get out of the fourth inning in Tuesday’s 6-1 loss to the Texas Rangers. Meanwhile, Nathan Eovaldi delivered a gem for the Rangers, holding his former team to one run over six innings, and the Rangers tallied 16 hits in their first game under new hitting coach Bret Boone.

While the start of the game was only delayed about a half hour, rain continued to fall throughout the evening, making for a soggy night of baseball at Fenway Park. The wet conditions had an obvious impact on the game.

In the top of the first, Texas had runners at the corners and two outs when Giolito had a ball in the dirt bounce just far enough from catcher Carlos Narvaez to allow Wyatt Langford to score. Giolito was also slow to cover the plate, but the Red Sox got a gift when Joc Pederson was subsequently caught in a rundown between first and second to end the inning.

Eovaldi had several errant pitches in the bottom of the first, one of which allowed Rafael Devers to advance from first to second and another that went over Alex Bregman’s head but wound up hitting his bat for a foul ball.

Most troubling was when Giolito slipped and tumbled on the mound while warming up for the top of the second. He got up and quickly resumed pitching, but it was not something the Red Sox wanted to see given that the right-hander only recently came off the injured list with a hamstring strain.

The grounds crew came out and laid down dry soil before Giolito came out again for the top of the third.

There were other little incidents throughout the remainder of the game, the most notable being when Narvaez’s bat flew out of his hands and into the stands on a swing in the bottom of the third. But the bigger problems for Boston began in the fourth, when the Rangers started spraying the ball all over the field against Giolito.

Texas scored five runs in the inning on seven hits and a sacrifice fly, sending 10 batters to the plate and taking a 6-0 lead. The Rangers started the rally with back-to-back ground rule doubles, the latter by Pederson to score Corey Seager. Adolis Garcia drove in a run with his sacrifice fly, and then four of the next five Texas batters singled, with Jonah Heim, Josh Smith and Langford each driving in a run while keeping the line moving.

Giolito was pulled with two outs in the inning after Langford’s single. He finished with six runs allowed on 3 2/3 innings with 10 hits, a walk and two strikeouts.

For the second straight outing Giolito largely threw only fastballs and change-ups, but this time out his velocity was noticeably down. When he faced the Blue Jays his fastball averaged 93.3 mph and topped out at 96, but on Tuesday against the Rangers he averaged 91.6 and topped out at 93.4.

The Red Sox finally got some offense going against Eovaldi in the bottom of the sixth, with Bregman hitting a two-out double before Kristian Campbell drove him in with an RBI single. But overall Eovaldi was in full control, limiting Boston to one run, five hits and one walk over six innings while striking out seven.

Brennan Bernardino threw 1 1/3 scoreless innings in relief for Boston, and Sean Newcomb followed with four scoreless innings to help preserve the rest of the bullpen for the remainder of the series.

The loss drops Boston (18-19) below .500 for the first time since April 15, and the Red Sox have now also lost three straight and five of their last six. The club will look to bounce back on Wednesday when Tanner Houck (0-2, 6.38) takes the mound against Tyler Mahle (3-1, 1.19). First pitch is scheduled for 6:45 p.m.