Richard Fitts made history on Friday night.
The Red Sox pitcher became the second player in MLB to start his career with three straight scoreless games of at least five innings. He matched Andrew Abbott from the Reds, according to Ian Browne of MLB.com.
Fitts, just 24 years old, pitched five shutout innings against the Twins. He gave up five hits, walked one batter, and struck out three before Luis Guerrero took over in the sixth inning.
Game Highlights:
Statcast showed Fitts’ fastball averaged 93.5 mph and got four swings and misses out of 17 swings. His slider also caused four more whiffs.
Richard Fitts (@RedSox) becomes the 2nd pitcher in MLB history to deliver 5+ innings without allowing an earned run in each of his first 3 big league starts!
— MLB Pipeline (@MLBPipeline)
Earlier games saw Fitts pitch 5 2/3 scoreless innings against the White Sox in his debut and another five shutout frames against the Yankees. That Yankees game must have been sweet for him since they picked him in the sixth round back in 2021.
Fans might think this news is very exciting!
He was traded to Boston last December when Alex Verdugo went to New York. The Red Sox also got Nicholas Judice and Greg Weissert in that deal.
At press time, thanks to an RBI single by Trevor Story, Boston led 1-0 in the fourth inning.
Abbott has now made 46 starts with a career ERA of 3.78 (119 ERA+), a strikeout-to-walk ratio of 2.44, and an estimated WAR of 5.7 per Baseball Reference.
What do you think about Fitts’ performance so far?
