Abreu and Criswell lead Red Sox to 4-0 win over Giants for major league-leading 6th shutout

By DOUG ALDEN
Associated Press

BOSTON (AP) — Rookie Wilyer Abreu had a single, double and his first career triple, Cooper Criswell pitched five scoreless innings and the Boston Red Sox beat the San Francisco Giants 4-0 on Tuesday night for their major league-leading sixth shutout.

Abreu, who finished a homer shy of hitting for the cycle, helped Boston win its third straight. Jarren Duran singled in his first three at-bats and drove in a run and Rob Refsnyder had a pair of RBI singles as the Red Sox quickly ended to Giants ace Logan Webb’s streak of 19 straight scoreless innings.

Boston finished with 11 hits and drew six walks, taking a toll on San Francisco’s pitching on a crisp night.

“We stayed very humble tonight,” Boston manager Alex Cora said. “There were no chases. We hit the ball the other way, not too many swings and misses. We’ll take the homers, but I think the at-bats are going to get better.”,

Webb’s scoreless streak ended in the first with an RBI single by Refsnyder and the game continued to slide from there. Webb, who didn’t make it out of the fourth inning, hadn’t allowed a run since April 7. Webb (3-2) allowed four runs and nine hits with four strikeouts and three walks in 3 2/3 innings.

Criswell (2-1) had a much stronger night, holding the Giants to just two hits and striking out four in his five innings. San Francisco didn’t have a hit until Michael Conforto led off the fifth with a single. After a quick double play, Jorge Soler added a two-out single for the Giants but that was their last hit until Wilmer Flores’ one-out single in the ninth.

“He just located well,” San Francisco third baseman Matt Chapman said of Criswell. “He was putting the ball where he wanted to for the most part, keeping guys off balance and then we weren’t really able to get anything going.”

San Francisco finished with just four hits to match a season low and was shut out for the second time this year.

The Giants were able to limit the damage to just one run in each of the first four innings, although the Red Sox forced Webb to push his pitch count up to 55 by the end of the second. The third inning wasn’t much better for Webb when Abreu led off with a double and Refsnyder followed with his second RBI single of the game.

Webb had to face Abreu again in the fourth and the Red Sox rookie tagged him for an RBI triple to the corner in right.

“I think that was the baseball that I’ve hit the hardest in my career,” Abreu said through a translator. “It feels good. You can see the progress from the start of the season to right now. It feels good to see results.”

EARLY ERA

Boston starters haven’t allowed a run in 12 of 30 games so far this season and have a cumulative ERA of 2.00.

“We expect to be consistent. I don’t know about the numbers,” Cora said. “I know every single night, I feel very comfortable with where we’re going to be pitching-wise.”

FURTHER REVIEW

Duran nearly had a fourth straight single in the fifth on a grounder to third and throw that took first baseman LaMonte Wade off the bag. But San Francisco challenged the safe call and replays confirmed Wade was still touching the base when he caught the throw from Chapman.

The Giants were on the losing end of a challenge in the eighth after appearing to turn a triple play on a grounder by Tyler O’Neill before Cora called for the review. Video showed that O’Neill beat the throw just in time, so it was a 5-4-3 double play.

TRAINER’S ROOM

Giants: RF Mike Yastrzemski needed a few minutes after getting hit by a pitch from reliever Brennan Bernadino in the top of the sixth, but remained in the game. It was Yastrzemski’s first trip since 2019 to Fenway Park, where his grandfather Carl was a Hall of Famer for the Red Sox.

Red Sox: 1B Garrett Cooper left in the fifth after taking a 95 mph pitch from Hjelle off his right wrist. Cooper met with Cora and a trainer before heading to the clubhouse and was replaced by pinch-runner Bobby Dalbec, who also took over defensively at first base. … The Red Sox also acquired minor league LHP Bailey Horn from the Chicago White Sox in a deal for cash considerations Tuesday, and then optioned him to Triple-A Worcester.

UP NEXT

Giants manager Bob Melvin had not named a starter for Wednesday before Tuesday’s game. Red Sox RHP Kutter Crawford (1-1, 1.35 ERA) is coming off his first loss of the season after allowing four runs and 10 hits over six innings in a loss to the Chicago Cubs on Friday. Crawford picked up the win last July in his only other start against the Giants, holding San Francisco to one run over 5 2/3 innings.

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