Blade Tidwell handed the San Francisco Giants a clean start at Fenway Park. The bullpen and a ninth-inning collapse handed Boston the last word.
The Associated Press report carried by ABC News said Tidwell, coming off a career-high five walks against Colorado, "kept Boston's batters quiet while striking out seven over 5 2/3 innings."
ESPN's box score lists him at 5.2 innings, three hits, zero runs, zero earned runs, two walks, seven strikeouts, zero homers allowed, 93 pitches (57 strikes), and a game score of 68, with his ERA at 3.58. He hit Mickey Gasper with a pitch and threw first-pitch strikes to 14 of 21 batters faced.
A 2-0 lead that did not travel home
Willy Adames opened the scoring with a solo homer in the first — his 21st, measured at 403 feet — and Andrew Knizner added another solo shot in the third at 394 feet, per ESPN's play-by-play. Tidwell left with that 2-0 lead intact.
Carson Seymour followed with 1.1 scoreless innings, ESPN shows, before Dylan Smith escaped a bases-loaded, none-out jam in the eighth but allowed a run in the frame, the AP wrote.
Sam Hentges then recorded the loss (1-6) and a blown save (his third), working one-third of an inning, allowing two hits and two earned runs in the ninth, according to the ESPN pitching line.
Eli White's run-scoring single, Nick Sogard's RBI double, and Wilyer Abreu's game-winning force play at the plate completed Boston's three-run ninth; the Giants challenged the plate call and it stood, the AP reported. Wyatt Olds (1-0) earned the win.
The Boston Globe described Tidwell's outing as the best of his young career, noting that Boston's three hits off him were all singles and that only one left the infield. CBS Sports' gametracker recap aligns with the same final: Red Sox 3, Giants 2.
Context for a Bay Area start that still ended 3-2
San Francisco fell to 52-77 and dropped its 10th game in 13 tries, per the AP and ESPN. Boston improved to 70-59. The Giants managed eight hits and left 11 on base while going 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position, ESPN's team totals show.
Rafael Devers, in his second game back at Fenway after last season's trade, went 0-for-4 with a walk and was booed, the AP wrote — a different night from Tidwell's mound line.
