Rick Porcello Tagged With 10th Loss Of Season
BOSTON (CBS) -- Last season at this time, Rick Porcello was 9-2 and on his way to a 22-win season and the AL Cy Young Award.
This year, things have not been going as well for the Boston righty. Porcello was tagged for his 10th defeat on Wednesday night after allowing four runs on six hits over six innings in Boston's 4-1 loss to the Minnesota Twins at Fenway Park.
Porcello's first inning woes continued, and he found himself in yet another early hole. It looked like it would be an easy inning after he retired the first two batters of the game, but he gave up three straight two out hits leading to a pair of Minnesota runs.
For the season, Porcello owns a 6.88 ERA in the first frame, surrendering 13 runs in 17 innings.
He calmed down after that opening frame and retired nine straight Twins, but finished his night by giving up two more runs off of a two-run blast by Max Kepler in the sixth inning. After the loss, Porcello said his struggles this season are simply a matter of execution.
"Six innings, four runs. It's not like they're beating the cover off the ball," Porcello told reporters. "Just a couple of things here and there that I have to clean up. I'm not making excuses for myself and I hold myself accountable for the loss tonight. But in the grand scheme of things, I have to keep building off what I'm doing and what the team is doing. We're in a good spot and I'm going to keep fighting to come back and help this team win games every five days."
It certainly doesn't help that Porcello received no support from the Boston offense, with their only run of the night coming on a Xander Bogaerts RBI ground out in the seventh. It's a trend that Porcello should be used to this season, as it marks the eighth time in his 17 starts that he's received no support from his offense.
But Porcello never mentioned a lack of run support, and doesn't even want to dwell on his own personal struggles this season. He's already thinking about five days from now when he'll make his next start against the Rangers in Texas.
"This is about our ball club; I'm not going to harp on my struggles or what's going on there. I've got a start in five days, I'm going to go out there and do the best I can to give us a chance to win and that's it," said Porcello. "Keep moving forward and stop thinking about (stuff) from the past."
