Scheduled to make his 27th start of the season in the finale of a three-game set between the Indians and Red Sox, was Nick Pivetta. But he’ll head to the COVID-19 injured list, while Kutter Crawford makes his major-league debut.
Crawford was scratched from his start with Triple-A Worcester days ago, just incase a situation like this happened.
Across six outings (five starts) with the WooSox this season, he’s posted a 5.52 ERA, to go along with a 3.79 xFIP but did salvage a 3.30 ERA with Double-A Portland before getting promoted to Worcester.
He struck out 37.2% of the batters he faced in Double-A this season, with the Sea Dogs, while only walking 2.9% of batters he faced. He also slated a 30.7% strikeout rate in Worcester, while he walked just 6.3% of batters.
The righty was drafted in the 16th round of the 2016 MLB Draft, and has been with the organization ever since.
Pivetta is the 10th player Boston has had on the COVID-19 injured list. The righty is vaccinated — it’ll be his second stint on the COVID IL — his first was after reactions from the vaccine.
“It’s one of those where we have to be very cautious,” said manager Alex Cora. “As you guys know with testing and all that, sometimes the results doesn’t match up. So out of precaution, we did it. We’ll know more today or tomorrow morning.”
In other news, Kiké Hernandez is back in Boston. All he has to do is clear protocols, and could rejoin the team as soon as Tuesday.