Whitlock sharp in return as Red Sox shut down D'Backs in 2

Lately the Red Sox offense has come and gone, and after busting out of their slump Friday the bats fell cold again Saturday, managing only two runs against the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Fortunately, this time that was enough for Garrett Whitlock and the Red Sox pitching staff.

Whitlock was excellent in his return from the injured list, allowing one run over five strong innings in Boston's 2-1 win over Arizona on Saturday. The bullpen did its part with four perfect innings of relief, and Kenley Jansen looked solidly back to himself by locking down career save No. 402 to close out the win.

Making his return after a month on the IL with right elbow ulnar neuritis, Whitlock looked shaky initially. The right-hander gave up some loud contact early, including a solo home run to Ketel Marte in the bottom of the first, but settled down from there to effectively shut down the talented young Diamondbacks lineup.

At one point Whitlock retired 12 straight hitters and ultimately allowed just the one run on three hits with no walks and four strikeouts over 92 pitches.

Meanwhile, the offense wasn't able to do much against Arizona's staff, but it was able to rally for two runs in the top of the fourth to take a 2-1 lead. Kiké Hernández hit a solo home run to tie the game and Reese McGuire laid a perfect sacrifice bunt down the first base line to score Triston Casas from third.

As it turned out, that was all the offense Boston would need.

From the second inning onwards Red Sox pitchers retired 25 of 26 Diamondbacks batters to finish the game. The lone baserunner came in the fifth, when Jake McCarthy blooped in a sinking liner that Raimel Tapia barely couldn't handle. The ball bounced in for a double, but Whitlock quickly got a groundout to end the threat and the bullpen took care of business from there.

Kutter Crawford enjoyed a dominant outing of his own, retiring seven straight batters over 2.1 perfect innings of relief. He also made one of the best defensive players you’ll ever see by a pitcher, taking a comebacker off his ankle, tracking it down into foul territory, dodging the charging runner and barehanding the ball to first to nail Gabriel Moreno for the out.

The play was subsequently upheld on review, but Crawford left the game with what the Red Sox later announced was a bruised right ankle. Chris Martin came on and got the last two outs to end the eighth, and then Jansen closed the door with a perfect ninth to lock down his 11th save of the season.

Masataka Yoshida led the offense by going 2 for 3 with a walk and a run scored, and Jarren Duran broke out of his 0 for 19 funk by going 2 for 4, including a bunt single that forced an error by the pitcher and resulted in Duran reaching second.

With the win the Red Sox are now 28-24 and will have a chance to complete the sweep on Sunday. Tanner Houck (3-3, 4.99 ERA) will get the ball against Arizona's Merrill Kelly (5-3, 2.98) and first pitch is scheduled for 4:10 p.m. ET.

Prior to Saturday's game, the Red Sox optioned left-hander Brennan Bernardino to Triple-A Worcester to clear space on the roster for Whitlock. Bernardino had been back with the big league club since Monday to fill in after fellow lefty Richard Bleier went down due to injury.

The Red Sox bullpen now consists of Jansen, Martin, Josh Winckowski, Crawford, Joely Rodriguez, Corey Kluber, Nick Pivetta and Justin Garza, with Bleier and John Schreiber on the 15-day IL.

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