Breaking Down Logan Gilbert's Struggles Against the Boston Red Sox

The Boston Red Sox gave Seattle Mariners starter Logan Gilbert one of the worst starts of his career on Monday; Here's a deep-dive into what went wrong for the Seattle All-Star.

Seattle Mariners starting pitcher Logan Gilbert pitches against the Boston Red Sox on Monday at Fenway Park. / Eric Canha-USA TODAY Sports

One could be forgiven for looking at the score of Monday's game between the Boston Red Sox and Seattle Mariners and confusing it for a football game.

The Red Sox beat the Mariners 14-7, representing the most runs allowed by Seattle in a single game this season.

It was also one of the worst showings from one of the best starters in the American League.

Mariners pitcher Logan Gilbert let up seven earned runs to the Red Sox in the third inning. It was the third-most allowed by the 2024 All-Star in his career. Gilbert was done after just 2.2 innings pitched — the second quickest pull of his career.

Gilbert has allowed seven or more earned runs just four times since his major league debut in 2021 including Monday. Before the loss to Boston — he pitched at least four innings in all of them.

Even the best of the best have bad games from time to time. Randy Johnson let up 10 earned runs to the Toronto Blue Jays in 1994 and Felix Hernandez let up 10 in a game in 2015 — also against the Red Sox (both according to Statmuse). Gilbert is an All-Star for a reason — he'll bounce back.

A lot of fans mentioned the at-bat against Wilyer Abreu as the pivotal point in the game. And understandably so.

Gilbert's battle with Abreu in the bottom of the third went 12 pitches but it should've ended on the fifth. Gilbert caught the bottom outside corner with a fastball on a 1-2 count. It should have been called a strike according to the zone on MLB's gameday page. It would have ended the inning but the home plate umpire called it a ball.

Logan Gilbert's night is done in this 3rd inning that will not end. He's surrendered six runs and thrown 43 pitches in this frame alone.

He probably should've gotten out of it unscathed, after a 1-2, in-zone fastball was called a ball in that 12-pitch battle with Wilyer Abreu. pic.twitter.com/Q1VwuWr7vE

— Daniel Kramer (@DKramer_) July 30, 2024

Abreu hit an RBI single on the 12th pitch. After that — Gilbert allowed a two-run home run, a double, an RBI double and then was pulled. Boston hit its fourth-straight double off reliever Trent Thornton. That dinged Gilbert for his seventh earned run of the game.

According to Baseball Savant — Gilbert threw 11 pitches after Masataka Yoshida's homer — six of them were out of the zone. Gilbert threw 43 pitches in the third — the most in a single inning in his career. He threw his fastball just twice after Abreu's hit. One of those resulted in Yoshida's homer.

The stats say that the Red Sox got to Gilbert's fastball and forced him to rely on his breaking pitches. Most of which weren't falling in the zone.

It's hard for any pitcher — All-Star or not — to have a good outing when an entire pitch is off the board. The amount of pitches Gilbert threw in the third also started to reduce the effectiveness of the rest of his arsenal. His slider and splitter dropped roughly three miles an hour each in the third compared to the first inning.

Boston worked long at-bats, took away the fastball and started working the off-speed once they started to lose velocity.

Gilbert's fastball topped out at over 99 miles an hour on Monday. The fact that the Red Sox neutralized it was an incredible feat by itself.

Logan Gilbert, 98mph Fastball...and Sword. ⚔️ pic.twitter.com/5Cw6PKDrTE

— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) July 29, 2024

But if history is any indicator — Gilbert will bounce back fine. He last allowed seven or more earned runs on May 9 against the Minnesota Twins. Eight of his next nine outings were quality starts, according to MLB.com.

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