PHILADELPHIA _ Phillies rookie right-hander Nick Pivetta, matched against Chris Sale, baseball's strikeout leader, submitted the best Phillies start of the season. He had not thrown a pitch beyond the fifth inning in any of his first six starts in the majors, then completed seven scoreless innings against a potent Boston lineup.
A 1-0 win, for the worst team in baseball, was progress. The Phillies equaled the challenge presented by Sale. They won on an eighth-inning single from Andrew Knapp, a pinch-hit double by little-used Ty Kelly, an aggressive wave by third-base coach Juan Samuel, and a botched Red Sox relay throw.
They did it. The Phillies won a game.
"We haven't been playing to up to where I thought we would be playing at this point," Phillies manager Pete Mackanin said before the win. "I think we're better than what we're playing. I said my projection was to play .500 as we go through the first part of the season and watch the players develop and get better. Learn from their mistakes and move forward. So far, this hasn't happened."
Pivetta, 24, showed growth. No Phillies starter had thrown seven scoreless innings since Sept. 17, 2016, when Jeremy Hellickson had a shutout. The Phillies, at this point last season, had six such starts of at least seven scoreless innings.
Pivetta succeeded with his fastball, which touched 97 mph and hovered at 95. It is a fine pitch, especially when thrown down in the zone. He threw 107 pitches Thursday and 75 of them were fastballs. If one of his secondary pitches improves, the Phillies have an interesting arm in their rotation.
He looked impressive from the very beginning. Pivetta fired 12 first-inning pitches, the last a slider that Xander Bogaerts could not meet. Pivetta struck out nine. He walked two Red Sox, both in the second inning, when he escaped a bases-loaded jam.
His last pitch, in the seventh inning, was 95 mph. Sandy Leon, Boston's catcher, lined it right at Maikel Franco.
Sale fanned 10 batters for the ninth time in 14 starts this season. His 136 strikeouts are the most in the majors.
Much of the recent attention devoted to the Phillies is about the players not here. So a night like Thursday offered some catharsis.
"Right now, my job is to handle the 25 players I have," Mackanin said. "I want them to know I have confidence in them. I'm not going to talk about who I'd like to see, if anybody, to come up and take their place. I don't think that's fair to them. It's important that they know that I believe in them, that they're going to improve. So all I can do is encourage them to get better because they're my 25 players."
The Phillies announced 30,729 fans in attendance, and many of them were Boston supporters. But this was a crisp game, a game played with a different vibe spread through the ballpark. For 2 hours and 25 minutes, the Phillies were not the worst team in baseball.
