Five Starts In, Michael Wacha Has A 1.38 ERA

Michael Wacha has been one of the few pleasant surprises for the Red Sox in the first four weeks of the season. 

He's made five starts for Boston this season. The Red Sox have won four of those five games (including a 4-0 win over the Angels on Tuesday night) and Wacha has a 1.38 ERA. He's tied for first on the team with 1.0 WAR!

Wacha retired the first eight Angels on Tuesday before issuing two walks and throwing two balls to Mike Trout (in a scoreless game). However, he bounced back to get a foul and two swinging strikes, fanning Trout and ending the inning.

In 26 innings this year, Wacha has allowed 13 hits and only four runs. He's walked 11 (at least 2 per start, but about 4 per 9 IP) and struck out 19.

Wacha's innings have been increasing, more or less: 4.1, 5, 5, 6, 5.2. He threw only 60 pitches against the Angels and his high (92) was in his previous start against the Blue Jays.

Devers got the Red Sox on the board with a solo homer to dead center in the fourth inning. Xander Bogaerts walked and eventually scored on a groundout. Trevor Story's sac fly in the seventh scored Franchy Cordero. J.D. Martinez, who hit a grand slam on Sunday (an A-Rod-Garbage-Time-Stat-Padding-HR), hit a solo shot in the eighth.

The Angels mustered only three hits all night: Shohei Ohtani's leadoff single in the fourth (he was erased on a 5-4-3 DP), Max Stassi's single in the fifth (he was erased on a 5-4-3 DP), and Trout's two-out infield single in the sixth (he went to second on Devers's error, but Ohtani lined out to left).

Hirokazu Sawamura pitched the ninth, a questionable decision considering the Red Sox held only a four-run lead. But he set down the top of the Angels lineup in order, getting the final two outs with Trout's grounder to short and a strikeout of Ohtani (who is expected to pitch Thursday's afternoon game).