First, the good news — Nick Nastrini was a shadow of his former self. Shadow being a good thing in this case.
The righty who’d been hyped so much when he came from the Dodgers at the 2023 trade deadline had been an overall disaster during two other brief sojourns with the Sox early this season, mainly because he issued a walk an inning. Today, though, he just walked one in six innings, throwing 62 of 98 pitches for strikes (true, he would have walked Aroldis García every time if García hadn’t insisted at swinging at pitches anywhere between first and third arriving on fewer than three bounces, but everyone needs a little help from their friends).