Great start from Gibson doesn’t go to waste

BOSTON — As Kyle Gibson finished up the eighth inning, his seventh straight frame without giving up a hit to the Red Sox, he did his best to avoid Twins manager Paul Molitor in the Fenway Park dugout.

Gibson, who was at 96 pitches, wanted to go back out for the ninth, but he knew his manager was likely to turn to closer Brandon Kintzler to protect a one-run lead. Molitor quickly decided to go with Kintzler, and it nearly backfired after he loaded the bases with nobody out with David Ortiz coming to the plate. But Kintzler somehow wriggled his way out of the jam with the help of a double play with the infield in to help preserve a 2-1 win for the Twins and an outstanding performance from Gibson.

“You get down to the end there and you have to make the decision if you want to give Gibby a chance, but I went with our closer,” Molitor said. “It kind of came down to it being a long night even though his pitch count was still reasonable. If it was a two-run game, it might’ve been different.”

Molitor, though, still called …

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