CINCINNATI -- This is a time of rare opportunity for the young Red Sox pitchers as the team plays out the string on the 2022 season.

Wednesday night in the finale of a two-game series vs. the Reds, right-hander Connor Seabold got his chance. His numbers -- four runs on six hits over a career-high five innings in a 5-1 loss -- weren't great.

But Red Sox manager Alex Cora was pleased with how Seabold attacked hitters and thought the numbers were skewed by two bloop singles that scored three runs.

"Bad luck -- 85 miles an hour off the bat," Cora said. "The grounder that went through. The bloop single by [Jonathan India], and then the other bloop single. You cannot control that. You can control attacking the zone. He did that."

Seabold, 26, had been recalled earlier in the day from Triple-A Worcester. He was pleased with his return.

"Six singles," Seabold said. "None harder than 85 off the bat. Tough luck."

The Red Sox were hoping Seabold could do the kind of work he did with Worcester, where he was 8-2 with a 3.32 ERA in 19 starts.

Seabold made three starts with the big league club in late June and early July. He was 0-2 with an 11.91 ERA in those starts. So he had some things to work on when he was sent to the Minors.

"I went down to Triple-A with a bunch of stuff to work on," Seabold said. "I thought I did a really good job of showing what I had done. The results didn't come back great. Again, on a different day some of those [bloops] find guys."

Cora saw the difference on Wednesday.

"I think he did a good job with pitch mix," Cora said. "We still have to work on it. You can't be so fastball-heavy, especially in the division we play in. It was a good first step. The fastball played early on. The slider was better than expected. The changeup is one we want to see a little more often. Overall, a solid one."

Seabold walked one and struck out four. A bit troubling were his four wild pitches, three of which played in the Reds' runs

Seabold struck out the side in the first, around a hit-by-pitch, relying mostly on the fastball.

"It was good," Seabold said. "I didn't know what the velo was, but it felt good coming [out]. I was able to spot it pretty good. Overall, I thought the stuff was good. I thought the location was good."

He didn't allow a hit until Stuart Fairchild led off the third with a single. Seabold got the next two hitters, but Fairchild moved up on a wild pitch and scored on India's soft single to left. The Red Sox tied it in the fourth on Alex Verdugo's sacrifice fly.

Seabold ran into two-out trouble in the fifth. With one out, Fairchild reached on an infield single. An out later, TJ Friedl walked. India lined one to center to Fairchild in. After India stole second, Kyle Farmer blooped one into center to score two runs and make it 4-1.

Seabold, Boston's No. 22 prospect per MLB Pipeline, will get the start Monday against the Orioles.