Something has to alter with the Red Sox bullpen.
To be 5-for-12 in save alternatives isn’t simply dangerous; it’s on its means in direction of being season-ending.
To be 0-5 in extra-inning video games is sufficient to suck the air out of any room, notably a clubhouse that’s endured botched contract extensions for each of its franchise gamers.
Wednesday marked a brand new low in a season filled with them for the Red Sox.
Garrett Whitlock was good, Trevor Story lastly had his breakout sport and Xander Bogaerts blasted a go-ahead house run within the eighth inning to ship Fenway Park into a celebration.
The social gathering began too early.
Hansel Robles, Jake Diekman and Matt Barnes – the Sox’ three-headed nearer of the evening — botched the save in embarrassing vogue and the Angels got here again to attain one within the ninth and 6 runs within the tenth as they stomped the Sox, 10-5.
“We work so hard to get certain matchups and try to get 27 outs,” supervisor Alex Cora mentioned.
It didn’t work. And with no nearer, it’s not getting any higher.
Playing the matchups day by day is precisely what the Tampa Bay Rays do. Michael Wacha, who pitched for the Rays final 12 months and is having fun with a breakout marketing campaign up to now with the Red Sox, mentioned good issues concerning the Rays in spring coaching, however added: “They play matchups no matter what. Whatever the computer spits out to them, that’s the lineup. Plug it into the computer and roll it out there.”
Now it’s the Red Sox who appear to be a group plugging issues into a pc and rolling with no matter matchups it suggests.
Look what occurred Tuesday: Wacha couldn’t have been any extra environment friendly and dominant. He bought by way of 5-2/3 scoreless innings on simply 60 pitches, a exceptional feat. And but, as quickly as Shohei Ohtani got here as much as bat a 3rd time, Wacha got here out and Diekman entered.
Cora defined that it was the plan all alongside. Did it matter that Wacha was good and hardly broke a sweat on the market? Didn’t look like it. Feel for the sport is one thing Cora has all the time had in abundance. He talks concerning the human aspect usually. It’s what makes him nice.
But on this group, predetermined matchups appear to matter greater than the rest. It labored on Tuesday, as Diekman took care of Ohtani, then the bullpen stood tall in a 4-0 win.
Wednesday, it backfired.
Right-hander Hansel Robles has been the Sox’ finest reliever, however he was eliminated for the left-handed Diekman with two outs within the ninth inning as a result of there was a lefty, Jared Walsh, on the plate.
“It’s a matchup we’ll take anytime,” Cora mentioned.
Diekman wasn’t fooling Walsh in any respect. It was a nine-pitch at-bat and eight of these pitches have been sliders, six of them in nearly the very same spot on the lower-outer a part of the plate. As the at-bat went on, Walsh’s swings bought higher and higher. Diekman stored throwing the slider. He threw seven straight sliders to finish the at-bat. Five of them have been fouled off. One was a ball. The seventh was smoked into the outfield for a game-tying RBI single.
“His slider is really good,” Cora mentioned. “Probably trying to expand. He’s done it before. He’s seen some lefties take some bad swings on that pitch. He just stayed on it enough.”
It was the MLB-worst seventh blown save of the season for the Red Sox. No different group has greater than 5.
It’s not that the Sox are doing a nasty job taking part in the matchups; certainly, they’re giving themselves a mathematical benefit by doing so. But no matter they’re doing isn’t working.
They don’t have pitchers who can deal with the late innings with consistency, and by taking part in the matchups, it’s a brand new pitcher within the ninth inning each evening. Who is gaining confidence in that position? Who is beginning to appear to be a professional nearer? Who is studying tips on how to deal with the strain and maintain their coronary heart charge down and begin to get snug in a constant position within the bullpen?
Nobody, as a result of there aren’t any roles proper now. And it’s killing the Red Sox.
“You guys know I like structure,” Cora mentioned. “I prefer it. We tried the entire ace reliever factor in 2019 (with Matt Barnes). It’s totally different than this, after all.
“We’ve got some guys where the three lefties give us an advantage on certain days… But I think it’s one of those that we would love somebody to step up and be consistent to throw strikes, go through three batters and turn the page. That’d be great so we could actually set up the sixth, the seventh, the eighth. But so far, we’ve been up and down with this. We’ve been inconsistent. Trusting the players we have, the talent we have, somebody will step up.”
So far, no one has. And the Red Sox are eight video games again of the first-place Yankees simply 25 video games into the season.
It’s a great distance up from right here. They’ve bought the Yankees, Blue Jays and Rays in entrance of them.
And no nearer. No set-up man. No bullpen roles. And if they’ve any relievers with confidence within the ninth, it’s onerous to see it.
Source: www.bostonherald.com