BOSTON — For better or worse, this could be the 2015 Red Sox.
The Red Sox took two of three this week from the Washington Nationals at Fenway Park. Boston offered a glimpse of the good, the bad and the ugly during the three-game set, leaving the optimists and the pessimists to duke it out as the Red Sox turn their attention to the Baltimore Orioles starting Friday.
The good? That would be the offense, which continues to look like a unit capable of breaking out on a moment’s notice. If you blink, you might miss an outburst, evidenced by the Red Sox scoring 22 runs against a Nationals rotation that’s considered by most to be the best and deepest in Major League Baseball.
The bad? Look no further than the Red Sox’s starting rotation, which initially looked strong but has since been far worse in its second trip through.
Clay Buchholz, Rick Porcello, Justin Masterson, Wade Miley and Joe Kelly combined to allow just eight runs over 31 1/3 innings (2.30 ERA) while striking out 34 in the rotation’s first turn. Buchholz, Porcello, Masterson and Miley combined to allow 27 runs over 18 1/3 innings (13.26 ERA) in the second turn.
Porcello pitched pretty well in Monday’s home opener, but Buchholz, Masterson and Miley each got knocked around in their most recent starts, making it fair to question whether such performances will become the exception or the norm as the Red Sox progress deeper into their season. After all, the big unknown entering 2015 was whether Boston’s ace-less rotation would be good enough.
“We come away with a series win,” Red Sox manager John Farrell said Wednesday after Miley was touched for seven earned runs in just 2 1/3 innings as Boston fell to Washington 10-5. “I will say we have the capability from a starting standpoint to keep a game under control, and that needs to be more consistent than this turn through the rotation.”
The ugly? Well, that, too, accurately describes the rotation’s recent effort, but the most troubling aspect of Boston’s pitching woes is how taxed the bullpen has been less than two weeks into the regular season.
The bullpen itself is far from a perfect unit, though it received a boost Monday with Koji Uehara returning from the disabled list. But it could become a real weakness if it’s forced to work five, six, seven innings on a consistent basis.
“This goes to the rotation, and the need to get deeper into games is going to be required,” Farrell said Wednesday when asked if the recent spurt of short starts could persuade him to designate a long reliever in an effort to combat overworking his bullpen. “We have the capability of doing that. We’ve shown it, there’s track record of that being done. But to say that we’re going to make a roster change because of this turn through the rotation, that’s not in the works.”
Assuming the Red Sox don’t make any major roster changes in the near future, it might be time to accept that Boston will need to consistently outslug teams in order to remain competitive this season. It isn’t exactly a surprising development, as it more or less confirms a widespread preseason assumption. But it is interesting to see in action, because there’s such a wide gap between the Red Sox’s highest ceiling and their lowest floor.
The Red Sox are 6-3 after their first home series of 2015. What did we learn?
It depends on who you ask.
Thumbnail photo via Bob DeChiara/USA TODAY Sports Images
