Who will replace Koji Uehara at the back end of Boston’s bullpen?
After Tuesday night’s implosion in Miami, the Red Sox are no closer to answering that question than they were when an Ian Kinsler line drive ended Uehara’s season last Friday.
Six relievers teamed up to blow a four-run lead in an eventual 5-4 loss to the Miami Marlins, and the first applicant for Uehara’s closer job, former setup man Junichi Tazawa, did little to inspire confidence.
With the Red Sox clinging to a 4-3 lead in the bottom of the ninth at Marlins Park, Tazawa allowed consecutive one-out singles, uncorked a wild pitch and had shortstop Adeiny Hechavarria lift a full-count fastball to deep right field.
The sacrifice fly scored J.T. Realmuto from third to force extra innings, spoiling Tazawa’s bid for his first save since 2012 (and just the second of his career). Justin Bour roped an RBI single off Craig Breslow one inning later, making the Marlins walk-off winners.
Tazawa, who owned a sub-1.35 ERA as recently as June 11, has allowed five earned runs over his last four appearances — a span that’s included three blown saves.
“It’s easy to say, but baseball’s a crazy game,” acting Red Sox manager Torey Lovullo told reporters after the game, as aired on “Red Sox Extra Innings LIVE.” “We believe in Junichi. We know that he’s capable of going out there and getting the job done. He didn’t get it done (Tuesday night). You can look in the past — look as far back as you want. I’m sure there’s a track record there that can be had. But he’s a competitor. He’s going to go out there and get those three outs at any time.”
Before manager John Farrell left Marlins Park to rest following hernia surgery — thrusting Lovullo, usually Boston’s bench coach, into the bossman role — he named three potential successors to Uehara: Tazawa, Jean Machi and Ryan Cook. Lovullo explained after the game why he opted to go with the former.
“It’s something we talked about pregame with lineup construction,” he told reporters. “We just figured that depending on where we were in the lineup with certain matchups, we didn’t have a closer with certainly. We just figured that, based on where we were in the lineup, that we wanted to construct it and have the right matchups. And that’s just the way it lined up with Machi in the eighth and Tazawa in the ninth.”
All three of the aforementioned relievers saw action in the game, and each struggled. Cook, in his Red Sox debut, allowed two inherited runners to score in the sixth inning while giving up one hit and committing an error, and Machi had to work around a double and a walk to complete a scoreless eighth.
“Well obviously, (it was) a situation where they didn’t come in and get the job done,” Lovullo said of his bullpen, which ranks 23rd in the majors in collective ERA. “But they’re a bunch of the guys that we believe in. They’ve done it all year long. They’re going to continue to get the ball in their hands and find a way to get the job done.”
Thumbnail photo via Robert Mayer/USA TODAY Sports Images
