BOSTON — The Red Sox bullpen has been hard at work in the early part of this season with the team’s starting rotation unable to consistently go deep into games.
Joe Kelly pitched pretty well in Friday night’s game against the Baltimore Orioles at Fenway Park, but he wasn’t as efficient as would have liked. His pitch count was high early on, and he left the game after throwing 118 pitches in 5 and 2/3 innings, the second-highest total in a single start in his career.
With the Red Sox trailing 2-0 at the time of Kelly’s departure in the fifth inning, the bullpen stepped up and shut the door, paving the way for a walk-off win in the ninth inning on a bloop single to right field by shortstop Xander Bogaerts.
“The guys coming out of the bullpen did a great job, particularly Edward (Mujica) with a big strikeout with the potential go-ahead run on second base,” Red Sox manager John Farrell said.
“Solid inning and a third from (Mujica). (Tazawa) and Koji (Uehera), as they’ve done many times, clean inning of work. We get the leadoff walk, Daniel Nava puts down a beautiful sac bunt and a bloop base hit is the difference.”
Mujica pitched 1 and 2/3 innings and gave up one hit, zero runs and struck out two. Tazawa retired the side in the eighth inning with two strikeouts and Uehara did the same with two strikeouts of his own in the ninth inning to keep one of the most potent lineups in baseball scoreless over the final four innings.
“This is one of those nights where I didn’t go as long as I’d like to and they’ve kind of been getting beat up lately,” Kelly said. “But they’ve shown their resiliency and you run them out there and they get 1-2-3 outs. (The bullpen)Â definitely pitched really well tonight.”
Baltimore’s bullpen wasn’t able to match its Boston counterparts.
After Orioles starter Ubaldo Jimenez was ejected in the fourth inning for hitting Red Sox third baseman Pablo Sandoval up high, the Baltimore bullpen went to work and struggled mightily. Orioles relievers gave up three earned runs, four hits and four walks in 4 and 2/3 innings.
There’s been plenty of debate since spring training on whether the Sox have a true “ace” in their rotation, and one way to overcome the lack of an elite talent at the front of the rotation is to have a great bullpen. That’s one of the reasons why the Kansas City Royals advanced to Game 7 of the World Series last season. Their bullpen was dominant throughout the campaign.
Now that Uehara is back in the fold healthy and pitching well, the Red Sox bullpen has an opportunity to turn into a real asset moving forward.
Thumbnail photo via Bob DeChiara/USA TODAY Sports Images
