A lot has been made about the Boston Red Sox’s stellar offense, and understandably so.
But it appears that Boston’s bullpen is finding its stride as well.
With Boston’s 6-2 win over the Atlanta Braves on Friday, Sox relievers now have held the opposition scoreless in six straight games. In four of those games, the final margin was three runs or less.
It doesn’t matter the leverage or the pitcher, each member of the bullpen is coming in and contributing, from long guys like Brian Johnson and Steven Wright, to late inning pitchers like Craig Kimbrel, Joe Kelly and Matt Barnes.
In Friday’s case, Sox manager Alex Cora went to the bullpen with two outs in the sixth inning. At the time, Boston led by just one run, and Heath Hembree came through by stranding a runner on first base by striking out the lone hitter he faced.
Kelly pitched a clean seventh, and Barnes a flawless eighth. And although Kimbrel allowed a one-out double to Dansby Swanson, he buckled down and retired the side, striking out a pair.
As a whole, the bullpen has been reliable for the Red Sox, save for a few meltdowns in New York against the Yankees and one against the Tampa Bay Rays on Opening Day.
That consistent reliability was a point of emphasis for Cora after Friday’s game.
“I’ve been pleased the whole season,” Cora said, as seen on NESN’s postgame coverage. “I know people always pay attention to what happened in New York, but a balk, a check swing, a few walks, it happens. Just obviously the stage, so everybody looks at that one and obviously, they go to Opening Day. But if you look at them as a whole, they’re great.
“I mean people talk about (Barnes) and the walks,” Cora continued. “But they don’t look at the WHIP, I think it’s below one now. He’s been outstanding, mixing up the breaking ball just like Joe and obviously Craig has been outstanding. Heath since his hiccups in New York has been great shutting down innings. We’re very pleased with them.”
Here are some other notes from Red Sox-Braves:
— The Red Sox deluged home runs on Braves pitching Friday, with five of Boston’s six runs coming via the longball.
J.D. Martinez and Xander Bogaerts each hit solo shots in the fourth to erase a two-run deficit. Then, with a one-run advantage, Mookie Betts added a cushion with a two-run shot. Mitch Moreland put things out of reach with a solo homer to straightaway center in the ninth.
Boston now has 75 home runs as a team this season, good for second in the league behind the Yankees’ 80.
“It’s great to see,” Cora said. “I do think that although sometimes we expand the strike zone we’re staying aggressive regardless of the count. Seeing a lot of two-strike homers, that’s good to see (them) do damage, they’re doing a good job of it, so just hope we can continue with it.”
— Jackie Bradley Jr. has been working his way out of a slump, and he had arguably his best hit in recent memory with a triple to right-center field in the fifth inning.
That’s now back-to-back games with an extra-base hit for the center fielder after he clubbed a double to left-center Thursday against the Tampa Bay Rays.
Cora has been adamant that getting a big front-leg kick out of Bradley’s load would help him get his timing down, and it appears it’s doing just that. By allowing the 28-year-old to figure his swing out in a game situation, Bradley has been able to work out some kinks in his offense.
“There’s certain guys that struggled in the first part of the season, but they’re working at it, they’re getting better, you can see the progress with Jackie,” Cora said. “Obviously with Dustin (Pedroia) coming in that’s going to help. And we think offensively, don’t get me wrong we’ve done an outstanding job, but we feel that we’re going to be better. “
