The Boston Red Sox entered 2019 with one of the most highly-regarded starting rotations in Major League Baseball.
But so far? Boston’s stable of arms has been pedestrian at best.
Chris Sale looked human on Opening Day, while Nathan Eovaldi was smacked around on Friday night. That theme continued on Saturday night, with Eduardo Rodriguez providing his own clunker in a 6-5 loss to the Seattle Mariners at T-Mobile Park.
Rodriguez lasted just 4 1/3 innings in a laboring outing, during which he delivered 105 pitches. He allowed six runs, five earned, on eight hits while striking out five and walking three. He got out to a slow start, throwing 31 pitches in the first inning while surrendering two runs. The bubble burst in the fifth when Rodriguez allowed Jay Bruce to pummel a three-run home run in a lefty-lefty matchup that resulted in a 6-2 Sox deficit.
The 25-year-old struggled with fastball command early and leaned heavily on his changeup, which he threw 32 times. He also threw 33 cutters. It was a misplaced fastball that Bruce teed up.
“I mean that’s a lefty, and that’s my job lefty-lefty, you’ve got to get an out,” Rodriguez said, as seen on NESN’s postgame coverage. “With the two-seam, I was getting too much in and down. Get a walk in the last at-bat and then I was supposed to throw a fastball away, and I missed it right in the middle. That happens when you miss right in the middle.”
Through three games, the starters’ stats certainly do not look pretty.
Red Sox starters (Sale, Eovaldi, Rodriguez) through three games:
12.1 IP
22 H
19 R
18 ER
7 BB
12 K
7 HR270 pitches/169 strikes.
— Pete Abraham (@PeteAbe) March 31, 2019
But manager Alex Cora remains confident in the rotation, which turns to Rick Porcello in the series finale on Sunday afternoon, and pointed out after Saturday’s loss that his staff is, in fact, prone to the occasional bad game.
Cora on rotation struggles: "We don’t expect this, but they’re human. We know that’s not going to be the norm. They’re going to be okay."
— Chris Cotillo (@ChrisCotillo) March 31, 2019
Here are some more notes from Saturday’s Red Sox-Mariners game:
— After a stout performance on Friday night, the bullpen was very effective again on Saturday night, combining to allow just two hits over 4 2/3 innings with five strikeouts.
Both hits were allowed by Heath Hembree, who got out of a jam in the fifth and allowed just one hit in the sixth. Tyler Thornburg pitched a hitless seventh, walking one and striking out two. Hector Velazquez struck out one in a spotless eighth.
— It was almost another night of late-game dramatics.
One night after Mitch Moreland launched a three-run pinch-hit homer to cap a five-run comeback, the Red Sox nearly pulled off another comeback Saturday, this time in wackier fashion.
Trailing 6-2 heading into the ninth, Boston had two runners on with two outs when Mariners’ rookie third baseman Dylan Moore, making his first career start at the hot corner, made three consecutive errors. This allowed the Sox to plate three runs and put the tying run on third.
— It was a pretty quiet night at the dish for the Red Sox.
Boston had nine hits, with J.D. Martinez, Rafael Devers, and Jackie Bradley Jr. lacing multiple hits, but a Mitch Moreland double in the second inning was the team’s only extra base hit of the game.
Both Mookie Betts and Xander Bogaerts were 0-for-5. Bogaerts K’d three times, including a strikeout looking to end the game.
