Rick Porcello knows a thing or two about getting off to a rough starts.
The Red Sox pitcher finished his first year in Boston with a 9-15 record, but turned it around in 2016 when he went 22-4 and won the American League Cy Young Award. The next two seasons were back and forth, finishing 2017 with a 11-7 record and 2018 going 17-7.
Boston has struggled in the opening stages of 2019, and among the biggest issues was starting pitching. Porcello went 0-3 in his first three starts with a sky-high 11.12 ERA. But he’s turned things around of late, going 2-0 in last three games, including throwing eight shutout innings with as many strikeouts in Tuesday’s 5-1 victory over the Oakland Athletics at Fenway Park.
And, as it turns out, his experience with slow starts has helped him get back on track.
“It’s not the first time I’ve been roughed up before. It won’t be the last,” the pitcher said on NESN’s Red Sox postgame coverage. “You’ve got to be professional about it. You’ve got to have that inner confidence that you’re going to find your stuff. We’ve been working hard at it.”
The right-hander’s ERA dipped from 7.43 to 5.52 after his stellar Tuesday start. And if he continues the upward trend, it’ll be a major boost to a Boston team that is in desperate need for some consistency.
