Seemingly the only question mark surrounding the Boston Red Sox heading into the 2019 Major League Baseball season was the bullpen.
But through the first 11 games of the new campaign, Boston’s relief pitching has been one of the lone bright spots for a club that’s struggled out of the gate. Go figure.
Ryan Brasier, Matt Barnes and Brandon Workman have combined to toss 14 1/3 scoreless innings in which they’ve only allowed four hits. All three were stellar in the Red Sox’s 1-0 win over the Arizona Diamondbacks on Sunday, which saw Barnes toss near-perfect seventh and eighth innings while Brasier locked down his second save on the season.
While the aforementioned trio has logged some important playoff innings in their careers, this season likely will be the first they’re routinely called on in high-leverage situations. But what the group lacks in experience they make up for in confidence.
“I’m not impressed,” Brasier said, per the Boston Herald’s Jason Mastrodonato. “Because we all knew what we had to do coming out of spring training. Everybody was talking about how we weren’t going to do this and that. I think everybody in the bullpen kind of used it as motivation and came out and did we do.”
The bullpen success arguably was the greatest silver lining that came out of the season-opening trip, which saw the Sox go 3-8. It’s only a matter of time before the bats really wake up, and the starting rotation ranks among the best in the big leagues when performing at the level its capable of. So if Boston’s relief pitching can keep it going, the reigning World Series champs will put themselves in great position to go back-to-back.
