The Boston Red Sox certainly are looking for extended work from their starting rotation to get them through the next stretch. Or else, they'll completely exasperate their bullpen.
Save for a great start from Nathan Eovaldi on Monday, the starters have endured a poor streak that lasted about twice through the rotation. The bats and bullpen, for the most part, have picked Boston up during that stretch, but that can't be sustainable.
Wherever they can, the Red Sox need to preserve their relievers. Manager Alex Cora is cognizant of that, but has faith they can make it happen.
"We should be OK," Cora said over Zoom ahead of Wednesday's game against the Braves in Atlanta. "Obviously we would like to stay away from certain guys. This is something that obviously early in the season you don't take into consideration, but we play ourselves into these conversations and you got to take care of some guys now so when in the next week, next month, you know, August and September, they're OK. And (Matt Barnes) is one of them, and now we need to start taking care of him. New York we used him very aggressively. (Tuesday) we had to use him. Maybe we stay away from him today so we can maximize the off day (Thursday.) Maybe not, but we need to start taking care of him, taking care of (Josh Taylor) and Darwinzon (Hernández), Adam (Ottavino), everybody in the bullpen. Because we do believe that we're gonna be in the hunt the rest of the season. We've put ourselves in this situation, and other guys have to step up."
Unfortunately, Boston hasn't been able to pluck an arm from Triple-A Worcester in order to give someone a rest due to injuries with minor leaguers, but did add reliever Yacksel Rios to the roster Wednesday after a trade with the Seattle Mariners.
