The concerns about the Boston Red Sox pitching staff proved to be short-lived.
Red Sox pitchers across the board experienced struggles over the tail end of July and early August. Starters were struggling to complete five innings, and even All-Star closer Matt Barnes was being roughed up in the latter stages of games. But as we shift closer to the home stretch of the regular season, pitching is starting to look like an area of strength for Boston.
Sox starters own a collective 4-1 record with a 2.39 ERA over the club's last nine games. Over that stretch we saw the return of Chris Sale as well as some tweaks to the bullpen.
As currently constructed, Alex Cora is confident in his full slate of arms.
"We feel like we have a complete pitching staff, and also with Garrett (Richards) and MartÃn (Pérez) throwing the ball out of the bullpen, we’re going to count on them in certain situations," Cora told reporters after Sunday's win over the Orioles, per MLB.com. "We believe every five days, we're going to have a good guy on the mound, and also in the bullpen, we're going to be set up to use different guys. We're feeling better about our pitching staff."
Eduardo Rodriguez, who did not allow an earned run over six innings in the series finale against the Baltimore Orioles, echoed his manager's sentiment.
"I'm feeling really good about the rotation," Rodriguez told reporters. "We have our ace back in Chris Sale. You guys know that, everybody knows that. We're feeling really good the way we're going as a team starting, and it's getting better and better and will get better."
The Red Sox will try to keep it rolling on the mound Tuesday when they take on the New York Yankees in a doubleheader in the Bronx.
