The Boston Red Sox bullpen recently underwent plenty of shuffling and the changes kept coming Monday.
The Red Sox placed reliever Richard Bleier on the 15-day injured list due to left shoulder inflammation and recalled Brennan Bernardino from Triple-A Worcester prior to Boston’s series opener against the Los Angeles Angels. The stint for Bernardino, who owns a 3.65 ERA in 11 appearances with Boston this season, with the WooSox wasn’t long as he had just been sent down last week.
Bleier hasn’t been an impactful piece of the bullpen during his first season wearing the Red Sox uniform. The 36-year-old posted a 5.85 ERA and allowed 24 hits in 20 innings pitched. He pitched 1 1/3 innings in Sunday’s 7-0 loss to the San Diego Padres, allowing one run on one hit. The veteran left-hander struggled to get left-handed hitters out as well as they are 12-for-28 (.429 batting average) off Bleier on the campaign.
Boston will still have two lefties in their bullpen by recalling Bernardino and pairing him with Joely RodrÃguez, who made his Red Sox debut last week.
This might not be the last of the changes for Boston’s bullpen, either. Red Sox manager Alex Cora has some looming decisions to make about the starting rotation with Garrett Whitlock set to rejoin the club and start Saturday against the Arizona Diamondbacks.
