Red Sox Starters Still Holding Up Notable Production In Trends

The Boston Red Sox dropped their first two games at Fenway Park after a strong 7-3 road trip on the West Coast to open the year.

While the ball club has had a few slips in recent games, Boston’s biggest question mark entering the season keeps on rolling: the starting rotation.

Brayan Bello and Kutter Crawford started the third turn through the rotation when the Red Sox came home to face the Baltimore Orioles. While neither right-hander earned the win, both provided solid outings, allowing just one earned run over 10 1/3 innings.

Through 12 games, the Red Sox hold a 1.42 ERA for the starting rotation to pace the sport, which also marked a tie for the lowest in American League history for the live ball era, according to Red Sox senior manager of media relations and baseball information J.P. Long.

Bello’s one tough outing against the Oakland Athletics shot his ERA up to 4.11. The rest of the Red Sox staff sports an ERA under 1.00. Improved pitch sequences and overall durability under Andrew Bailey have brought the internal improvement that Boston desperately needed after their lone starting addition in Lucas Giolito suffered a season-ending injury in spring training.

As a whole, Boston holds MLB’s best overall ERA at 2.08, which only exceeded 2.00 after the Red Sox bullpen allowed seven runs in Wednesday’s loss to Baltimore. Nonetheless, the group keeps piecing together impact innings on the mound.

The question moving forward, however, will be sustaining quality outings with a healthy staff. Nick Pivetta already landed on the injured list with a flexor strain after his second start. Boston has some depth but has to keep its impact arms fresh to consistently get through five innings on a nightly basis.

Garrett Whitlock gets the next shot to keep the Red Sox on this trend, sporting a 0.96 ERA, when he faces the Orioles on Thursday night at Fenway Park. First pitch is set for 7:10 p.m. ET. You can watch the game, plus an hour of pregame coverage, on NESN.