Struggling Red Sox Reliever Speaks Out After Demotion To Minors

Sunday was a brutal day for the Red Sox pitching staff.

Boston’s lopsided loss to Houston at Fenway Park started with an injury to starter James Paxton, who strained his right calf after only five pitches. In turn, Alex Cora was forced to deploy five arms — including Dominic Smith — to work through the final 8 1/3 innings of the series finale.

Those relievers were tagged for 10 runs, which allowed the Astros to cruise to a road sweep. Four were surrendered by Brennan Bernardino, who gave up four hits (two home runs) across only 1 1/3 innings of work. It marked the fourth time since the start of July that Bernandino allowed multiple runs in an outing, and Boston responded by optioning the left-hander to Triple-A.

Bernandino addressed his lingering struggles after Sunday’s game.

“I’m just not making pitches,” he told reporters, per MassLive. “And some of the pitches I have made have been hit. It’s just not going my way right now.”

In some fairness to Bernardino, seemingly no Red Sox pitcher has seen things go their way of late. Boston only has limited the opposition to four runs or less once this month so far, which is a big reason why it owned a sub-.500 August record entering Monday.

The Red Sox will try to start turning the tides when they open a three-game series against the Texas Rangers at Fenway Park. Brayan Bello is slated to toe the rubber after a brief stint on the paternity list.