Boston Red Sox bullpen troubles are worse than they appear, what moves can help fix the problem?
The Boston Red Sox blew a massive opportunity to beat the New York Yankees on Friday at Yankee Stadium. They were leading the game, 4-3 at the bottom of the eighth inning, before Yankees infielder DJ LeMahieu uncorked a home run to tie the game. A possible culprit? The Red Sox bullpen.
Manager Alex Cora pulled starting ace Nathan Eovaldi after five innings pitched, wherein he fanned seven batters, gave up five hits, two home runs, and three earned runs. He then replaced Eovaldi with young reliever Garrett Whitlock. Whitlock struck out four Yankees batsmen through 2 1/3 innings before a game-tying home run by LeMahieu.
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"DJ Delivers 🙌" - @ Yankees
The Red Sox skipper then called on lefty reliever Matt Strahm to finish the eighth inning. With the game still tied heading into the bottom of the ninth, he then chose the righty Hansel Robles, who had a shortened offseason stateside due to visa issues. The Puerto Rican then escaped a sticky situation when he escaped and punched out Giancarlo Stanton with two runners on base.
The game went on to extra innings, where Cora selected veteran relievers Ryan Brasier and Jake Diekman. The duo didn't issue an earned run, but the Yankees scored one after a Gleyber Torres flyout drove in Marwin Gonzalez. Cora, then, called upon, albeit questionably, young reliever Kutter Crawford. The Red Sox manager still had the more experienced Hirokazu Sawamura and Phillips Valdez on the pen but chose to go with the youngster out of Okeechobee, Florida.
Crawford then surrendered the game-winning walk-off RBI to the recent Yankee signing Josh Donaldson when he drove in ghost runner and fellow new acquisition Isiah Kiner-Falefa in the bottom of the 11th.
What can the Boston Red Sox management do to fix these woes?
Already dealing with the absence of ace starter Chris Sale, the Boston Red Sox bullpen will often be called upon a lot during the season. Manager Alex Cora used six relievers in a losing effort against the Yankees on Friday afternoon.
“You cannot take plays off. You cannot take days off. Because as we learned last year, every pitch, every play, every game counts” - Alex Cora
The tone has been set for 2022. 😤
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“You cannot take plays off. You cannot take days off. Because as we learned last year, every pitch, every play, every game counts” - Alex Cora H/T Tyler Milliken and Joe Giza
First, Boston Red Sox management can take a wait-and-see approach on who will click in their bullpen rotation. This, however, would, of course, sacrifice possible wins, and in a stacked American League East, it is a big risk to take. They are missing the services of All-Star reliever Matt Barnes, whose status is day-to-day with back tightness.
Second, the Red Sox can rely on veteran arms and, hopefully, ease in the youngsters as the season progresses. They still have the afforementioned Barnes, Diekman, Brasier, Strahm, Sawamura, and Robles to help ease in their young relievers in Austin Davis and Kutter Crawford.
Lastly, they can sign free agent relievers from the market if things turn out for the worst. Jesse Hahn, Shelby Miller, David Phelps, and Tyler Clippard are just some of the names that are still available on the market.