Blank look sinks Sox
2nd effort enough for Jays
The Red Sox were held scoreless for the first time this season last night, losing to the Blue Jays, 3-0.
If there is such a thing as productive losses, this was one of them.
None of their relievers had to throw a single pitch and last year’s Cy Young winner, Rick Porcello, showed dramatic improvement in one very important measure, finally using his sinker as his go-to pitch.
The bullpen desperately needed the time off. Manager John Farrell had used 48 innings out of his ’pen through the first 14 games, a pace of 555 innings over 162 games. In comparison, the Red Sox used only 470 innings out of their ’pen last year.
The starting rotation has been too inconsistent. As overpowering as Chris Sale has been, the Red Sox still entered the day ranked 29th out of 30 teams with a 5.31 ERA from their starters. Four of the five — all but Sale — came in with ERAs over 5.00.
Call it a miracle that the team has a winning record (9-6) with a struggling rotation and an offense that’s last in the majors with just seven home runs.
“We have to pitch deeper into games,” Sox pitching coach Carl Willis said matter of factly.
Sale is on the bump today, and if the Sox can string together two deep outings from their starting pitchers, that’s momentum they badly need.
Porcello wasn’t perfect, allowing three unearned runs on six hits, one walk and two errors that led to a three-run second inning. And there were too many loud outs that center fielder Andrew Benintendi had to chase down at the warning track.
But Porcello lasted seven innings and finally had the confidence to go back to his sinker after three poor starts in which he was leaning on his four-seamer.
He recorded eight ground ball outs and eight fly ball outs, so it wasn’t a perfect mix, but 33 sinkers to just 16 four-seamers was a large upgrade from his average of 35 percent four-seamers and 23 percent sinkers heading into the game.
“I had to get back to the sinker,” Porcello said. “I threw a lot of four-seamers in my last start, didn’t have a whole lot of command, not a good separation between my sinker and my four-seamer. So that was my primary focus.”
It was the same issue he went through in 2015, his worst career season.
“I think some of the struggles he experienced in 2015, while it’s tough to go through, how he came out of that is a reassurance to him that when that situation occurs, we know how to fix it,” said Willis.
The offense was flat against Jays lefty Francisco Liriano, who entered the game with a 9.00 ERA. As easy as the Sox have made it look against right-handed pitching this year, they’ve been mostly quiet against lefties.
They scattered just four singles in 20 at-bats against Liriano, dropping their season average to .252 against lefties. They’re hitting over .300 against righties.
Porcello’s scoreline could’ve been better had Pablo Sandoval not thrown one away and Mitch Moreland botched the next play in the Jay’s three-run second inning. It was the only inning anybody crossed home plate.
Porcello retired 15 of the next 17 batters.
After helping Porcello get back on track, Willis needs to do the same with Steven Wright (8.36 ERA), Drew Pomeranz (5.23) and Eduardo Rodriguez (4.76). Rodriguez returned from the paternity list last night and threw a scoreless inning of relief, though he’s still expected to start on Sunday against the Baltimore Orioles.
“I think Steven Wright, there are times knuckleball pitchers go through periods where they’re having trouble with the spin,” Willis said. “I thought he made an adjustment and it really started to come in the third inning of the Tampa Bay game. Hopefully he can carry that into the next outing. Eddie, he’s young and really pitched effectively against Pittsburgh. His pitch count got up. That’s the thing with him, just managing his pitch count a little bit better but his stuff is obviously going to play.
“We feel comfortable and confident that all our starters have the ability to get us deep into games and on a consistent basis.”
Somebody in the rotation other than Sale will have to step up soon. The bullpen (2.25 ERA) desperately needs it.
“They’ve been great,” Willis said. “We’ve leaned on them hard. We do need to give them a blow and it was huge tonight that Rick got through that seventh inning. As good as the bullpen has been, we can’t lean on them for the amount of innings we’ve asked them to pitch over an entire season.
“These things go in cycles at times. It’ll turn around.”