Don’t knock mighty ’pen
One hiccup can’t erase season of success
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — You have to be pretty miserable, a misanthrope through and through, to rag for more than 30 seconds on the Red Sox bullpen for yesterday’s eighth-inning meltdown.
Let’s not mince words, it was terrible.
The ol’ three walks and a game-winning grand slam combo is pretty hard to top as a formula for bullpensuccess, and Matt Barnes (two walks) and Robbie Scott (walk, slam) stood together on the losers’ stand.
But don’t let one horrible day at the office overshadow what’s been a very good season for this bullpen. The Sox had won 29 straight games in which they led after seven innings. This was their first failure of the season.
If it continues to happen, then we have troubles, and maybe this bullpen is falling back to earth and the phrase “smoke and mirrors” is going to creep into our copy when talking about the relievers.
I’m not close to that point, although my radar certainly is on higher alert than it was yesterday.
But if you are ready to bail, I feel badly for the loved ones who surround you. Actually, I’m skeptical if you have any.
“It’s certainly not a trend,” manager John Farrell said after the Sox’ 6-4 loss to the Royals. “That isn’t something we have dealt with very often, if at all. Particularly three consecutive walks to load the bases. That’s not who this pitching staff has shown to be.”
Yesterday was an outlier, an anomaly, a flashback to that time when your straight-A, all-time favorite child sheepishly admitted she bombed a final exam.
What are you going to do, disown the kid? Make her sleep in the shed? After the 20 pushups, you ask her to try harder next time.
“Bullpen’s been great all year, but it’s one of those things that we’ll forget about it and get right back at it on Friday,” said starter Drew Pomeranz, who saw a win go bye-bye as soon as Salvador Perez launched Scott’s 3-2 fastball into a cloud-scraping bomb.
Coming into the game, the Red Sox bullpen had the second-best ERA in the majors at 2.80. The relievers posted a 1.11 ERA in their past dozen games.
They also have been in full command. They had walked only 2.93 batters per nine innings, the secondlowest mark in the league.
Barnes actually has shown less command of late, which perhaps is a warning. He has six walks against three strikeouts in his past four outings. And Scott walked a batter for his third straight appearance.
Has the bullpen been overworked? No, their 217 innings is the lowest total in the league.
Are these the first warning signs of the apocalypse, a crack in the foundation of a highly functioning bullpen machine? Again, you have to be pretty anxietyridden to think so.
“Our guys have done a very good job of staying north and south on the plate versus east and west as much to move the ball around,” Farrell said. “We’ve elevated pitches above the strike zone versus trying to go to the corners with as much frequency . . . but we missed above the strike zone a number of times today.”
There were a lot of eastwest misses all right, with Scott in particular missing by wide margins. So good against left-handed hitters for much of the season, Scott was brought into the game after Two-Walk Barnes demonstrated beyond a shadow of doubt he brought nothing to the ballpark. Scott faced left-handed hitter Eric Hosmer and walked him on four pitches.
“It comes down to I’ve got to do better. Coming into the situation today, obviously I can’t walk Hosmer on four straight,” Scott said.
Farrell left Scott in against the righty Perez, who had shown limited power against lefties of late. So much for that trend. “Obviously falling behind is not something you want to do in that situation,” said Scott, whose first two pitches to Perez missed the strike zone. “To get back in the count, you’ve got to unfortunately throw fastballs, and he fouls a couple of good pitches off at 3-2 and (I tried) to go inside. . . . It was probably left over the middle of the plate.”
If yesterday made you put up your guard when it comes to the bullpen, that’s fine. Put the relievers on notice. Just don’t put them in timeout. They didn’t do anything to deserve it.