It’s time to experiment
Farrell seeks bullpen formula
After scoring two runs in the sixth inning, the Red Sox had their lead, and John Farrell had his laboratory.
Games like yesterday will be the manager’s most important challenge over the season’s final 21⁄2 weeks. Win the division, obviously, but along the way gather information on how best to finish off a close game when the Red Sox starter has left plenty of outs on the table.
That’s exactly the kind of game the Sox are going to have to win in October.
“There’s a short list of those things (to figure out) right now, yes,” Farrell said. “And that’s a fallout of some internal conversations, part of (finding) the hot hand or part of that information gathering. It’s balanced with a pennant race and the importance of finishing out games as best possible. But, as it starts to build toward these last remaining games, yeah, there’s some of that that’s going on currently.”
The Red Sox have scored the fewest runs of any American League team currently in playoff position. That means they rarely win with a blowout. They also have only one starter who consistently carries a lead into the late innings. That means there are always extra outs for the bullpen.
Beyond Craig Kimbrel and Addison Reed, who’s Farrell to trust when it’s 3-1 in the seventh inning, and Drew Pomeranz has already thrown 111 pitches?
Yesterday, he went first to Brandon Workman, whose return to relevance has faded a bit in the past month or so. Workman walked the only batter he faced.
When the Athletics pinch hit, Farrell decided to matchup with lefty Robby Scott, who did his job with a strikeout.
Farrell then jumped straight to Reed, his best set-up man, in hopes that Reed and Kimbrel could combine for the final five outs. Even after Reed needed 23 pitches to get through the seventh, Farrell was going to stick with that plan until the Red Sox tacked on three runs in the bottom half.
He ended up using Joe Kelly in the eighth — Kelly gave up a leadoff home run — before Kimbrel pitched a scoreless ninth.
For the day, it was mission accomplished, though it did little to resolve Workman’s and Kelly’s recent inconsistency. And it offered no explanation for the fact Matt Barnes has pitched so well at home and so poorly on the road. It provided no new information about September call-up Austin Maddox’ unexpected emergence as a playoff roster consideration, and it certainly did nothing to shed light on David Price’s new bullpen role after he was activated from the disabled list as a potential two-inning weapon.
It’s up to Farrell to put that bullpen puzzle together, because yesterday will not be the last time he finds himself in just such a situation. In fact, this Red Sox team is almost designed to put him in that spot quite often.
Pomeranz has been excellent — his 3.28 ERA ranks seventh in the AL — but he’s remained limited. Only seven of his 29 starts have lasted more than six innings, and only one has continued all the way through the seventh.
Of the 32 pitchers to make at least 29 starts this season, only three have thrown fewer innings than Pomeranz.
Eduardo Rodriguez has thrown more than six innings only twice this season. Doug Fister has done it five times, but he’s also lasted fewer than five innings four times. Rick Porcello has pitched more than six innings 14 times, but he’s taken the loss in half of those.
Chris Sale leads the majors in innings pitched and has averaged nearly seven innings per start, but he can’t start more than three times in a seven-game series. And the only holdovers from last year’s playoff bullpen are Kimbrel, Barnes and Kelly.
That leaves a lot of wiggle room, and beyond the acquisition of Reed, this season has offered little in terms of consistent answers for bridging that gap between starter and closer.
“We can’t turn away from what has gone on the entire season and the full body of work,” Farrell said. “But there may be additional weight on these final two weeks, but I can’t say it would revamp a whole bridging to Kimbrel.”
Farrell acknowledged that he’s going to spend some of these last 16 games experimenting. He’s not planning to change closers, and Reed will almost certainly remain the go-to setup man, but there’s more to figure out, and I count 12 relievers with some chance of winning a postseason roster spot.
Is Maddox a real possibility? Is Price an unexpected sort of difference-maker? Are Barnes and Kelly as good as they were in the first half? Are Blaine Boyer and Heath Hembree as good as they’ve been lately?
There are still late-season games for Farrell to win, but there are also lateinning lessons for him to learn.