Dombrowski deserves high 5 for deal

Red Sox general manager Dave Dombrowski traded for a No. 5 starter last right before Chris Sale took the mound at Fenway Park and pitched like one. Again.

This time, Sale resembled a fifth starter having an off night.

Sale, the ace on paper, hasn’t fared nearly as well on the mound. Struggling with his command all night, the lanky lefty didn’t make it out of the fifth inning, surrendered five earned runs on seven hits threw just 57 strikes among his 92 pitches, losing to the Dodgers, 11-2.

In so doing, Sale curbed the enthusiasm created by the Sox winning five in a row heading into the night and adding a veteran to shore up the back end of the rotation.

Acquiring veteran rightplay

hander Andrew Cashner and cash from the Orioles for a couple of prospects not close to reaching the big leagues, general manager Dave Dombrowski did what he had failed to do in the offseason and first three-and-a-half months of the season: He made the defending World Champions better, and not a little better, quite a bit better.

So even on an evening when the Sox suffered a series-evening loss to the Dodgers, the day’s ledger swung to the positive.

When a ball club stays on a treadmill that runs beneath everyone’s expectations and management’s unwavering response is “We just need to better,” that doesn’t take pressure off the players, it adds it.

Dombrowski relieved pressure on every player in the clubhouse and on the manager with a trade finalized a couple of hours before Saturday night’s first pitch.

Sale was unable to keep the good vibes flowing on a night his record dropped to 3-9 and his ERA inched up to 4.27. He is averaging just 5.9 innings per start. Dombrowski can’t help the Sox with that end of the rotation. The solution must come from Sale, but the GM did repair the other end.

Cashner, 32, slides seamlessly into the No. 5 starter spot, a hole that ranks high on the reasons the bullpen was overtaxed in the first half of the season.

In a crowded wild-card race in which every win is crucial, the timing of the deal couldn’t be any better. Cashner makes his first start Tuesday at Fenway Park vs. the Blue Jays, a team he owned in his first two starts against them this season.

Cashner went 2-0 and allowed just one run and 10 baserunners in 13 innings vs. the Jays. Another bonus: The Red Sox don’t have to face Cashner (1-0, 3.27 in two starts against them) next weekend in Baltimore.

Yankee killer? Not so much. In three starts vs. the American League East leaders, Cashner went 0-2 with a 6.19 ERA, but it’s what he does for the Red Sox, not what he has done against any specific opponent that made the move such a significant one.

A club with the highest payroll in baseball shouldn’t find itself relying on the bullpen to fill one of the five spots in the rotation, but that’s where the Red Sox found themselves too often and this puts an end to that, provided everyone stays healthy.

Cashner’s in the midst of a terrific season. He went 9-3 with a 3.83 ERA for the Orioles. That’s a .750 winning percentage, which means the rest of the staff posted a .231 winning percentage. Impressive.

Cashner’s been nearly as good this season as he was atrocious for the Orioles a year ago, when he went 4-15 with a 5.29 ERA.

The deal crushed any notion the Red Sox might have slipped into seller mode, which looked highly unlikely anyway given the recent surge.

“We’re trying to win,” Dombrowski said. “We have a chance to win. We know we have to play better, but also we’re trying to rebuild our system.”

So it’s not win-at-all costs, as in parting with multiple top-tier prospects. Dombrowski wisely rejected those trade offers.

“With Cashner, it gives us five proven veteran starters we know can pitch well,” Dombrowski said. “(Nathan) Eovaldi in the bullpen we think helps us a great deal, gives us a guy we think will pitch very well out there and is eager to do it.”

Barring a setback, Eovaldi appears on course to join the bullpen later this month. Dombrowski has 18 days before the trade deadline to try to juice the bullpen with one more arm, something he’s open to doing, but not in a way that would significantly strip the farm system.

Even before Eovaldi returns, the Sox bullpen just became better, courtesy of a reliable fifth starter lightening the load.