Weekend proves Sox’ rotation in trouble
BOSTON – The Red Sox feature a starting rotation that has a lot of issues.
The startling regression from Nathan Eovaldi’s strong showing on Opening Day continued Sunday as Ryan Weber – he of 16 starts with the PawSox in 2019 – was cuffed around by the Orioles. Weber couldn’t get even get through four innings, nor did he come close to fooling the Baltimore hitters.
Manager Ron Roenicke deemed enough was enough after the righthander surrendered his second home run on the afternoon.
Weber’s final line: 3.2 innings, six runs, six hits, two walks, zero strikeouts. The 29-yearold went from feel-good story after making the Opening Day roster for the first time in his 11-year pro career to flaming out against a Baltimore outfit that’s held the title of “Worst Team in MLB” for a few years now. His performance in the rubber game against the Birds makes the struggles that Martin Perez endured Saturday (four earned runs in five innings) seem not as troubling.
“Obviously when you’re in a lot of hitter’s counts, you’re going to groove some pitchers. When I got ahead, I didn’t stay ahead,” said Weber after the Sox dropped their first series of 2020 after a 7-4 loss to the O’s. “As you saw, they were comfortable at the plate.”
“He got it over the big part of the plate too many times,” said Roenicke.
On Saturday, the Red Sox employed the services of three relievers after Perez was pulled. On Sunday, four pitchers were called upon after Weber walked off the mound. At this rate, Boston’s bullpen will be taxed by mid-August. Fortunately, the culprit will be easy to spot.
In a 60-game sprint of a regular season where every contest has that NFL Sunday make-or-break vibe to it, the failure of the starters as a collective unit can set the table for disaster. The scary part is that Boston has yet to reach what was widely believed to be the true soft underbelly of the rotation – the No. 4 and No. 5 spots.
Even scarier: the ace the Red Sox were counting on heading into the season will continue to remain on the shelf.
Eduardo Rodriguez confirmed Sunday that he’s gone from fighting COVID-19 to dealing with a heart condition known as myocarditis. The lefthander admits he is unsure how long it will take him to get his arm ready once he receives clearance to start throwing bullpen sessions again.
Translation: don’t expect to see Rodriguez on the mound any time soon. His absence is problematic in Boston’s quest to piece together a decent rotation.
In the case of the two starting spots the Red Sox need to get through before Eovaldi takes the ball again, it would be best to grab the nearest railing and hold it tight. Neither Josh Osich nor Matt Hall are expected to go deep over the next two days against the New York Mets. Osich starts Monday while Hall goes on Tuesday. In both cases, the bullpen will be on standby.
Acknowledging the Red Sox are dealing with significant injuries, it’s pretty alarming to have so much uncertainty this early in the season surrounding the rotation. After the struggles of Perez and Weber on back-to-back days, it might be time to press the panic button and place a red flag on every game that’s not started by Eovaldi.
To count on just one starter through every turn … the fact that Major League Baseball expanded this year’s playoff format to eight teams in each league may not end up making a bit of difference for the American League outfit that located in Back Bay.
Memo to J.D. Martinez, Xander Bogaerts, and the rest of the Red Sox bats – it’s imperative that you load up on runs in order to somewhat mask the deficiencies of a starting rotation unit that has a legit chance to go down as one of the worst in team history. Whatever you do, don’t look at the scoreboard. The last two days, the Sox trailed by scores of 5-0 and 6-1.
“Hopefully we can get (the offense) to plug away and do what they do best and bring in some guys who can put up some zeros,” said Roenicke.
Give Chaim Bloom credit. The new Chief Baseball Officer isn’t letting the grass grow beneath his feet when it comes to finding ways to improve Boston’s pitching inventory. Sunday’s game was in the seventh inning when the team announced it had acquired Robert Stock off waivers from the Phillies. Stock has been a reliever for much of his major league career. He’s never logged more than three innings in any one of his 68 career appearances with the Padres.
It behooves Bloom to keep checking the waiver wire on a daily basis. Granted, you’re not always going to find rock-solid options, but maybe you get lucky and pick up someone who’s able to bring some much-needed stability.
Until some sort of positive development occurs, it’s open season as far as questioning the quality of Boston’s starting rotation.