Cora remaining coy on closer
BALTIMORE — After an unusual 48-hour midseason break, the Red Sox returned to Camden Yards on Saturday night for the second game of their series against Baltimore and the eighth game of the season.
And we still don’t know who the closer is — at least not officially.
The Sox won four of their first seven games without a save situation popping up. Alex Cora has been coy about who his closer will be since the early days of spring training and remained so when asked before the game if Matt Barnes or Adam Ottavino had the job.
“You know what? They both are throwing the ball well,” Cora said. “I’m not going to jinx myself and name somebody, but the way Barnsie is throwing the ball has been amazing. We haven’t been able to use Adam that much.
“I still feel very confident with them. I think the structure is falling into place.”
Barnes came into Saturday’s game having retired 12 of the 13 batters he faced, nine by strikeout, while throwing 39 of 48 pitches for strikes.
Barnes smoked three Orioles
hitters in the ninth inning on Thursday, coming a pitch away from an immaculate inning before Freddy Galvis fouled off a two-strike curveball with two outs.
That Barnes looked annoyed was a sign of how good he feels about the way he’s throwing.
Barnes has regained faith in his fastball, throwing it 65% of the time, up from, 54% last season and 47% in 2019.
The days of Barnes throwing one curveball after another trying to get hitters to chase are gone. He’s attacking now.
“It’s not as erratic, right? He’s pounding the strike zone,” Cora said. “There’s something about him this year. He bought into the concept that he can put guys away in the strike zone.
“You look at the numbers the last few years and there’s proof he can get them in the strike zone. No more of that 0-2 fastball up, 0-2 breaking ball down, and all of a sudden it’s 2-2. It seems like he’s more aggressive.”
Like many teams, the Sox have been preaching high fastballs and low breaking balls as a way to counter the uppercut swings most hitters have adopted.
But Barnes was often too high with his fastball and throwing curves in the dirt. Now those pitches are forcing the hitter to react.
In the end, who has the lofty title of closer probably doesn’t matter. The Sox won the World Series in 2013 with Koji Uehara becoming the closer in late June after Joel Hanrahan and Andrew Bailey were lost to injuries.
The 2018 champions got 42 saves from Craig Kimbrel in the regular season, then survived a series of shaky outings from him during the postseason. When it came time to finish off the Dodgers in Game 5 of the World Series, Cora went to Chris Sale.
Ottavino probably could handle the job, but circumstances limited him to facing only eight hitters over the first seven games and four reached.
Regardless, my feeling is Ottavino will be a short-timer with the Sox.
Chaim Bloom obtained him from the Yankees in January by agreeing to pay nearly all of his $9 million salary for this season. The Yankees had to include 23-year-old right-hander Frank German, a legitimate prospect, to make the deal.
The next move will probably be to flip Ottavino for more prospects and get even more for that money.
Boston has the depth to cover for a trade. Hirokazu Sawamura has shown promise, and while there’s work to be done with Darwinzon Hernandez, the ability is there.
Garrett Whitlock is probably bestsuited for multiple innings, but you’d trust his stuff in the eighth inning based on how he has pitched since spring training.
They’ll also get Ryan Brasier back at some point and could shift a starter into the bullpen once Sale returns from the injured list.
“We can still get better,” Cora said.