Starters, relievers keys to Red Sox' eight-game roll

TAMPA — Over the last week, the Red Sox have beaten a good team (Cleveland), a bad team (Chicago) and an average team (Tampa Bay). The quality of the opponent hasn’t seemed to matter.

They’ve won at home, and they’ve won on the road. They’ve won by hitting homers (with 11 homers in the first six wins of their current streak) and they’ve won without hitting any (zero in the last two games, giving them 20 homerless-wins, the most in baseball).

Mostly, however, they’ve done it from the mound. In six of their last eight wins, they’ve received quality starts from their starting pitchers. And when they’ve needed it, they’ve gotten superb work from their bullpen, too, which now has strung together 18 consecutive scoreless innings.

The last time the Sox had a winning streak this long – last September, when they reeled off 11 in a row on the way to wrapping up the division – pitching was the common denominator.

So it is, again.

“We’ve continued to pitch consistently,’’ said John Farrell after the Sox dismissed the Rays, 8-2. “And that will continue to be the key for us. The way that our starters are stringing games together, the run the bullpen has been on all year and even more so currently. We set the tone from the mound and we’re going to have to continue to do that.’’

Rick Porcello was virtually unhittable for the first five innings, allowing just two base runners and one hit, retiring 14 hitters in succession. When he faltered some in the sixth and allowed two solo homers in the span of three hitters, the Sox had already built him a 6-0 lead.

Porcello got a quick hook after 82 pitches in the seventh, but three different relievers stitched together the final nine outs without allowing a baserunner.

Just like last September, the Red Sox are showing signs that they may be ready to get some separation between themselves and the rest of the division. And that’s not a coincidence.

“The similarity,’’ said Farrell, quizzed about the two streaks, “is the pitching. (Last September), we won a lot of low-run games. And tonight, with just a couple of extra-base hits, we were able to scratch some runs together. But we continue to put up zeroes. That’s the common thread through these past eight games.

“It begins with pitching and that’s been encouraging to see.’’

Indeed, though new arrivals Eduardo Nunez (1.222 OPS) and Rafael Devers (.949 OPS) have been critically important to the offense and have added energy to the lineup, the starters and relievers remain the key. Boston’s starters have the lowest ERA in the American League and the relievers have the lowest ERA in all of baseball.

For the first three-and-a-half months, the Red Sox looked at times like a team that couldn’t get out of second gear, suffering from the common malady that strikes all teams at some point: when they hit, they didn’t pitch, and when they pitched they didn’t hit.

Now that they’re pitching as well as they have all season, the rest seems to be falling into place. But the stolen bases and the defensive work are essentially complementary pieces at this point.

With dependable starters night after night and a trustworthy bullpen in reserve, you can almost see the Red Sox’ confidence growing daily.

“I think we’ve always remained confident in the ability and talent that we have in the room,’’ Porcello said. “When you don’t go out there and don’t play your best baseball and don’t win ballgames, I think it’s more frustrating than anything else. I think it was just frustration. We weren’t doing the things we wanted to do.

“We’re kind of starting to come out of that a little bit. We’re playing better. We’re on a nice little roll right now. We just have to keep it going.’’

The next few weeks will present more challenges. Between now and Labor Day, the Red Sox will play the two of the best teams in the league a total of 15 times —10 games with the Yankees and five with the Indians. By then, we’ll know a lot more about them and what they might be capable of doing in October.

Until then, as always, it’s all about the pitching.