Bullpen a sore spot in otherwise strong start to Red Sox season

When it comes to the performance of their starting pitchers, the Red Sox have nothing to complain about. Through the first seven games of the season, the Sox rotation sports a collective 0.86 ERA and no starter has allowed more than one earned run to date.

The bullpen, however, is another story.

Though the Sox have the best record in the American League, the bullpen has hardly been a bright spot. Even in Thursday’s 12-inning comeback win over Tampa Bay, Carson Smith allowed two runs in the eighth inning, forcing the Sox to have to rally in the ninth just to force extra innings.

For Smith, it marked his second eighth-inning implosion of the season. He was part of the tag-team on Opening Day, against the very same Rays, that helped turn a 4-0 lead into a 6-4 defeat. In fact, the Sox bullpen has allowed runs in the eighth on four occasions in the first seven games.

Though it’s an admittedly small sample size, that trend can’t continue if the Sox are to contend in the American League East. No team can succeed without a reasonably dependable bullpen.

Though manager Alex Cora has maintained that he’s being guided by matchups in the early going, it looks more like an experimental phases in which he’s attempting to determine whom he – and can’t – trust in high-leverage spots.

Smith, who was expected to be the team’s primary set-up option, has struggled mightily in the first week of the season. Perhaps that’s to be expected, now that Smith is beginning his first full season since 2015, having undergone Tommy John surgery in 2016 and missing most of last year.

His blend of a heavy sinker and biting slider was expected to offer a different look from of the team’s other late-inning power arms, most of which offer a four-seam fastball and curveball mix. Additionally, Smith’s ability to pitch down in the zone with his sinker was supposed to induce ground balls, and by extension, the promise of rally-killing double plays.

But too often in the first week, Smith has failed to locate with his pitches, and, as a result, has been prone to allowing extra-base hits.  In the season opener, he missed up in the zone to Denard Span and yielded a bases-clearing triple. On Thursday, it was more of the same when he left a pitch up for Matt Duffy, who, with the aid of a strong wind, golfed it into the center field bleachers for a two-run homer.

In time, Smith should be fine. He has a history of success in the role (a 2.31 ERA and 1.014 WHIP and 11.8 strikeouts per nine innings in 2015 with Seattle) and pitchers tend to be stronger and more effective in their second season back from Tommy John surgery.

Among those who’ve worked in high-leverage situations, Matt Barnes has been the most effective, twice contributing scoreless eighth innings. But Barnes has also struggled with throwing strikes, having walked four in 3.2 innings of work.

The same can be said for Joe Kelly, who extreme velocity is often unset by fits of wildness.  Kelly has walked four in 3.1 innings so far.

Cora has been unafraid to trust lefty Bobby Poyner, the rookie with no previous experience above Double A. With Barnes, Kelly and Heath Hembree all available Thursday in the 10^th and 11^th, Poyner worked two full innings and struck out three to gain his first major league win.

Still, exposing him to too many righthanded hitters at this point would seem an unnecessary risk. In the third game of the season, after Poyner has retired the lefty-swinging Kevin Kiermaier for the final out in the seventh, Cora chose to send him back out for a second inning of work to start the eighth and saw Poyner surrender a homer to Carlos Gomez, a righty.

Before too long, Cora will have another proven late-inning weapon when Tyler Thornburg is activated near the end of the month.

Until then, there will be undoubtedly be some additional trial and error with the bullpen. Since it’s unreasonable for the Sox to hope to have their starters continue pitching to a sub-1.00 ERA, it would behoove them to get their relievers straightened out – and sooner rather than later.