McAdam: Red Sox intent on piecing together starting rotation for now

ATLANTA -- Labor Day usually signals the beginning of the stretch run, the beginning of the end to a long six-month baseball season. For first-place teams, it's ordinarily the time to get their house in order and prepare for the arrival of the playoffs.

For now, however, the Red Sox can't focus on such matters. They're too busy wheezing and gasping, with their starting rotation in tatters. Every day is a matter of survival, of somehow getting through the day and moving on.

It's been a slog, frankly. Over the last 10 games -- or the last two times through the rotation -- Red Sox starters have combined to pitch 36.1 innings. That means, in a typical game, they're not getting a second out in the fourth inning.

Now, some of that has been due to injury and other external forces they can't control, like the weather. David Price, for instance, came out of his last start on Wednesday when he was struck on the left wrist by a comebacker. And Nathan Eovaldi's last outing, Friday in Chicago, was cut short by Mother Nature. After he threw two innings, rain delayed the Red Sox-White Sox game for better than two hours in the middle of the next inning.

These things happen. But they're happening at a time when the Red Sox would like their starting pitcher to be a little more clarified, a bit more stable. It may be September, but the Boston starting rotation is on fumes, the way it might be during stretches of scorching weather and not enough off-days in, say, late July or early August.

So, they make it up as they go along. Eovaldi, pitching on just two days' rest because the Sox didn't have any other dependable options, got them -- wait for it -- 11 outs, or the average number for the starters in this gruesome 10-day stretch.

Then, the Sox started a relay race out of the bullpen, with one reliever after another handing the baton to the next man up. When it was over, when the Red Sox had secured an 8-2 win over the Braves on Monday, they had utilized eight pitchers in all, including seven relievers. Of those seven, none got more than three outs, and some got as few as one. Had the team not recently augmented its bullpen with some Pawtucket call-ups as rosters expand, they would have used every one of their bullpen options except Tyler Thornburg.

Included in the assembly-line approach to 27 outs were some harrowing moments. Brandon Workman took over for starter Nathan Eovaldi -- who must have had flashbacks to his time with Rays and the concept of the "opener'' -- and inherited runners at first and third and one out. Workman issued a leadoff walk to fill the bases, thus upping his own degree of difficulty, but got a forceout at the plate and an infield pop-up to maroon three baserunners.

Later, came Steven Wright, making his first appearance in more than two months, providing them with an inning and a change of pace. Later still, Heath Hembree, who rode to the rescue with two on and two out in the seventh and struck out Dansby Swanson before the Red Sox began adding on.

Nine innings, eight pitchers. Not exactly how you map it out.

The eight pitchers were, in fact, the most used by the Red Sox in a nine-inning game since Aug. 18, 2017, when the Sox used eight pitchers in a game against the Yankees.

It won't always be like this, or, at least, it better not be. Price, who missed a start, seems lined up to pitch as early as Friday when the Red Sox get home. Chris Sale, who has pitched once since the end of July, is ramping up arm strength and could pitch a couple of innings at the start of the homestand.

A return to normalcy can't come quickly enough for the bullpen, which has seen its workload increased as the starters falter and fail to eat up innings. Even with the expanded rosters, it's not good form to be turning to the team's relievers as often as they have in the last two weeks.

The saving grace is that the Red Sox' lead is fairly comfortable in the American League East, now at 8.5 games with 23 to play. An off-day Thursday will help, too, along with the expected returns of Price and Sale.

For now, however, the Red Sox are taking it an out at a time, crossing off each inning like time served and attempting to get through each day.