McAdam: Poor pitching results from starters means second-guessing of spring approach

SEATTLE -- Like a hitter sitting on a fastball in a fastball count, Alex Cora seemed to know the question was coming. He was ready to swing.

The question was a natural one: Had the Red Sox' starters' abysmal (13.20 ERA) work in the first four games of the regular season cause the manager to re-think how the team handled them in spring training?

The answer was locked and loaded.

"I didn't rethink about it last year,'' Cora said quickly. "You saw what happened. It was the same plan. So, whoever is doubting us, what we did this year. ... Check what happened last year. We did the same thing.''

When it was pointed out that the starters actually threw one fewer start this spring last year, Cora was ready for that, too.

"Yeah, but when I got here, I remember people were saying Chris (Sale) was throwing 100 mph in the first game of 2017,'' said Cora. "It's easy to second-guess now, what we did. But nobody second-guessed us last year. It's a program. You have to be disciplined.

''That's the way I see it, you know. If people think that they didn't start 20 games or they had too many innings, they should get back to what we did last year in spring training. We played until Oct. 28 and the previous year, when I got here, everybody was talking about how they were out of bullets in (the ALDS) 2017 against the Houston Astros.

"We did the same thing last year and Chris went seven (innings) in Tampa (in his first start) and five (innings) in Miami (in his second outing). It worked last year. Everybody was cool when the starters were pitching in October and going to the bullpen and being rovers. It's easy to second-guess now because we didn't pitch well here.''

Clearly, Cora is on the defensive. And just as clearly, he has a salient point: if the Sox adhered to essentially the same program last year and got a World Series win out of it, then it's reasonable to give it some time this year.

The season can't be judged on the first four games -- or less than one-quarter of one percent of the schedule -- no matter how poor the performance was. And make no mistake: it was horrendous. You have to go back to 2000 to find a four-game series in which the Sox allowed 34 runs. And they're now the first defending champs to allow 11 homers in the first four games of the next season.

Anytime your starters' ERA is in double digits, it's not a good sign.

But some perspective is in order. It's not as if Chris Sale, Nathan Eovaldi, Eduardo Rodriguez and Rick Porcello all forgot how to pitch, or how to get major league hitters out.

"It's the first part of the season here,'' said Mitch Moreland. "I'll run those guys out there every time. Our starters are some of the best in the league. Just because it didn't go their way a couple of games doesn't mean that's the way the season is going to go. They're going to find their groove and get us rolling.''

Some of this is timing, too. As Cora noted, a middle-of-the-season series like this wouldn't get much attention, and certainly wouldn't engender nearly as much panic. But because they're the first four games out of the starting block, the results are bound to be magnified.

It's what happens.

It's Cora's larger point that bears repeating: if the plan to bring along starters gradually worked well last season, then shouldn't it be given the benefit of the doubt this time around?

At some point, execution comes into play here. Sale, Eovaldi, Rodriguez and Porcello didn't leave pitches over the middle of the plate because they didn't face the Minnesota Twins enough in March. They didn't throw the ball to spots - period.

Individually, there's a myriad of reasons why each of the first four starters stumbled and fell. Sale couldn't command his fastball, or his slider, arguably his best pitch. Eovaldi needed to make some mechanical adjustments and couldn't command his splitter, his most important pitch to keep hitters off his fastball. In Rodriguez's case, he didn't follow the game plan to throw changeups to lefties. And Porcello was uncharacteristically poor with his control, walking three hitters in an inning and four in 2.2 innings.

Might they have been sharper with a bit more work in the spring? Perhaps.

But the takeaway from a year ago was that they were plenty sharp -- and strong -- in October, when it mattered most.

If that happens again this fall, this first week will be forgotten for the aberration it likely was.

And if it doesn't happen, it likely means there were other, bigger issues along the way.

Starting pitching is still this team's strength. Four games in March -- no matter how atypical -- shouldn't change that perception.