McAdam: Comeback win can't hide problems that remain for the Red Sox

Given the way their season has gone and where they are in the standings, the Red Sox are in no position to throw any wins back. They'll take whatever victories come their way, regardless of how ugly, or how poor the opposition.

And make no mistake, their 8-7 win over the Toronto Blue Jays at Rogers Centre Thursday night was hardly a masterpiece.

It featured a start from Hector Velazquez that lasted just 2.1 innings. And though it ultimately turned out OK, it also included the team's 18th blown save of the season.

Inadequate starting pitching depth and poor relief pitching. If you had to highlight the biggest factors that have relegated the Sox to third place in the division, and currently — as they like to say in the NHL -- outside the playoff structure, those would be the top two.

Since the beginning, both elements have been issues for the Sox since the first week of the season.



Miraculously, the Sox are 8-8 in games started by anyone other than the Big 5 (Chris Sale, David Price, Rick Porcello, Eduardo Rodriguez and Nathan Eovaldi) -- and never mind the fact that that quintet hasn't come close to pitching to their own capabilities. That's a discussion for another day.

But Hector Velazquez, Ryan Smith, Ryan Weber, Darwinzon Hernandez and Brian Johnson have been, almost without exception, horrid. The only reason the Sox have won half of those games is the same reason they won Thursday -- they have the ability to beat up the other team's poor starting pitching.

Velazquez has made half of those 16 starts and sports a 6.95 ERA. Only once -- a five-inning effort against Seattle back in May in which he allowed just two runs -- has he pitched anywhere near competently.

Most of the others have looked a lot like the one he turned in Thursday night, typified by the twin problems of not shutting down the opposition (three runs on five hits and two walks) while also failing to go anywhere near the middle of the game.

Thus, the Sox were forced to use five relievers to cover the 20 outs that Velazquez didn't. That sort of bullpen workload can impact a team for several days to come.

The Sox are fortunate that just three more games remain before the All-Star break, when their relievers can get some time off. It helps, too, that none of the high-leverage options had pitched at all in the previous three days.

But the Sox won't always be so fortunate when it comes to timing and the schedule.

And even in victory, the bullpen didn't inspire much confidence. Yes, Ryan Brasier turned in a 1-2-3 inning and rookie lefty Josh Taylor continues to show promise, giving the Sox a scoreless inning.

But Matt Barnes and Brandon Workman -- two of the team's three most important late-inning options -- combined to walk three, give up a run, two hits and throw two wild pitches. Barnes walked the second hitter he faced, then wild pitched him to second and then to third before digging out of his own mess with a strikeout of Rowdy Tellez in the seventh.

Workman, meanwhile, gave up two doubles in the span of three at-bats, and with them, the one-run lead they had been entrusted to protect in the eighth. That resulted in the Boston bullpen's 18th blown save of the season.

With Hembree available -- activated off the IL earlier in the day - Alex Cora sent Workman out for a second inning of work after the Sox had reclaimed the lead in the top of the ninth. Workman issued back-to-back walks with one out, putting the tying run in scoring position and the winning run on first before getting out of jam with a flyout and a weak groundout.

So the Sox got a win on a night when their starter got just seven outs and their two best relievers combined to retire just nine of the 14 hitters they faced over the final three innings.

That might work against the Blue Jays. But if the Red Sox have any designs on a second-half run, it's a safe bet that such tightrope walking will not always have such a happy ending against more formidable opponents.