McAdam: Rare, strong night from Red Sox bullpen offers hope

Every once in a while, there's a glimpse of what the Red Sox are hoping to do with their bullpen. Every once in a while, you get the sense that maybe, just maybe, it might work out.

Friday -- a mess of a night with a two-hour and four-minute rain delay interrupting things after five innings -- was one of those nights.

Starter Eduardo Rodriguez pitched five strong innings, but following the long delay, wasn't about to come back out when play resumed. That forced Alex Cora into yet another night in which he needed more outs from his bullpen than he would have liked.

Sound familiar?

This time, it wasn't anyone's fault. Rodriguez might have been able to get them into the seventh. But then the rain changed everything.



Marcus Walden was the first member of the tag-team to be deployed and despite the fact that the Sox stretched what had been a 3-1 lead pre-delay to a 6-1 edge with three quick runs in the top of the sixth, Walden had a rough go of it, giving up four runs on two hits and a walk. True, Walden's task was made tougher when both Mookie Betts and then Jackie Bradley Jr. uncharacteristically made errors, leading to two unearned runs.

Still, Walden wasn't sharp.

Ryan Braiser, however, was. He bailed the Sox out of the mess the outfield and Walden created, then came back for more in the seventh and allowed just one single.

Next came Matt Barnes, who needed only 13 pitches to retire the Tigers in order in the eighth, with two strikeouts. It was, quite simply, the most effective and efficient Barnes has been in weeks. Finally, Heath Hembree, making his first appearance in almost a month after spending an extended stint on the IL with some forearm soreness.

Hembree gave up a solo homer to John Hicks, the first batter he faced, but then retired the next three hitters in a row, two by strikeout.

To recap: three of the four high-leverage relievers combined to pitch 3.2 innings and allow only one run.

Sure, the Tigers aren't exactly threatening. To the contrary, they're one of the weakest lineups in the American League, ranking last in runs scored.

But the Sox bullpen has been equal-opportunity offenders, losing leads to good teams and bad, for much of the season. That's evident both in the 18 blown saves as well as the games that have gotten away from them in the late innings. The Chicago White Sox don't exactly strike fears into opponents' hearts, but that didn't stop them from beating the Red Sox in the ninth inning the last time the Sox played a game at Fenway.

It's patently obvious that the bullpen needs help ... and soon. That will come, in the short-term, in the form of Nathan Eovaldi, who's expected to be activated from the IL when the second half of the season begins.

Next, it's widely assumed that the Sox will make at least one other acquisition between now and the July 31 deadline. Perhaps it won't be a marquee pickup, but frankly, it won't take much for someone from outside the organization to provide some upgrade to this group.

Down the road, there's the prospect of Darwinzon Hernandez, who's been shifted to the bullpen at Triple-A Pawtucket in an effort to determine whether he can help out in Boston in the second half.

But let's say that all those things work: that Eovaldi comes back healthy and takes to the relief role; that a deal gets done to provide them with another experienced high-leverage option; and that Hernandez, at least in short doses, proves effective in his new role.

The Red Sox will still need Barnes, Brasier, Hembree and Brandon Workman to be better if they're going to make a legitimate second-half push.

Teams sometimes justify firing the manager by noting that they can't fire 25 players. The same concept applies here: no matter who else arrives to help out, the Sox can't get rid of their entire current relief core -- tempting as that prospect might sound on some nights.

At some point, they'll need to contribute. Maybe Brasier has turned the corner after a spotty first-half. Maybe Barnes, given some rest after a brutal June workload, can regain his effectiveness. Maybe Hembree, healthy again, can help shoulder more of the load so that Workman and Barnes aren't pitching twice every three games, as they did -- to their detriment -- last month.

It's only the Tigers and it's only one game. But maybe Friday was the start of something at the end of the game.