McAdam: ERod helps Red Sox bullpen take a load off

Coming off the All-Star break, the Red Sox bullpen returned to Fenway plenty rested, the beneficiary of four days off from the grind of the long regular season schedule.

Friday night represented one of the rare games in which the likes of Matt Barnes and Brandon Workman and Ryan Brasier and Heath Hembree were not on operating on fumes, the way they were so many times this season, especially in June.

As it turned out, their services weren't needed Friday night as the Red Sox resumed play in the second half. For that, the offense -- which produced eight runs, including five in the seventh inning, both before and after an hour-long rain delay -- can take a bow.



So often this season, the lineup has failed to add on to a lead. That wasn't the case against the Los Angeles Dodgers, with the Sox managing single runs in the first and second, another in the sixth and then an explosion in the seventh to put the game safely out of reach.

But the game was also noteworthy for the start turned in by Eduardo Rodriguez, who got the Sox through seven full innings. It marked just the 13th time in 91 games that a Red Sox starter had gotten at least 21 outs.

As shaky as the bullpen has been at times this season, the poor results have only been partly attributable to execution. The rest can be blamed on overwork.

Matt Barnes, the team's most important reliever, is a case in point. Called on for 15 appearances in the month of June -- when far too frequently, the team's starters were failing to get through five innings, much less seven -- Barnes showed the effects of overuse by posting an ERA of 9.69.

Simply put, the Sox can't keep asking for their high-leverage relievers to pitch four times per week and expect quality appearances.

Some slack is going to have to be taken up by the starting pitchers, especially with the team still mixing-and-matching with its fifth spot, made vacant by the ongoing injury to Nathan Eovaldi. If Rodriguez, Chris Sale, David Price and Rick Porcello can't be counted on to regularly get the Sox into the latter third of the game, then no amount of additions to the beleaguered pen is going to be of much good.

Innings are needed from the starters, and Friday, Rodriguez delivered.

"We've got a lot of veterans (in the rotation) and they know what they have to do,'' said Alex Cora. "But it was good. It was a good message to everybody - the way he threw the ball. His stuff was really good and we thought the matchups were really good in the seventh inning and he was able to do that.''

There were some challenges. In the first inning, struggling to command his changeup early, he issued consecutive walks, but struck out Max Muncy to strand both baserunners.

Then, even in his last inning, he gave up two hits to the first three hitters he faced in the seventh. But once more, Rodriguez buckled down and got a strikeout and a groundout to get out of the jam.

In between, he had two 1-2-3 innings and three others in which he faced no more than four hitters. There was nibbling, no elongated innings, and, after the first inning, no more walks.

"That's my goal now -- to go out there and be available to go seven innings,'' he said, "and to do it today was great for me.''

Rodriguez has pushed by Cora and pitching coach Dana LeVangie to be more efficient and aggressive, with an emphasis on getting outs earlier in the count. In the past, Rodriguez could be guilty of running counts full on nearly every hitter, but he's tried to condition himself to push for shorter at-bats, the better to be able to go longer in games.

"As a starter,'' he noted, "that's what you need to do, get quick outs.''

That sort of efficiency will be particularly welcome over the next five weeks as the Red Sox play 34 games over 34 days, with the weather warming and the stakes higher.

It's a binary equation - the more outs the starters get, the fewer outs for which the relievers will be made responsible.

And on the first night of the second half, Rodriguez got the Sox off to the proper start.