McAdam: Brian Johnson's first-inning struggles keep putting Red Sox in hole

In the last 10 games, the Red Sox have lost just three games. In two of those losses, the pattern was exactly the same.

Both times -- last Tuesday against the Philadelphia Phillies and again Sunday against the San Diego Padres -- Brian Johnson gave up three runs in the first inning. Both times, those were the only runs the Red Sox allowed, with the bullpen shutting the opposition down the rest of the way.

Sense a pattern here?

Whether it entails failing to make the proper adjustments early, or something being off with his pre-game routine, Johnson has struggled mightily in the first inning. In seven starts this season, his first-inning ERA is 11.37.

In those seven innings, he's allowed 13 hits, five walks and two homers.

It was more of the same Sunday. The first four batters reached against the lefty by which time the Red Sox were trailing 3-0. After that early stretch, he allowed just one more hit and no runs.

But as was the case last Tuesday against the Phillies, the damage had already been done. And the result -- a loss the Sox can't afford -- was the same both times.



"Obviously, I'm not as sharp in the first as I am in other innings,'' acknowledged Johnson after the Red Sox failed to finish off a sweep of the Padres with a 3-1 loss. "Maybe you've got switch things up for me a little bit, maybe switch the game plan. It seems to be working when I go out for the second or third inning, so maybe it's a game plan thing.''

On Tuesday, Johnson noted that the Phils seemed to be sitting on his off-speed stuff in the first inning. When he went back out for the second, he threw more fastballs and had far more success. On Sunday, it seemed to be less about what he was throwing and more about where -- already trailing 1-0, he hung a breaking ball to Manny Machado who clubbed it for a two-run homer.

That represented the last run for the Padres, as Johnson got better in the second and third and the bullpen -- as it did last time Johnson started -- turned in all blanks the rest of the way.

The offense deserves its share of the blame in both losses. A 3-0 deficit in the first should hardly be seen as insurmountable, and there were plenty of chances for the Sox to cash in Sunday. Twice, they had two baserunners on and a big run producer at the plate. But Rafael Devers topped a ball to first to kill a chance in the fifth and J.D. Martinez failed to check his swing in the eighth, leaving teammates at the corners.

The same lineup that managed 16 runs in the first two games at Petco Park could muster but a solo homer from Martinez Sunday.

And so, the Red Sox failed to pick up a full game on both Tampa Bay and Oakland, both of which lost yesterday. Had the Sox won Sunday, they would have been looking at a five-game deficit in the standings with five weeks remaining. Surely, picking up a game per week wouldn't seem impossible.

Instead, the Sox failed to take advantage.

With Chris Sale sidelined for the rest of the year, the Red Sox are short a starter -- and that's assuming that David Price can take another step forward Tuesday with a simulated game in Denver and be available to start a game next weekend in Anaheim.

But with no other internal options -- on the major league staff or in Pawtucket -- it would seem the Sox are going to keep giving the ball to Johnson.

Clearly, something needs to change.

What about the notion of trying an opener in front of Johnson? That, after all, is part of the reason the idea gained traction -- to avoid exposing a struggling starter to the top of the opposition's lineup, in an inning in which, historically, the most runs are scored in a game.

Alex Cora didn't seem enamored with the idea.

"People can say (try an) opener,'' he said, "but still (Johnson) has to go out there and perform.''

Cora seemed to be suggesting that if Johnson has had issues in the first inning, he could well have the same problem when he enters the game in the second. And that's true.

But what the Red Sox are doing clearly isn't working. Other big-market teams -- including the Yankees -- have tried the opener concept. Perhaps it's past time that the Red Sox join them.