McAdam: With additional bullpen call-ups, Red Sox hope to find strength in numbers

Like most teams, the Red Sox added to their roster Sunday, going from the 13 pitchers they had on hand to 17.

For the Sox, it was not a moment too soon, too -- they had gone 15 innings with the Los Angeles Angels two nights earlier. The next night, they had planned a bullpen game, and on Sunday, David Price, making his return to the mound for the first time in almost a month, provided just two innings.

With 13 — give or take -- pitchers in the bullpen, it seemed like the Sox had enough.

But that was before Rick Porcello stalled out after recording just 12 outs Tuesday, necessitating five innings from the bullpen again.

In the span of four games, then, the bullpen contributed a staggering 31 innings of relief.

And so, Wednesday morning, the Red Sox kept adding. Four more pitchers, including a couple who had ventured home for the offseason following the completion of Pawtucket's season on Labor Day, scrambled to get back and spent the final three and a half weeks in the big leagues.

The arrival of lefty Bobby Poyner and right-handers Mike Shawaryn, Colten Brewer and Trevor Kelly gave the Red Sox 21 pitchers -- all but four of them relievers.



"We're going winter-ball style,'' said a somewhat sheepish Alex Cora. "That's what we're going to do. The games usually go four hours; they're going to be five hours. Obviously, it's not perfect (to have that many pitchers on hand), but our starters are not giving us enough. We need matchups, we need arms. We're going to try to maximize Brewer's cutter and Shawaryn's slider and Bobby's fastball up and Kelly's sidearm (delivery).

"We're trying to look for outs. Dave (Dombrowski) called me this morning and asked, 'What do you think?' I said, 'You know where I'm at.' Luckily, I work for an organization where we're not going to tap out. We're not going to wave the white flag. We're going to keep pushing.''

On the recent West Coast trip, Cora had the luxury of going full throttle with his bullpen usage because he had three off-days in the schedule in the span of eight days. But for the remainder of the season, with 24 games remaining, the Sox have just two more off-days left -- and those come in the span of four days.

The Sox will finish with 13 straight games and no rest. So for the rest of the way, the attitude is: the more, the merrier.

"We trust our guys,'' said Cora, "but we haven't been consistent about it. I don't know -- it's just kind of the way we can pull this off.''

At this point, Cora has little choice. Before Eduardo Rodriguez -- easily, the most consistent starter the Sox have had this season -- went out and tossed seven shutout innings against the Twins Wednesday night, the team's starters ERA was 5.03, ranking them 20th out of 30 teams.

And because the starters haven't given them length and the team has shifted into desperation mode, doing all it can to win every night, the team's principal high-leverage relievers (Brandon Workman, Matt Barnes, Josh Taylor, Darwinzon Hernandez) have been dangerously overworked.

"It's not October,'' said Cora. "It's not possible to do it that way the whole time. You've got to be responsible. It's a lot easier (with the increased volume of arms) because you don't have to pitch certain guys all the time. Although we're staying in the present, at the same time, you have to take care of those guys (for the future).''

Speaking of the future, this is an approach that won't be possible a year from now. Next season, for the first time, MLB will limit roster expansion to 28 players in September. That will ensure that both teams play with the same number of players every night -- something that's frequently not the case now -- and the overcrowded dugouts and bullpens will be a thing of the past.

But for now? Cora makes no apologies for taking advantage of the current situation.

"The rules are the rules,'' said Cora with a shrug. "Next year, you can't do that. I mean, it's probably not the first time that (a team has had these many pitchers in September), so I don't feel bad about it.''

And so, in an overcrowded bullpen, an additional bench was added to the existing dugout structure, providing seating for just about every pitcher.

From a distance, the bullpen resembled an overcrowded subway car. For an overtaxed pitching staff, it promised additional relief.