McAdam: Down a couple of starting pitchers, Red Sox try a novel approach

This wasn't how they drew it up at the start of the season. No, not even in their wildest dreams did the Red Sox imagine this would be how it all played out in September.

They had invested almost $90 million in their starting rotation. They had re-signed Nathan Eovaldi and they had extended Chris Sale.

While seemingly every other team was focusing on their bullpen, the Red Sox were going decidedly old school, putting their money on the starters.

And to make sure that those starters would be in peak form for the stretch run, they mapped out a spring training plan to bring them along slowly, saving pitches and arms in the process.

Or so they thought.

Never in a million years did the Sox envision that for the start of a four-game series with the Yankees, they would have to go with a bullpen game. Never did they think that they would use seven different pitchers -- not a single one of them, incidentally, part of the team's Opening Day roster -- to beat the Yankees, 6-1.

But they did.



The rotation around which they constructed their roster is in shambles, like an abandoned car broken down on the side of the road. Sale is done for the season with an ailing elbow. David Price may well have thrown his last pitch, too, sidelined for the second time with a wrist injury. Eovaldi, having missed half the season earlier, is just now getting to the point where he can give the Sox five innings. And Rick Porcello sports a bloated 5.63 ERA.

So the Sox made do. They first handed the ball to Jhoulys Chacin, making his Red Sox debut, for the first two innings. After that, there was a procession of relievers summoned nearly every inning thereafter. Groundskeeper Dave Mellor could be excused for worrying about the steady stream of pitchers wearing out a path between the bullpen in right field and the pitcher's mound.

This wasn't so much a baseball game as it was a relay race, with one pitcher after another handing off the baton.

Somehow, it worked, too. That's the part that no one saw coming. And not one of them was part of the 25-man roster when the Red Sox began the year in Seattle.

"Like I said in spring training,'' said Alex Cora, "it takes more than the guys that you take for Opening Day to win a World Series. We proved that last year with, what, 27 pitchers? That's how it works. You look around the league and somebody has to contribute. Honestly, they've done an outstanding job.''



Trailing three teams for the two wild-card spots, the Sox are giving off a whiff of desperation. They've got 21 pitchers on their active roster, and are squeezing as many as 17 of them out in the bullpen.

On Friday night, one by one, they were given work release. Following Chacin was Josh Taylor, who begat Marcus Walden, who begat Andrew Cashner who begat Ryan Weber. Darwinzon Hernandez and Bobby Poyner finished things out.

The only run came in the fifth when Cashner yielded a solo homer by Brett Gardner.

Other than that, the strategy worked. The assembly line approach managed to limit a fearsome New York lineup to a mere three hits.

Turns out, that's part of the charm of this nothing-left-to-lose strategy.

"It's an uncomfortable game for hitters,'' Cora noted. "You see four different pitchers. It's not that the game is always gonna go this way. But like I said four days ago, I'm not going to apologize for having 21 pitchers here.  The rules are the rules and we're going go that way. There are two spots (in the rotation) that we don't have and we're going to try to maximize our matchups and put the team in position to win games.''

Gone is any semblance of a game plan. Pitchers aren't saving themselves for the third time through the order or trying to set-up hitters. This is blunt force pitching -- give it everything you have because you're not going to be out there long.

"It's actually a sprint against them,'' said Cora. "Three or four guys and we move forward.''

Cora isn't claiming that he's begun a trend or stumbled upon a new way to win. This is born of necessity.

"We're just in a position where we have to do this,'' he said flatly.

It worked for one night. Saturday afternoon, they'll cross their fingers and try it again.