McAdam: With no one else to turn to, Red Sox asking a lot of Nathan Eovaldi

Nathan Eovaldi is not Pedro Martinez, not by any stretch of the imagination. Nor is he Jacob deGrom or Gerrit Cole, or even, for that matter, Chris Sale.

All of those pitchers are certified aces, top-of-the-rotation starters who can dominate even the best of lineups, and Eovaldi falls far short of that description.

But for now, he's the best the Red Sox have to offer. It's not his fault that he's become the No. 1 starter on Boston's staff. That's a status earned by default as much as anything else.

Still, he's about all they have. The rest of the rotation is filled with a back-end veteran (Martin Perez, like Eovaldi bumped up a few rungs through no fault of his own), an unproven journeyman (Ryan Weber) and an assortment of various reclamation projects.

It's not how the Red Sox drew it up, of course. They had planned on having Sale and David Price and Eduardo Rodriguez lined up in front of Eovaldi. But then, a torn elbow ligament, payroll concerns and COVID-19, respectively, intervened, and Eovaldi was sort of the last man standing.

To his credit, Eovaldi had responded to the challenge in the early going, giving the Red Sox 11 innings combined in his first two outings, pitching effectively both times. How much separation was there between Eovaldi and the rest of the Red Sox rotation? In their first 10 games, the Red Sox were 2-0 when Eovaldi started....and 1-7 when anyone else did.

So you can see where this is headed. When Eovaldi starts, the Red Sox don't just expect to win, they have to win since they can hardly count on anyone else. If they can't get a victory out of the games Eovaldi starts, then they are well and truly in trouble.

That sort of expectation is fine when you're talking about Cole, or deGrom or Sale. They've done it. They have the numbers to inspire confidence, the bold numbers on the back of their baseball cards. They're established and know that it comes with the territory.

Not Eovaldi. He may possess elite stuff and a triple-digit fastball, but for one reason or another -- injuries, inconsistency -- he has never reached that level.

Only now, unfair as it may be, it's expected of him. Which is why the Red Sox' 5-1 setback to the Tampa Bay Rays stung so much. Particularly because they came in with a three-game losing streak and especially because the season is just 60 games long, every Eovaldi start feels like a must-win.

"I don't want to feel that way,'' said Ron Roenicke, "but I know what you're saying. Put it this way -- when Nate pitches, we feel like we have a great chance to win. I don't want to think that we have to win every time he's out there we have to win. But we certainly feel like we've got a great opportunity when he takes the mound.''

Eovaldi cruised through the first three innings, allowing just two hits while fanning five. But it all came unglued in the fourth. He got the first two outs without incident and seemed to be out of the inning when a 3-and-2 pitch to Yoshi Tsutsugo that looked to be a strike was instead called a ball.

Following a two-out single, Eovaldi again looked to get the third out when Hunter Renfroe popped up to the left side. Rafael Devers stationed himself in foul territory, halfway between the third baseline and the visitor's dugout only to have the ball mysteriously land 30 feet away, inches foul.

The ball had struck one of the infamous catwalks that ring the top of Tropicana Field, and caromed away from Devers, giving Renfroe another shot. Naturally, he then slammed a two-run double to center.

It was more of the same in the fifth when Eovaldi invited trouble by hitting No. 9 hitter Michael Perez, the first hitter of the inning. A triple and single followed, scoring two more and Eovaldi didn't return for the sixth.

Eovaldi offered no excuses and didn't bemoan his bad luck. He blamed himself for the two-out walk in the fourth and the hit batsman to open the fifth.

"I've got to do a better job just turning the page,'' he said.

Eovaldi was asked if he indeed now feels pressure to deliver a win each time he takes the mound, especially given the rag-tag nature of the remainder of the rotation.

"I've got to go out and do a better job than I did tonight, that's for sure,'' said Eovaldi. "Regardless of what the outcome of the games are for us, any time I take the ball, I hold myself accountable for my job out there. Tonight, I felt like I needed to do better.''

That's vintage Eovaldi: competitive, responsible, great teammate. He forever proved his mettle in Game 3 of the 2018 World Series.

But times are different now. With nobody else to turn to, the Sox lean more heavily on Eovaldi if only because they have no one else. And if they can't win the games he starts, then what games can they win?