The wins keep piling up for the Red Sox -- five straight and 10 of the last 14 -- and the lead has stretched back to two full games in the American League East.
And yet. And yet.....
If you look a bit closer, there's some troubling signs amidst the fine print. Yes, the Red Sox are winning games, due in large part to a lineup that can sometimes overcome other deficiencies, and because of a bullpen which ranks among the top third in the American League.
But for the last few weeks, the Red Sox have been, let's face it, winning in spite of -- not because of -- their starting pitching. Blame it on the Great Sticky Stuff Crackdown, or chalk it up to some fatigue for a group which has proven, if nothing else, highly durable. Five Red Sox starting pitchers have accounted for 78 of the first 80 games, a development that seldom happens in this era.
Lately, the starters have been wilting. Sure, there's been the occasional gem -- like Nathan Eovaldi quieting the Yankees and pitching into the eighth inning Saturday night. And, of course, there was Nick Pivetta's no-hit bid last Thursday in Tampa Bay.
But those outings have been the exceptions rather than the rule. As Alex Speier of the Boston Globe pointed out, since June 7, Red Sox starters have failed to deliver at least five full innings in 10 of the last 21 games. Before that stretch, those very same starters had gone five or more in 50 of the first 57 nine-inning games.
That's troubling on two fronts, of course. First, because it suggests that the rotation is faltering even before the All-Star break, hardly an encouraging development. Help may be on the way in the person of Chris Sale, but not for another month at minimum. The Sox may find a way to incorporate a spot start before and after the break from Tanner Houck to provide an additional breather for the five starters, but that's a temporary fix.
Secondly, for every inning the rotation doesn't cover, the bullpen does. And just as the Sox don't want to overwork their starters for fear that they won't much of a finishing kick in the final two months of the season and, the team hopes, beyond, the same is true of the club's relievers.
They've been heroic, and darn near perfect. On the current homestand alone, the Sox have asked of their bullpen to provide 17.2 innings in the last five games. In that stretch, the pen has allowed exactly one run, which, as much as anything, explains the team's current 5-0 run.
A slipup here or there against the Yankees in the first two games, or either of the last two nights against the surprisingly pesky Royals, and the Sox could have a few more losses on their hands. But because the bullpen has been so stout, the Sox are perfect on the homestand.
That's good -- for now. But at what point do all the innings being asked from the relievers take a toll?
Manager Alex Cora is keenly aware that he's performing a delicate balancing act. He has five relievers upon whom he counts to preserve leads or maintain ties: lefties Josh Taylor and Darwinzon Hernandez; righty set-up options Hirokazu Sawamura and Adam Ottavino and closer Matt Barnes.
The trick is to not use more than three of them in any one game, so you have two fresh relievers available the next night. It doesn't always work out that way, however, and there are times when Cora has pushed his high leverage crew more aggressively than he would like.
Tuesday night was a prime example. Pivetta wasn't sharp from the start and labored mightily to get 13 outs. It's usually not a good omen when you're into your pen in the middle of the fifth inning when Cora first turned to Yachsel Rios.
But the lineup, which continually battled back, re-taking the lead from the Royals no fewer than four different times, demanded of Cora that he manage aggressively. When you have a win in sight, it's hard to ignore the temptation to go after it.
"What the offense did today,'' said Cora, "they deserved to have us actually use (our best relievers). We've been using them a lot. Maybe they'll be off tomorrow; maybe it rains tomorrow. But we were aggressive with them, we won the game and now we move on. We had to what we had to do.
"(The bullpen usage) is concerning. The next few days, (Brandon Workman) has to step up, (Matt) Andriese has to step up. We'll see where we're at. Hopefully, Martin (Perez) goes deep into the game (Wednesday), we put up a good offensive performance and we can actually breathe the last few innings.''
That would be welcome, since there's a nagging sensation that every win being recorded now due to bullpen overwork could cost them dearly in the second half.
