Eventually, the Red Sox will mash. The history of their hitters suggests it, and in case you had any remaining doubt, may we submit Sunday's eighth inning as additional evidence.
Held down to just two runs on four hits for the first seven innings against the Minnesota Twins, the dam broke in the eighth as the Sox beat up the visitor's bullpen with seven hits and six runs, taking what had been a one-run contest and turning it into a seven-run laugher.
Let that serve as a standing metaphor: A lineup that features the kind of offensive performers the Sox boast will, in time, do plenty of damage. Warmer weather will help, and so, too, will additional at-bats as the lineup finds its rhythm after a compressed spring training limited looks at live pitching.
Until then, the Red Sox will need to lean on their pitching staff, and over the weekend, the Red Sox have, on consecutive days, proved that that's not a bad plan. On Saturday, the Sox used the combination of Tanner Houck and Garrett Whitlock -- with a small sample of Matt Strahm thrown in for good measure -- to record the season's first shutout. On Sunday, the staff was nearly as dominant, holding the Twins to a solo run in an 8-1 victory at Fenway.
Starter Michael Wacha set the tone with a hyper-aggressive first inning, needing just eight pitches to set down the Twins in order. Throughout the afternoon, Wacha kept up the same approach and pace, a tactic surely approved by his fielders, on a brisk afternoon in which the temperatures remained in the low-40s.
"That was kind of the whole mantra of the day -- getting ahead and staying on the attack,'' said Wacha afterward. "Me and (catcher Kevin) Plawecki got on a nice little groove where we mixing things up, kind of keeping them off balance, working both sides of the plate, up and down. Keeping them off balance and letting the defense work behind us. Overall, I was pretty happy with how we were attacking and making some quick innings.''
Wacha is not the flamethrower he was a rookie with the St. Louis Cardinals in 2013. His fastball mostly sat 92-93 mph, but he effectively used his changup all afternoon to induce weak contact. The change offered enough separation to make his fastball play up, resulting in five strikeouts. In two starts to date, Wacha had gone 9.2 innings and allowed just one run.
Over five innings of work, Wacha allowed just two hits -- just as Houck has done a day previous -- and left with the game scoreless. Until the Twins broke through for a solo run in the top of the seventh against Ryan Brasier, the Sox had fashioned themselves a consecutive scoreless inning streak that managed to reach 15 innings. Not since August of 2019 had the Red Sox posted consecutive games at Fenway in which they allowed one or no runs.
Wacha, meanwhile, was part of an interesting strategy on the part of Chaim Bloom over the winter. In need of starting rotation reinforcements to buttress Chris Sale, Nathan Eovaldi and Nick Pivetta, Bloom took some chances. He signed Rich Hill, the oldest pitcher in the major leagues. He signed James Paxton, recovering from Tommy John surgery. And he signed Wacha, whose 5.05 ERA limited the number of interested teams.
Now, with Sale sidelined until June, the spotlight will be on those signings even more. Paxton won't pitch until July, but so far, the returns on Hill and Wacha have been encouraging. It's up to that duo to help the Sox stay afloat until Sale can rejoin the rotation in June, to be joined by Paxton close to the All-Star break.
They bought (relatively) low on Wacha, hoping for a big payoff. Two starts don't guarantee anything, but they've been encouraging.
"He's a complete pitcher,'' said Cora. "I think his best version was late in the season when he was throwing the four-seamer, sinker, changeup and curveball -- just using his whole repertoire. That's what he's done with his first two starts here.''
In the meantime, Cora continues to experiment with the proper usage of his bullpen. Lefties Jake Diekman and Strahm are earning the manager's trust. Strahm took over in the middle of an inning for the second straight day. Diekman, who stumbled some in Detroit the other day, on Sunday looked more like he did a week ago in Yankee Stadium. He attacked the first three hitters in the Minnesota lineup in the eighth, and retired them in order, two by strikeout — with his power slider playing off his mid-90s fastball.
It seems clear from the first two weeks that Diekman is Cora's high-leverage weapon of choice, utilized in the late innings for the toughest matchups. If there's a designated closer for now, that role would seem to belong to Hansel Robles, who was warming to pitch the ninth in a one-run game until the Sox lineup erupted for six runs to put the game out of reach.
A tougher test arrives in town Tuesday in the persons of the Toronto Blue Jays. If the pitching can survive that lineup, it will have really proven something.
For now, it's been plenty good enough, waiting for both the weather and their own hitters to warm.