It was the Red Sox' offensive turnaround that saved their season over the last month.
For the first month, the team struggled mightily to score runs, losing a succession of low-scoring games while the lineup failed to produce with runners on base. The result? The Sox fell nine games below .500 and nearly fumbled their way out of contention in the first 29 games.
But starting in the second week of May, the offense began to stir. Since May 10, the Sox lead the majors in runs scored, batting average, slugging percentage and OPS. You don't have to be Bill James to figure out how they've climbed from the A.L. East basement to a winning record.
More recently, however, the team's starters have been the difference. While the rotation performed admirably while the offense stumbled to find itself, it's been getting better and better. Over the last six games -- the final two of the homestand and the first four of this 10-game West Coast trek -- Sox starters are 5-1 with a microscopic 0.23 ERA. The starters have been averaging almost seven innings in that stretch and haven't allowed more than five hits in any outing. The strikeout-to-walk ratio in that span is 29-4.
Things peaked Monday night in Anaheim when Michael Wacha went the distance to post a three-hit shutout in the 1-0 win over the Los Angeles Angels. Wacha allowed just one hit over the final eight innings and walked just one.
As it stands, four of the five Red Sox starters have ERAs below 3.50. Only Rich Hill is over 4.00, and that can be chalked up to one uncharacteristically bad outing when he was rocked for six runs in four innings.
As a staff, the Sox now have the seventh-best starter's ERA at 3.48 and are tied for fourth in WHIP at 1.12. Also, after Wacha's complete-game gem Monday night, the Sox have three complete games; no other team in the game has more than one.
"It's just like we're feeding off one another,'' said Wacha on NESN, "and try to keep going out there and giving our team a chance to win, go deep into ballgames and getting (wins) for this club.''
That all three complete games have come in the last three weeks is not a coincidence. In the first month of the season, Alex Cora kept a tight rein on his starters, recognizing that the shortened spring training didn't allow them the usual time to build arm strength. That resulted in some of the starters being pulled earlier than usual.
But lately, Cora has allowed them to go deeper, which isn't a bad idea, especially when you consider that the bullpen has been an issue and structure has yet to emerge.
"I know we get criticized sometimes for our pitching program early on in the season,'' acknowledged Cora, "taking care of pitchers and taking them out early. But like we tell them, the reason we do that is to save bullets and to be ready when it really matters. That's why we can be creative in September and October, use starters as relievers. Just being disciplined early on is paying off right now.''
Indeed, there's no hotter starter than Nick Pivetta, who, over his last six starts, Pivetta is 5-1 with a 2.11, while holding opposing hitters to a .187 batting average. Nathan Eovaldi, having overcome some issues with tipping, has been solid in all but one start and Garrett Whitlock, transferred from the bullpen to the rotation, is seemingly finding his footing, having completed six innings for the first time in his last outing. Hill, minus his one outlier of a start, has given the Sox a chance to win in nearly every start.
The potential for mid-season reinforcements exists, too. Chris Sale is about a week or so away from beginning his rehab assignment for minor league affiliates and could rejoin the parent club by July 1. James Paxton, coming off Tommy John surgery, will face hitters soon and might be ready by the All-Star break.
Their arrival will create a domino-like effect in the rotation, pushing at least one if not two of the current starters into the bullpen, which can stand an upgrade still. It's easy to imagine Whitlock returning to his role of multi-inning reliever, joining Tanner Houck to give the Sox two power arms who can provide six or seven outs as many as five times a week combined.
In the meantime, it appears that Cora believes most of the starters -- Hill is a special case, at 42 -- are capable of going deep into games. The fewer outs the bullpen is tasked with for now, the better.
Sorting out who should close and who can be regularly trusted in high-leverage spots remains the last piece of the Red Sox puzzle, but the work of the rotation is making that item less time sensitive.
The hitters pulled the Sox out of the ditch. Now, the starters are keeping the Red Sox on the road back to contention.