BALTIMORE — After avoiding a three-game sweep at the hands of the Brewers on Sunday, Alex Cora did what he’s done time and time again this season: beat his chest about the Red Sox’s starting pitchers.
“We’re pitching, and it feels (like) every day, regardless if you lose two in a row, four in a row, winning four in a row, everyday you feel like our starters are going to give us a chance,” Cora said.
Those comments came after Tanner Houck spun a gem, tossing six innings of one-run ball with seven strikeouts to help lead Boston to a 2-1 victory.
It was “beat your chest” worthy, for sure. The problem is, it became more of an outlier of the rotation’s most recent turn not twenty four hours later…
Boston fell right back into its recent struggles following an 11-3 rout on Memorial Day to open the series in Baltimore for the team’s third loss in four days.
At the root of those losses? Well, some of it has been the starting pitching. Boston’s starters have allowed 22 runs, 21 of them earned, across 23 2/3 innings over the last five outings, which translates to an ERA of… brace yourselves… 7.99.
Red Sox starters through the last turn...
— Gethin Coolbaugh (@GethinCoolbaugh) May 27, 2024
Criswell - 7 R, 6 ER, 4 IP
Houck - 1 ER, 6 IP,
Pivetta - 5 ER, 3 1/2 IP
Crawford - 6 ER, 4 1/3
Bello — 3 ER, 6 IP
That's 22 runs, 21 earned in 23 2/3 innings. Good for a 7.99 ERA.
Do we have a rotation problem brewing? #DirtyWater
That is, well, not good — and it’s a far cry from the ballclub’s 2.99 ERA through 50 games, which by the way was the team’s lowest since 1918. And that even includes the quality starts by Houck on Sunday and Brayan Bello’s outing of six innings of three-run ball to cap the Sox’s three-game sweep in Tampa last Thursday.
The latest bad outing came courtesy of Cooper Criswell, who gave up a career-worst seven runs, six of them earned, in a brief four-inning start against the Orioles on Monday.
Asked by me if the rotation’s recent turn for the worse has been a result of the league simply seeing more of Boston’s starters, and thus having more time to scout and figure them out, Criswell disagreed.
“Nah, I wouldn’t say necessarily (that),” Criswell said. “Just, like I said, wasn’t executing the pitches, was leaving ‘em elevated, so just continue to keep the plan the same and try to attack it a little better.”
Cora also didn’t exactly sound the alarm when asked for his assessment of Criswell’s career-worst outing.
“He was OK,” Cora said. “Not too many swings and misses. They did a good job taking away certain pitches and they put some good swings on it. You know, we’ll turn the page, he’ll be ready for the next one.”
I can’t say I agree with Cora there. Granted, he’s doing what a manager does and is trying to protect his starting pitcher, but… come on, the dude gave up six earned runs on 76 pitches. That’s one run for every 12.6666666667 pitches thrown (how’s that for some meaningless sabermetrics?)!
Sorry Alex, but his performance stunk. And for the majority of the rotation has stunk over through the last turn of the rotation. If that’s a trend that is going to continue, then the Red Sox are about to have a big problem…
Boston’s starters have carried the team to a surprising .500 start at 27-27, which in and of itself isn’t anything to write home about. Again, they haven’t been a terrible team as many predicted, and they deserve credit for that… but they also don’t deserve a plethora of praise for it, either.
Without Boston’s starters, the Sox would be in a world of hurt — and they know that.
“I mean, shoot, they’ve been so, so good a third of the way through the season, so I think they’re the reason we’re at .500,” Rob Refsnyder said postgame Monday when I asked him about the importance of the rotation’s early-season success for the offense. “They keep us, seems like, in every game, so as an offense we’ve got to step it up obviously.”
There’s truth in Ref’s words, certainly. During the team’s recent rotation relapse, the offense hasn’t done much — scoring three or fewer runs in four of the last five games. The offense is definitely deserving of blame here, but you’re also not going to win many ballgames when your team is giving up nearly 4 1/2 runs per game…
So, here we are, sitting at .500 on May 27th. The results haven’t been bad, but they haven’t been great either. But it’s getting pretty late in the season for the team to be treading water if they wan’t to make a playoff push.
Fortunately, they seem to think their best days are ahead of them...
“We’ve got to continue to pitch, we’ve gotta be better defensively. I think the other aspects of the game are gonna be fine,” Cora said. “Obviously, we’re missing three big bats in the lineup, but the guys that are playing are doing an outstanding job. … We feel good where we at. Obviously, it’s not enough, but I feel really good with the group and what we were able to do in this first (third) of the season.”
“I like where we’re at, honestly,” Refsnyder noted. “I think we’ve got some really good baseball ahead of us.”
No, it’s not enough, Alex. I’m not sure if you should like where you’re at, Rob. But, in fairness, the rest of the story remains to be written.
Only 108 more pages left…
Gethin Coolbaugh is a columnist for Boston Sports Journal. Follow him @GethinCoolbaugh on X/Twitter.