Red Sox takeaways from series finale: Bullpen blows league-high eighth save, Crochet avoids serious injury, Boston back to .500 in standings

The Red Sox avoided a disaster on Sunday afternoon.

In the top of the fourth, Garrett Crochet was hit in the side of the face by an 86.7 mph line drive off the bat of Carlos Correa. Fortunately for the Sox and Crochet, he was able to turn his body as the comebacker came whizzing by his face, and the ball clipped his nose.

Kristian Campbell threw Correa out as Crochet gathered himself on the mound. He was startled by being hit, which caused watery eyes and some blood. He never considered coming out of the game. The southpaw was immediately attended to by the trainer and Alex Cora, and after he regained his composure, he remained in the game and struck out the next batter, Jonah Bride.

“It barely grazed me,” said Crochet after the game. “Honestly, just more shaken up with additional impact than anything.”

Byron Buxton crushed the ace left-hander’s first pitch of the game, a high fastball, into the Monster Seats. It was the only run allowed by Crochet in the outing.

“I’d say I don’t really get a ton of swings, typically, the first pitch of the game,” Crochet said. “That’s just what they were trying to do, get swings off early. Later in the game, their approach got a little bit more passive.”

Crochet went five innings, allowing the one run on four hits with two walks while striking out six. He threw 89 pitches, 54 for strikes, and drew 14 whiffs, tossing 15 four-seam fastballs that averaged 94 mph, roughly two miles per hour slower than his season average (95.9 mph), per Baseball Savant.

“I felt like I was competing early; obviously my velo was down, but I felt like for the most part until the fifth inning I was commanding counts pretty well,” Crochet said. “Just got away from me a little bit in the fifth, threw a couple too many pitches, and kind of took the sixth off the table for me.”

There was a dip in velocity, but Crochet wasn’t sure what led to that on Sunday.

“Not quite sure, to be honest,” said Crochet. “My bullpens in between starts. I’m working on my mechanics, trying to clean up command as a whole, and velocity as well. It’s the first week of May. That’s kind of just what I’m chalking it up to.”

Crochet has a 2.02 ERA through eight starts this season. His five-inning outing on Sunday was his shortest in a Sox uniform since his first appearance on Opening Day in Arlington, Texas.

“The walks put him in a bad spot,” said Cora. “He talked about it. He didn’t realize the pitch count was up there. He was efficient early on, then he had to work hard to get the outs in the fifth.”

BULLPEN BLOWS ANOTHER ONE

Over the past week, the bullpen has continued to be the team's Achilles' heel, blowing another lead in Sunday's 5-4 loss.

On Wednesday, Lucas Giolito left with a 6-3 lead against the Blue Jays after tossing six innings in his first start back in 17 months. The lead quickly evaporated after Garrett Whitlock allowed a three-run to Anthony Santander. Justin Slaten would allow the game-winning hit in extra innings to Alejandro Kirk.

The following night, Slaten had a 2-1 lead in the eighth inning, following Tanner Houck’s best start of the season. With first base open and two runners on, Slaten gave up a three-run blast to Vladimir Guerrero Jr.

On Sunday, Whitlock entered the game with a 3-1 lead in the sixth inning. Following a strong sixth where he set the Twins down in order, in the seventh inning he once again blew another late lead. After a leadoff walk to Harrison Bader, he gave up a one-out hit to Christian Vazquez to move Bader to second. Ryan Jeffers tied the game with a two-run single to left field.

“A walk and two singles,” Whitlock said. “The first inning was really good and then a leadoff walk and two singles scored two runs.”

“If you look at the pitch to Jeffers, it was right down the middle,” Cora said. “He hung an offspeed pitch in the middle.”

Whitlock added, “My stuff was good today besides the hanging slider.”

David Hamilton didn’t help the bullpen’s cause in the eighth inning after Correa’s sharp liner deflected off his glove. Although Hamilton continues to receive playing time, he is not contributing significantly either offensively or defensively. Equally as pathetic of a misplay in the infield, the official score called the play a hit. Slaten was hit with two earned runs that clearly were unearned. With the likes of Nick Sogard and Vaughn Grissom in Worcester, at some point the front office needs to consider demoting the speedy Hamilton.

Slaten followed that by giving up an RBI double to Bader that went off the Green Monster. The Twins later added an insurance RBI single by Trevor Larnach.

“I mean, if you look at the pitch to Jeffers, it was right down the middle,” Cora said after the game. “He hung an off-speed pitch down the middle. The fastball to Bader was up in the zone. He was hunting, and he got it, and he put a good swing on it.”

Slaten made no excuses for his performance on Sunday.

“It’s three games in a row now for me where I felt like I've had really good stuff. And I'm getting ahead of guys, getting the swing and miss, but it's not happening in the two-strike counts, and that’s what matters most,” Slaten said. “And that's the most frustrating part about it, is that I feel like I'm shooting myself in the foot when I get to those positions, and I’m not executing.”

The Red Sox have eight blown saves this season, which is tied with the Phillies for the Major League lead. Boston ranks 14th in the majors in reliever ERA (4.22).

“Tough week for the bullpen,” said Cora. “We had good stuff. They’re good pitchers. Just have to make adjustments. Like I said before the game, we have to make sure we execute. There were a lot of two-out hits and two-strike hits, and we’ve just got to be better.”

All four of the Twins runs scored in the seventh inning came with two outs, and the Sox fell back to 18-18 for the season.

LACK OF EXECUTION; WHO'S TO BLAME?

What is Cora’s obsession with using Whitlock for two innings at a time in each outing?

For the better part of the month of April, Whitlock was a lockdown reliever, posting a 1.72 ERA. Whitlock has gone two innings in eight of his 12 appearances. In those 16 innings of work, he’s allowed eight earned runs off 13 hits and has allowed five earned runs in his last four innings pitched.

Cora’s bullpen management is something that should be questioned considering it appears he only trusts Whitlock, Slaten, and Greg Weissert the most outside of Aroldis Chapman. The Red Sox closer has been dominant, recording a 1.59 ERA with a 38 percent strikeout rate, according to FanGraphs.

Boston opted to send right-handed reliever Luis Guerrero back to Triple-A Worcester this weekend to make room for Brennan Bernardino (bereavement list). In three games with the big club, Guerrero has three strikeouts in four innings pitched with a 0.25 WHIP.

In years past, the Red Sox' starting pitching was an issue, putting pressure on the bullpen to pitch earlier in games. This season, the Sox’ rotation has tossed an MLB-high 199 innings and has averaged 5.5 innings per game, which ranks fourth in the majors, according to MLB.com.

“We have to execute,” Cora emphasized prior to Sunday’s game. “We need to be better, especially late in games. That’s the most important thing. When it’s a breaking ball with two strikes, don’t be afraid to bounce it; get it down. If it’s a fastball up, it’s up—not in the middle of the plate. I think that’s an ongoing conversations. Obviously they don’t want to do it—they don’t want to hang a breaking ball, but we need to start executing.”

The Sox bullpen failed to execute and needs to find a solution in the bullpen before these losses, like the ones to the Blue Jays and Twins this week, pile up as the Sox embark deeper into the season. 

Cora can only use the players that the front office makes available on the roster. The skipper needs to make better decisions on how he'll utilize his relievers. 

It's still puzzling why Cora didn't walk Guerrero Jr. before his big three-run blast in the series loss to the Blue Jays. 

With the Sox up 4-2, the Jays had two runners in scoring position and one out. Instead of putting Guerrero Jr. on with an intentional walk, Cora had Slaten pitch to the slugger, and it burned the Sox.

“You know what? I thought about it, and probably if it’s in the World Series, I would have walked him... and we can’t play them in the World Series,” Cora said.

Cora’s response was pretty disingenuous, and those kinds of remarks are becoming par for the course when a reporter challenges him on in-game decision-making.

"The walking part of it — I get it,“ the manager said. ”It’s Vladdy Guerrero. We had him 0-2. We didn’t execute pitches after that. There’s a two-way street here. And I get it. Probably, in the ALCS, I’ll walk him. But right now in April and May, I’ve got to trust my guy. I’ve got to give Justin the leeway that he can do the job. And he has been great for us. Yesterday, he didn’t execute three pitches: a 1-2 breaking ball (to Lukes), a 1-2 breaking ball (to Bichette), and a 3-2 breaking ball (to Guerrero). We learned from that. I learned from that, too. Maybe next time we face them, we’ll think about it, right?

“It’s all about trust right now. We have a lot of young players on this roster. Where we’re going — well, it might be decided from yesterday; we might lose the wild card or division by one game, and it’s on me — but I think the way I manage right now, especially with this group, you‘ve got to be very patient because I truly believe this is a very talented team. It’s not like last year, where you have to go pedal to the metal and, ‘Ok, pinch hit in the fifth’ or ‘walk this guy’ and try to will wins out there. No. You trust Justin Slaten in that situation. It didn’t happen. That’s being honest with you."

Cora punted on the possibility of winning a game in April in order to build “trust” with Slaten. These losses in April and May could come back to haunt the Red Sox if they have true plans of playing in October.

HOW THE SOX SCORED

Trailing 1-0 in the second, catcher Carlos Narváez (1-for-3, 2 RBI) put Boston on top 2-1 with a two-run single to left field. The Sox added another run in the third inning when Romy Gonzalez hit a sacrifice fly ball that gave them a 3-1 lead.

Gonzalez, who will see an uptick in playing time at first base, collected three hits on Saturday.

The offense went silent for the better part of four innings until the eighth, when Wilyer Abreu hit a solo shot, his seventh of the season, into the right field seats to cut the Twins' lead to 5-4.

Abreu went 3-for-4 with two runs scored and the solo blast; 15 of his 22 RBI this year have all come via the homer, including each of his last 10 RBI.

The Sox had a chance in the ninth, facing Twins closer Jhoan Duran when Ceddanne Rafaela reached on an infield hit with two outs.

In a match featuring two Durans, the Twins’ closer struck out Jarren Duran swinging to end the game with three pitches that were located down in the strike zone.

There’s no doubt the Red Sox offense is talented and, when clicking on all cylinders, can be a potent squad. Unfortunately, when they’re inconsistent or not hitting, the lineup can be incredibly frustrating to watch.

“Keep working,” said Cora. "That’s the most important thing. Wily, he put a good swing at the end. Hamilton hit the ball hard. Just got to keep working, and things are going to change.”

The Red Sox are also now 4-9 in one-run games, including 0-5 dating to April 24. They own nine one-run losses, which is the most by any team in baseball at this point of the season, and the club has now lost seven consecutive games decided by three runs or fewer.

RED SOX NOTES

• The Sox have lost four of their last five games and seven of their last 11, dating back to April 23. The last four losses have been by a combined five runs, and they’ve also dropped to 5-6-0 in series play this season.

•  The first month of the season has been a grind for the Red Sox, playing 36 of 39 games with only three days off built into the schedule.
  
  That will change moving forward, with the club seeing a day off each week except for one week this month. The majority of the built-in days off will be on Thursdays, and they’ll have a Thursday off for six straight weeks. Cora will have an easier time keeping players fresh with these days off being built into the Red Sox schedule.
  
  “I think obviously, position player-wise, we don’t have to have scheduled off days for them, and we’ll take advantage of it,” Cora said on Sunday to reporters before the game. “Pitching-wise, I think it’s too early to start skipping guys and moving guys around and getting (Garrett) Crochet out there every five days, because I think if we take care of them now, then in August and September we can play that game because the schedule is very similar to the off days.”

• The Red Sox will have Monday off and will look to regroup before welcoming the Rangers to Fenway Park on Tuesday night. Lucas Giolito is expected to make his second start following his season debut in Toronto last week, where he allowed three runs on five hits while walking two with seven strikeouts over six innings. The first pitch is scheduled for 6:45 p.m.