BOSTON — None other than Drew Pomeranz seemed to suggest his place in the Red Sox starting rotation could soon be in jeopardy.


 


The left-hander had just languished through a third straight ineffective outing on Saturday, one that was relegated to footnote status thanks to his offense. Boston’s bats did the heavy lifting in an 8-6 win over the Braves, and Pomeranz was long gone before Steven Wright picked up the win with three scoreless innings in relief. [...]

Bill Koch

BOSTON — None other than Drew Pomeranz seemed to suggest his place in the Red Sox starting rotation could soon be in jeopardy.

 

The left-hander had just languished through a third straight ineffective outing on Saturday, one that was relegated to footnote status thanks to his offense. Boston’s bats did the heavy lifting in an 8-6 win over the Braves, and Pomeranz was long gone before Steven Wright picked up the win with three scoreless innings in relief.

 

Pomeranz has required 273 pitches to record his last 32 outs, none of which have come in the fifth inning or later. His walk year into free agency has been a struggle from the start. He spent time on the disabled list with a flexor strain and hasn’t found anything resembling the form that made him Boston’s No. 2 starter a season ago.

 

“I’ve got to figure it out,” Pomeranz said. “I’m running out of time here. I need to start getting some results out there and getting to where I want to be.”

 

Boston manager Alex Cora said Pomeranz will make his next start on Thursday, opening a rematch of last year’s American League Division Series with the Astros. Cora is mindful of the slow start Pomeranz endured in 2017 and the way he was able to turn things around over the season’s final four months. Some ready, in-house options to replace Pomeranz for at least one turn haven’t tempted Cora just yet.

 

“You’ve got to trust the process,” Cora said. “He’s working. Obviously, we want the work to translate into the game. It hasn’t happened yet but it’s not lack of effort; it’s not lack of work.”

 

Pomeranz sported an ugly 5.29 earned-run average through seven starts last season, one he steadily lowered through his next 25 outings. The Red Sox went 18-7 in games in which Pomeranz took the ball, as he pitched to a 2.84 ERA and struck out 135 in 139 2/3 innings. Only four times in that span did Pomeranz fail to reach the sixth inning after doing so three times before May 20.

 

“It’s really frustrating for me to put in all this work and to go out there and know this isn’t me throwing right now,” Pomeranz said. “It’s really frustrating, especially as good as this team is.”

 

Chief among the concerns is the dip in fastball velocity for Pomeranz this season. He’s gone from 91.3 to 88.7 mph on that pitch, and opposing hitters are taking comfortable swings against him. They’ve averaged 11.5 hits per nine innings, up from 8.6 last season. That’s forced Pomeranz to nibble at the strike zone’s edges, and his walks per nine innings have ballooned from 3.58 to 5.34.

 

“When I get in a jam and bring out 93, 94, 95 — I don’t have that right now,” Pomeranz said. “My curveball — everything is just a few miles an hour off.”

 

Pomeranz has been tinkering with his mechanics between starts, consulting pitching coach Dana LeVangie and assistant pitching coach Brian Bannister. His best guess at the moment is a lack of sync between his upper and lower body, with some missing leg drive stripping a bit of his power to the plate. Pomeranz surrendered a two-run homer to Dansby Swanson and a ringing double off the Green Monster to Kurt Suzuki on Saturday, part of the five earned runs he allowed in just 3 1/3 innings.

 

“He was in the same spot last year and all of a sudden he turned it around,” Cora said. “We’ll go to Houston on Thursday and make adjustments in the next few days and see if it works out.”

 

Wright enjoyed the most successful of his four outings on Saturday, with left knee surgery and a Major League Baseball suspension for a domestic-violence arrest sidelining the knuckleballer through April. He’s allowed seven hits in 11 innings as a long reliever and he pitched to a 3.33 ERA while making 24 starts in 2016, the last time he was healthy for an extended stretch.

 

“My goal, I’ve already accomplished that,” Wright said. “It was to get back in the games. Like I’ve said since 2013, it doesn’t matter to me if I’m starting or relieving.”