The Red Sox might finally have some semblance of a pitching rotation after using 10 different starters through their first 20 games.
Nathan Eovaldi took the ball on Saturday night against the Yankees in the Bronx. Chris Mazza and Martin Perez will finish the four-game set, which runs through Monday night.
The Red Sox return home briefly next week for a two-game series with the Phillies at Fenway Park. Zack Godley and Kyle Hart will start against Philadelphia before Boston [...]
The Red Sox might finally have some semblance of a pitching rotation after using 10 different starters through their first 20 games.
Nathan Eovaldi took the ball on Saturday night against the Yankees in the Bronx. Chris Mazza and Martin Perez will finish the four-game set, which runs through Monday night.
The Red Sox return home briefly next week for a two-game series with the Phillies at Fenway Park. Zack Godley and Kyle Hart will start against Philadelphia before Boston hits the road again to battle the Orioles.
"Not often I give you guys all those names," Red Sox manager Ron Roenicke said.
Eovaldi boasts the only two quality starts of the season for the Red Sox. He’s the lone pitcher to work through the sixth inning, doing so twice. Boston is a miserable 1-13 in games in which Eovaldi and Perez don’t start.
"We know we need to come out winning ballgames as opposed to now — we have to make up some games," Eovaldi said on Friday. "We know we have to come back and we’ve got to do everything we can to start winning ballgames."
Red Sox starting pitchers entered Saturday with a 6.48 earned-run average, the second-worst mark in baseball. Only the Tigers and their ghastly 7.47 ERA were ranked lower than Boston. The Diamondbacks (6.29) were the only other team above 6.00 and just nine teams check in above 5.00.
"We’re trying to be a little bit more specific in what we’re doing," Roenicke said. "I know we can’t do that all the time because of the personnel we have.
"We’ve talked about if a couple of guys step up in the starting rotation and give us the good feel that we can keep sticking with them every five or six days. That allows things to settle down a little bit more."
The Red Sox are down a pair of left-handers with Chris Sale (left elbow) out due to Tommy John surgery and Eduardo Rodriguez (myocarditis) experiencing a complicated recovery process from COVID-19. Boston also traded David Price to the Dodgers and allowed Rick Porcello (Mets) to leave in free agency during the offseason.
"I think originally we were thinking about four (starters), and I didn’t think that was an issue at all," Roenicke said. "Then we got down to three and I was like, ‘OK, we can do that.’ Now when we got down to two, it makes it difficult."
The Red Sox are in the midst of a philosophical shift ushered in by chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom. Boston didn’t bother to fill all of its rotation spots prior to Opening Day and planned on using an opener at least once each turn. The Red Sox posted a 4.95 ERA last season, which ranked just 19th among the sport’s 30 clubs.
"It’s more difficult, yes," Roenicke said. "But we kind of went through the same thing last year too, and we did have a set rotation. So it’s not always just that."
Hart made his debut on Thursday against the Rays and recorded just six outs in a 17-8 defeat. Tampa Bay plated a pair of unearned runs in the top of the first inning and put its first six men on base in the third. Hart was a top-30 prospect in the Boston system per MLB.com and represented an increasingly rare homegrown starter drafted and developed successfully by the Red Sox.
"It’s hard when you put a lot of pressure on a guy — ‘If you don’t have a good start you’re not going to get another one,’ " Roenicke said. "I don’t want them to think that way. We certainly would never tell them that.
"But I think if it happens a lot they see that and they feel that way. We don’t want to put that extra pressure on them. It’s hard enough to do well and perform here in the big leagues. Just go out there again and relax and pitch the way that you can, and hopefully we get a good start from him."
bkoch@providencejournal.com
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