The Pitching
Until this streak, I was uncertain if the pitching would be able to maintain its end of the bargain, and failure to do so would translate into an early exit from the postseason. I have no distress admitting that my trepidations regarding our pitching left me dubious regarding a deep post-season run; however, with every well-pitched game, I began to believe more and more that 2016 could be a magical year.
I would like to quickly cite and comment on the brilliant pitching performances authored throughout this streak. My intention is to demonstrate how virtually every pitcher contributed to this streak by performing at levels of which I did not believe that they were capable.
During this seven-game winning streak, the Red Sox have received four “Quality Starts,” two from Clay Buchholz, one from Rick Porcello and one from Eduardo Rodriguez. It follows that three of the seven starts were not of the “Quality” variety. The fact that we were able to emerge triumphant in all three non-quality starts is a tribute to the praiseworthy performance of our bullpen.
Throughout the season, Red Sox starters have provided 83 Quality Starts. In those 83 starts, our record is 57 victories and 26 defeats. When our starters do not deliver Quality starts, our record is 31 victories accompanied by 38 defeats.
The major reason for our futility in non-quality starts is that, until very recently, our bullpen has been dreadful; however, during this winning streak our bullpen has been fantastic. With the exception of Fernando Abad, who has pitched 0.1 innings during this streak and surrendered a two-run home run, our bullpen has performed flawlessly.
Abad excepted, our bullpen has failed to give up a single earned run during this winning streak, covering 22.1 IP. Never did I think that such a claim could ever be possible; however, Heath Hembree, Junichi Tazawa, Robby Scott, Joe Kelly, Robbie Ross, Brad Ziegler, Koji Uehara, Craig Kimbrel, and Matt Barnes, have all pitched at least one inning during our winning streak and nary a one has yielded an earned run!