Strutting Candidates: A recap of the Red Sox pitching staff last week
With Chris Sale at the top of the rotation and David Price on the DL, it was obvious that Boston would need someone else to step up in 2017. Many fans hoped that Cy Young Award winner Rick Porcello would continue his run right into this year and be that clear number two in the rotation. Unfortunately, that hasn’t quite been the case thus far. Porcello seems to be laboring a bit more this season, and he got clobbered on Friday night by the Rays. He wasn’t able to keep the ball down and paid for it going only 4.1 innings and giving up eight runs on eight hits. He also allowed a ridiculous four homeruns.
Steven Wright still doesn’t look like the same guy that many were clamoring for to start the All-Star game last year. He couldn’t get out of the second inning against Baltimore Wednesday night and also gave up four home runs. Sure, he regrouped with a better performance on Marathon Monday but it’s tough to get that awful taste from the Orioles game out of my mouth.
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Eduardo Rodriguez is starting to cement himself as a solid middle of the rotation arm. It would be nice to see him extend his outings beyond the fifth or sixth inning, but allowing just two runs with eight strikeouts is a very good start for the lefty.
The bullpen has been better in week two for Boston. They didn’t have any major meltdowns, although they did get hit around by the Orioles in Wright’s start which is to be expected when you have to go to the pen in the second inning. Craig Kimbrel now has six saves on the season and has looked pretty good, even dominant at times versus the Rays over the weekend.
The strut runner-up this week is definitely Drew Pomeranz. In fact, I almost was ready to award him the honors, but I just couldn’t get passed allowing two home runs and only getting through 4.1 innings on Sunday against Tampa. He did have ten K’s though. And last Tuesday against Baltimore he had a great showing going six innings and allowing just one run on four hits with a walk and six strikeouts. You can’t ask for much more from Pomeranz, except to last a bit longer in the game on Sunday like Maureen Mullen notes on MLB.com. That is very close to strut-worthy, but it just wasn’t quite enough.