Red Sox: Farrell and Pomeranz exchange words prior to fifth inning

Boston Red Sox manager John Farrell and left-handed starter Drew Pomeranz appeared to argue after the manager opted to go to the bullpen to start the fifth inning.

After throwing a total of 97 pitches to record just 12 outs, John Farrell decided that Drew Pomeranz‘s day was over. Evidently, Pomeranz wasn’t a fan of the decision and tried to plead his case for another inning, which Farrell was having none of. NESN cameras were able to capture the exchange between the two, which appeared calm until Farrell pointed towards the clubhouse and asserted his control of the team.

Red Sox fans will probably fall into one of two camps on this one. The first would be most popular among the #FireFarrell crowd. They likely see this as further evidence of Farrell’s incompetence and his inability to control the team. It doesn’t help that his move to the bullpen resulted in a three-homer inning for the Athletics that included a 460-foot bomb to left-center from Chad Pinder. Regardless, this group of Red Sox fans will spin anything related to Farrell into a negative.

Alternatively, this could just as easily be framed as a justified move from Farrell. Pomeranz was 97 pitches deep in an uninspiring pitching performance – who is he to argue with his manager?

Frankly, I can’t blame Farrell for losing patience with his pitcher. Pomeranz was brought in to be a stable arm in the rotation and has done anything but that since arriving in Boston. In 20 starts with the Red Sox and has gone six innings or deeper just seven times – only two of which have come this season. He’s been awful for most of the season and wasn’t much better today. Farrell had every right to yank him.

By the way, the last Red Sox pitcher to get into an argument with their manager over a pitching change was Wade Miley in 2015 after serving up his third homer of the game. That incident similarly led to a ton of reaction on Twitter and this absolute gem of a quote from Dennis Eckersley during the NESN post-game show.

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Either way you spin it, this is just a bad sign for the Red Sox. When a confrontational exchange between a manager and player is the highlight of the game, things can only be going poorly. The Red Sox have lost back-to-back games in the series and are in danger of falling to .500, trailing 8-3 at the time of writing.