Red Sox Strut: Outfielder Mookie Betts, LHP Chris Sale
By Sean Penney
Pitching Candidates
Drew Pomeranz picked up a win in each of his outings last week to move to 8-4 on the season. He totaled 11 innings between the two starts, allowing only 1 earned run and tallying 10 strikeouts. The lefty has now allowed two runs or less in nine of his last 10 starts and owns a 3.64 ERA that ranks 11th in the league. He’s also fifth in the league among qualified starters with a 9.86 K/9 this season. The critics who bemoaned the trade for Pomeranz and wanted to run him out of town are slowly starting to fade away.
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We’re still waiting to see David Price return to form but there are signs he’s getting closer. He’s lasted at least five innings in every start this season and only once has allowed more than three runs. He turned in his second consecutive quality start last week, holding the Minnesota Twins to three runs on six hits over seven innings to earn the win. He didn’t walk a batter and struck out seven. Price’s overall season numbers still look bad in a small sample size due to one brutal outing in the Bronx. Take that away and he’s not far off from what we would expect him to produce.
Matt Barnes has also been showing signs of improvement lately. Much has been made about his drastic home/road splits this season, but his last two road appearances were promising. He tossed two innings in Friday’s extra-innings game in Toronto and got the final two outs of the seventh inning in relief of Rick Porcello on Monday.
Blaine Boyer notched his first win in a Red Sox uniform by tossing two scoreless frame of relief Friday night. He worked five innings out of the bullpen over the last week without allowing a run.