Pitcher who gets to Strut
Rick Porcello hasn’t had many opportunities to Strut this season but his latest outing is one he can feel good about.
The right-hander looked to be back in Cy Young form against the struggling Rays lineup on Saturday. Porcello earned his 10th win by shutting out Tampa Bay over 7 1/3 innings. He only struck out three batters against a lineup striking out more than any team in the league of late, but only walked one and scattered five hits.
It was the third time this season that Porcello lasted longer than seven innings and the first since he went eight in Los Angeles on July 23. It was only the second time that Porcello made it through a start without allowing an earned run and the first time he has done so since April 19 in Toronto.
With only two starts remains this season, Porcello is assured of avoiding the dreaded scenario of becoming the first Red Sox pitcher since 1930 to lose 20+ games in a season. He currently sits at 17 losses and no Red Sox pitcher has lost more than that in a season since 1965.
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It was never reasonable to expect that Porcello would repeat his breakout 2016 season but we had hoped that he wouldn’t revert back to his abysmal 2015 form. At least the results from this year haven’t been as bad as his first season with the Red Sox. Going forward, we should expect somewhere in the middle of those first two years in Boston, which is about where he’s at now.