Red Sox: Reviewing the weekend series in the Bronx

Game three: Not as much fun as game two.

Then Sunday happened. David Price allowed not one, not two, but five home runs over 3 1/3 innings. To add insult to injury he gave up eight runs, all earned, on nine hits to the Yankees.

Once again the Red Sox offense was virtually nonexistent. They went 4-31 as a team at the plate as they couldn’t solve Luis Severino all night. Severino allowed two hits over 6 2/3 innings in a masterful performance.

While the series could’ve gone better, there are some good things to take away. However, there are also a lot of bad things to take away.

What can we take away from the series?

First off, Sale was masterful against the Yankees on Saturday. According to his history, that performance was no surprise.

However, look at this game from the Yankees perspective. Gray, who has clearly struggled all season, was his opponent. As a result the Red Sox were able to provide Sale with run support. Now, picture a few months down the road come playoff time.

If these two teams are to meet the chances of Sale facing Gray are slim to none. His counterpart would most likely be Severino. Which, based off of his last two performances against the Red Sox, will be a tough task for the Sox lineup.

Therefore, Sale can pitch as great as he wants. However, it won’t mean a thing if the Sox can’t get to Severino.

Although it happened once in the series, the Sox were able to put up runs against the Yankees bullpen. On Saturday the Yankees pen allowed five earned runs against the Sox. There’s a couple things to keep in mind while taking this in.

Some good and some bad.

First of all, the Sox proved they can score against one of the league’s best bullpens. However, they also did so in a blowout and just once in three games. This is where the saying “baby steps” comes into play.

Sure, when looking at the bigger picture the Yankees pen handled the Sox all series, besides Saturday, of course. However, not many teams have been able to put up one, let alone five runs, against the Yankees pen. Although it would’ve been nice to see some balance in terms of the Sox showing promise in each game against the Yankees bullpen, the tagged them very hard once.

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Come playoffs, however, this won’t be acceptable. Good thing the Sox have eight more cracks against the Yankees and their pen this season.

Lastly, the Sox need to figure out who else can pitch to the Yankees. Sale has proven he can dominate their lineup top to bottom. Rick Porcello has thrown twice this season against the Yankees and both games have been different stories.

In April at Fenway Park, Porcello threw a seven inning gem as he allowed no runs on two hits. Then in May at Yankee Stadium he lasted 5 1/3 innings while allowing five earned runs on eight hits. There needs to be some consistency there.

Consistency is the name of the game.

On the topic of consistency, Rodriguez needs to find some against the Yankees. Such as with Porcello, Rodriguez threw one good game against the Yankees earlier in the season before his poor performance on Friday. In May, Rodriguez lasted 5 innings in the Bronx while allowing no runs on one hit. However, pitch count was his issue as he allowed three walks.

Then there’s Price. By now you’ve seen Price’s numbers against the Yankees, not much more needs to be said. However, that doesn’t mean there’s not much to be done. Someone in the Sox clubhouse, or Price himself, need to figure out how to pitch to the Yankees. Forget throwing at Yankee Stadium, he needs to be bale to be on the mound against the Yankees. If thing’s aren’t figured out the Sox may want to leave him out of the rotaion against the Yankees in the playoffs if that series happens.

The conclusion?

Moving forward the Red Sox need to be more consistent as a team against the Yankees. Good hitting and good pitching may not always pair up such as it did for the Sox on Saturday. They need to be bale to keep themselves in games if pitching falls off against the Yankees one night. The same goes for pitching. If the bats aren’t on that night the pitching staff needs to buckle down.

Next: Which Red Sox players should go to the All Star game?

After this series there’s no reason to be worried. The season series is still close as the Yankees hold a 5 games to 4 advantage. However, this is the series the Sox need to go back and look at to help improve against the Yankees. As there were some good things to take away and build off of, there were many bad things they need to look at and fix.