Red Sox manager Alex Cora defends his questionable bullpen decisions
The Boston Red Sox bullpen blew another lead on Tuesday when they had the chance to clinch the division. Is manager Alex Cora to blame?
A chance for the Boston Red Sox to clinch a third consecutive AL East division title slipped away following another bullpen meltdown against the New York Yankees on Tuesday.
This is nothing new for this team. Boston owns the best record in baseball but the rare occasions in which they lose are often blamed on the bullpen. The Red Sox have blown 12 save opportunities since the All-Star break, tied with the lowly Miami Marlins for the most in the majors. They have done so in 24 opportunities for a pitiful 50 percent conversion rate.
We can’t put all the blame on Craig Kimbrel, who has accounted for only three of those blown saves since the break and remains among the game’s elite closers. The rest of the bullpen has all too often failed to bridge the gap between the starter and Kimbrel.
While the front office will be ridiculed for not upgrading this bullpen at the trade deadline, how the available arms are utilized falls on the manager. Alex Cora has done a tremendous job in his first season at the helm of the Red Sox dugout but the one area where his decisions have been questioned is with his bullpen management.
Nathan Eovaldi was cruising through six shutout innings against the Yankees before Cora pulled him. He had only thrown 83 pitches, leaving us to wonder if Eovaldi should have been allowed to continue a bit longer.
That decision was magnified when Brandon Workman walked two of the three batters he faced to begin the seventh inning, followed by Ryan Brasier surrendering the game-winning three-run homer to Neil Walker.
Boston’s beat writers had questions about the manager’s strategy after the game. Cora had answers, as reported by WEEI’s Rob Bradford.
“We got to take care of him,” Cora responded when asked why he didn’t stick with Eovaldi. “He hadn’t pitched in a while. It was something coming in, I had an idea, we wanted six. That was a stressful inning, that sixth inning.”
Eovaldi tossed 20 pitches in the sixth inning, working around a leadoff double and a hit batter to escape a jam with the winning run on base. That’s a lot of high-stress pitches, which take more of a toll than pitches thrown in a clean inning.
While the pitch count seems low for a typical starter, keep in mind that this was Eovaldi’s first start since rejoining the rotation. His last appearance came out of the bullpen over a week ago. Eovaldi also hasn’t carried a heavy workload since joining the Red Sox, topping out at the 93 pitches he threw against the Yankees in his first start after he was acquired from the Tampa Bay Rays at the deadline. 83 pitches equal about his average outing with Boston.
The low pitch counts are by design. Eovaldi has been solid the first two times through the order but opposing lineups have battered him to the tune of a .288 average and .879 OPS when he faces hitters for the third time in a game. The top of the Yankees lineup stepped to the plate for a third time in the sixth inning, which by no coincidence was Eovaldi’s most difficult frame.
No matter how well he’s pitching, removing him at that stage of the game is typically wise.
Bringing in Workman to begin the seventh doesn’t raise any flags. He’s been one of Boston’s best relievers this season. He can get a bit wild at times, with his 3.7 BB/9 now matching his career-high, yet Workman is as trustworthy an option as the Red Sox had available for that spot. The pair of walks is hardly ideal but you live with the decision.
Turning the ball over to Brasier to face the switch-hitting Walker is a bit more questionable. Brasier has been a pleasant surprise for the Red Sox this season but it was equally surprising that Cora didn’t call on a lefty with the game on the line. Brasier has been far more successful against right-handed batters (.122/.148/.204) than lefties (.245/.293/.377) while Walker struggles against southpaws (.174/.237/.246).
Cora had his reasons for going to Brasier with one out and men on the corners instead of lefty Bobby Poyner.
“It was more about, if it was two outs with men at second he was coming in because (Luke) Voit was on the bench,” Cora said. “And I felt better with two outs and him able to expand the zone, up in the zone, and the changeups. If we walk him, we walk him and then we have Brasier for (Gleyber) Torres. But when we walked (Gary) Sanchez I wanted a groundball and we’ve seen Brasier has been able to do throughout the season. It didn’t happen today.”
Ok, there’s a lot to unpack here but let’s start with the obvious. If Cora called in a lefty then the Yankees would have countered by pinch-hitting with the right-handed Luke Voit. The 27-year old has been great since arriving in New York and has more pop than Walker. Given the choice, you would prefer to avoid Voit in that spot.
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Brasier has also been one of the few trustworthy setup options for the Red Sox this season, producing a 1.53 ERA entering last night. Prior to Walker crushing the ball into the stands, Brasier had allowed only one home run in his previous 29 appearances this season. Needless to say, Walker beating Brasier with a homer was unexpected.
It’s clear that Brasier was told to pitch carefully to Walker, as Cora alluded to with his nonchalant attitude toward the concept of walking him to get to Gleyber Torres. The rookie has tailed off in the second half after bursting onto the major league scene early this season. Brasier didn’t follow the plan, hanging a slider right in Walker’s wheelhouse. That’s on the pitcher, not the manager.
The part where Cora loses me is when he refers to the need for a groundball double-play as a reason for turning to Brasier. It’s a limited sample but Brasier’s 40.5 groundball percentage puts him outside the top 150 major league relievers (minimum 30 innings). Sure, it’s a higher rate than Poyner (34.0%) or fellow lefty Robby Scott (23.1%). That still makes Brasier far from the best option when you need a double-play. Brasier’s 8.10 K/9 is also one of the lowest strikeout rates among the potential bullpen options Cora could have used in that spot.
Was there a better option? Joe Kelly and Heath Hembree have a better strikeout and groundball rate but both have been unreliable lately. Matt Barnes remains unavailable due to a hip issue. It was too soon to think about Kimbrel.
The results didn’t pan out but Cora went with two of the guys he trusts most in that seventh inning and had reasonable explanations for his decisions.
We also have to keep in mind that the Red Sox are essentially using September as auditions for which relievers will make the postseason roster. A double-digit lead over the Yankees in the standings affords them the luxury of experimenting. Boston will still inevitably win the division, at which point this one loss will be shrugged off as nothing to worry about. Cora may have handled this same situation differently if this were a playoff game but he’s not in a position where every game needs to be treated as a do-or-die situation.
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We know the Red Sox bullpen has some issues but being managed by Cora isn’t one of them. As frustrating as it was to watch the bullpen let another late lead slip away, this loss does nothing to diminish the faith we should have in the manager’s ability to lead this team to championship glory.