Sox, despite a respectable showing, appear to be leaving the pen games in the past.
Red Sox relievers took the full game’s load for the second time in less than 48 hours. Boston lost both games, including a 3-1 loss to the Twins on Saturday, but the bullpen was not the cause of their failure.
Just two days after getting nine innings from five bullpen arms, including 4 1/3 innings from Josh Winckowski, in Thursday’s 3-1 loss to the Giants, manager Alex Cora managed to muster eight innings on Saturday from five relievers. The game on Saturday was a team effort because after Brennan Bernardino pitched the first and gave up an unearned run after a passed ball resulted in a grounder, the labor was divided fairly among the four arms.
Greg Weissert received the ball from him and used 29 pitches over two scoreless frames.
Cam Booser went next, and after throwing 22 pitches in 1 1/3 innings, he allowed Max Kepler to hit a solo home run. Despite stranding a runner on second base when he entered in the middle of the fifth inning, Justin Slaten let up a run in the sixth inning due to two wild pitches. In 1 2/3 innings, Slaten used 29 pitches in total.
At last, Chase Anderson entered the game and proceeded to throw 35 pitches in two scoreless innings, albeit with some drama during his performance. The first two hitters he faced he gave up a walk and a double, but buckled down and left both runners on base to get out of the jam. When you add it all up, you have a manager that is pleased with the way his relievers put together a strong outing despite the offense struggling for the third straight game.
Recalling the opening inning, Cora stated, “We had a batter, wild pitch, or passed ball, and they score one right away.” “We’ll take [Kepler’s] home run because nobody else is on and he hit it well.” And they added another point.
In general, though, that’s why I’m alright. We intend to make a pitch. And if we keep doing that, we can be sure that the offense will catch on and we will score runs. We simply didn’t win the first two.”
Connor Wong caught all five relievers, just as he was behind the plate for Thursday’s five-pitcher game, but he didn’t think the challenge was all that different from the way he usually handles relievers.
“It’s the same whether they come in late in the game or whenever that is,” Wong said. “It’s kind of the same plan for each of those guys. You try and execute their stuff. I thought they did a really nice job.”
Next week, the Sox have off days on either side of a two-game set in Atlanta that starts Tuesday. And starter Nick Pivetta is expected to return from the injured list to start on Wednesday. So while the bullpen games have generally worked out well, Cora is ready to put them in his rearview mirror He joked after the game, “Hopefully it’s the last one.” “We’re a little banged up going into tomorrow, but Kenley Jansen is pitching tomorrow; hopefully it’s the ninth.” Zack Kelly, Leonardo, and Cooper Criswell, our starter, are our options, but someone else needs to step up. We threw the ball well overall.
