Latest Red Sox Pitching Experiment Reeks of Desperation
By Kevin Aquino
Desperate times call for desperate measures, and the Red Sox feel desperation crawling up their necks.
Boston is currently 63-59, good for third place in the AL East, and nine games behind the second-place Rays. Their pitching rotation has been all over the place, with Andrew Cashner stinking it up in the starting rotation and picking up his first career save in an extra-innings win against Cleveland last night.
Cashner closes it out. ? pic.twitter.com/4GApFQOG94
— Red Sox (@RedSox) August 14, 2019
Nathan Eovaldi was expected to start against the Indians today, but was slotted into yesterday's eighth inning. The short-sighted play worked in the immediate future given that Boston eventually did win, but Brian Johnson will now have to start in place of Eovaldi.
That's not ideal.
This is actually hilarious. Cashner’s 1.91 WHIP since coming to the Red Sox is the worst in baseball. Good for Vazquez for not sugarcoating it. pic.twitter.com/DTGAKqkYO3
— Jared Carrabis (@Jared_Carrabis) August 13, 2019
The Red Sox near the bottom of the MLB in team ERA at 4.81, sitting at 22nd in the league. The shuffling of pitchers and lack of consistency could lead to Boston's off-the-cuff approach blowing up in their faces as their playoff hunt goes on.
Boston lost three straight games before Tuesday's win in Cleveland. And Alex Cora is not inspiring a ton of confidence that he has a sustainable plan going forward.