Red Sox are only competitive when Nathan Eovaldi pitches

How frustrating is it that the Red Sox can look like they’re contenders once ever five nights?

They did it again on Wednesday night, getting two runs off perhaps the best pitcher in baseball, Jacob deGrom, thanks to back-to-back doubles by Rafael Devers and Mitch Moreland. Nathan Eovaldi was a worthy starter across the diamond and gave deGrom his money’s worth.

And after Christian Vazquez led the charge off the Mets’ bullpen, the Red Sox sneaked away with a 6-5 win.

They’re now 2-0 when Eovaldi pitches and 0-4 when he doesn’t. Big surprise, huh?

Martin Perez and the field of journeymen/openers behind him have been as bad as expected.

The problem isn’t that the Sox are getting unpredictable performances out of their starting pitching on four out of every five nights. The problem is that it’s too predictable. It’s so predictable that the players in the dugout can feel it. They know what to expect, too.

Defacto team leader and shortstop Xander Bogaerts said it simply last week: “we know we don’t have the best pitching.”

He said it’s demoralizing to hit when your team is giving up close to 10 runs every night.

It’s not like this is a secret. Manager Ron Roenicke said the same thing on Tuesday when asked about the immense pressure on the hitters when the starting pitching is as bad as it’s been (and is expected to be).

“It makes a difference,” Roenicke said. “I’d like to say it doesn’t, that they’re the same hitters. But because I’ve played and been around so long, I know that anytime you have the momentum when you score early and you see teams that do score early, it changes the ballgame. It changes their attitude. They’re not pressing anymore. They’re relaxed. And they just keep piling it on.”

That’s why from Saturday through Tuesday, the Red Sox have been unwatchable.

Perez, Ryan Weber, Josh Osich and Matt Hall are fine pitchers at the back end of a staff or the back end of a bullpen on a mediocre team. But when you’re running them out on four consecutive nights to start for a team that has a $200 million payroll and an offense that can keep up with anybody, it’s going to change the attitudes of the players on the field.

At times in that stretch, the Red Sox looked like they weren’t even trying. Countless at-bats were given away. Some of their best pitchers were being used in a mop-up role.

Andrew Benintendi has talked about the oddity of losing four games in a row and barely seeing your teammates to talk about it. He said he goes days without seeing some of them, just going from home to his suite to the field and back, never crossing paths with the relievers in the bullpen or the depth players in the stands.

But who could blame the players for giving up?

Not only was there a pandemic threatening the season, but the front office sent a clear message this offseason that J.D. Martinez and Mookie Betts could not coexist on the same team. The Sox needed to save money and one of them probably needed to go.

Trading Betts while making only small additions elsewhere on the roster was the equivalent of waving the white flag.

And as Perez, Weber, Osich and Hall took the mound in Games 2 through 5 this season, it looked like the players had gotten the message. This season doesn’t matter. It’s a bridge year. And the bridge is falling apart.

On Wednesday, we got a glimpse of what could’ve been.

Eovaldi can hang with the best of them. He tired out in the fifth inning, but hung in there to make it a 2-2 game and turn it over to the bullpen.

And the Sox hitters didn’t give away at-bats against deGrom. They fought against 101 mph fastballs and biting changeups. They waited for one or two mistakes, and they hit some good pitches too. And when deGrom left the game, they jumped all over the Mets’ tired bullpen.

The Mets are a playoff caliber team with a Cy Young atop their rotation.

The Red Sox are going nowhere and look like they know it four out of every five nights.

But once or twice a week, we can watch them play behind Eovaldi with a great chance at an enjoyable, crisp and competitive ballgame.

Tune in next Tuesday, when he takes the bump vs. the Rays.

And not a day sooner.

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/2BHVDqn