Full Circle in Fenway

 

The Boston Red Sox began the season struggling to stay out of last, then became a 2nd place standout in May and June, and are now back to struggling to stay out of last. It's all cyclical, I suppose.

It's even more cyclical considering that a few years ago, the Sox were blocked from competing because of a lack of pitching. And now, the team is still without Chris Sale, they might be losing Nate Eovaldi to the IL, and they're relying on a lot of nobodies like Kutter Crawford and Brayan Bello to cover important innings. Guys...the ace of the Red Sox right now might just be Nick Pivetta. A year where the team was banking on Tanner Houck, hoping Sale would be back on time, and thinking they'd compete, and just...well, Rich Hill is plan C I guess.

It's just unsettling how many times the Red Sox pitching has just sort of thrown up their arms and shrugged. Garrett Whitlock has been starting games, then since he got back from the IL he's been relieving games, and it's sort of puzzling to me that he was starting games to begin with. Tanner Houck was moved to a closing spot, and now HE'S hurt. Kutter Crawford and Josh Winckowski have essentially been trading off the 5th starting spot. Both Bello and Connor Seabold have fumbled the bag when given a shot outside of AAA. It's...chaos. 

I mean, at the very least there's people like John Schreiber who can come in and do solid relief work despite no one having heard of them. Schreiber is breaking out at 28 after two middling seasons with the Tigers, and he's clearly the best reliever on the team. Matt Barnes, Ryan Brasier and Austin Davis are all struggling, Matt Strahm and Hirokazu Sawamura are good but imperfect, and Schreiber has just been impressive as hell, with a 2.39 ERA and 59 Ks. He's not as flashy as, say, Rafael Devers and Xander Bogaerts, but right now this team can take efficient over flashy if it means staying in the wild card race.

And, yeah, the Sox are still technically in the wild card race, but they're behind the White Sox, who also have a flawed postseason case. They could still catch fire and make this happen, but I fear they'll be in their own way with their pitching woes again.

Coming Tomorrow- Some career minor leaguer who finally made it up in one of the worst markets in baseball and is making news.