Massarotti: No Offense, But Red Sox Pitching Remains Greatest Concern
BOSTON (CBS) -- And so maybe this is how it's going to be in the 2015 American League East, which suddenly looks a great deal like the old NFC Central: 9-7, 9-7, 9-7, 8-8, 7-9. But then, as the saying goes, on any given Sunday.
Or Monday.
Or Tuesday.
Or Thursday.
You get the idea.
But while the commentary about the Red Sox today might concern their offense in the wake of a 2-1 loss to the impotent Tampa Bay Rays, don't get too caught up in what are, at the moment, some rather unsightly numbers. The Red Sox haven't hit for much of an average all season – they currently sit at .230, ninth in the league – but they are tied for fifth in runs. And with runners in scoring position, the Sox are batting a paltry .196, which is barely the weight of Dustin Pedroia or Brock Holt. (With two outs and runners in scoring position, the Sox' miserable .176 average ranks 14th among the 15 AL clubs, ahead of only the Houston Astros.)
Are those numbers worrisome? Sure. But baseball is almost always about the bigger picture, and one must assume that many of the individual batting averages on this team are headed up, from David Ortiz (.192) to Mike Napoli (.157) to Mookie Betts (.194) to Pedroia (.254).
All of that brings us back to Wednesday night and that absolute meltdown against the Tampa Bay Rays in the dungeonesque juice box known as Tropicana Field, when the Sox held a 5-1 lead in the sixth inning only to see the one unstained member of their starting rotation join the soiled masses.
Joe Kelly had a chance that night. He had a chance to own the void at the top of the Boston rotation, to declare, unequivocally, that the rotation was his. He had a chance to establish himself as the leader, as the one most reliable member of a group that has been unreliable and inconsistent. He had a chance to claim his place as the ace, however long it might have lasted, by completing the simplest task any pitcher is ever asked to accomplish.
Namely, throw a strike.
So what did Kelly do instead? He went out, with a four-run lead against a lineup of nobodies, and started playing pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey. In the span of 14 pitches, Kelly threw 10 balls and four strikes, the latter of which were all put in play for hits. He fell behind in the count repeatedly. He then departed with a 5-3 lead and the bases loaded, at which point Craig Breslow allowed an 0-2, two-run single to Brandon Guyer that tied the game and ultimately took what should have been an easy victory and turned it into a crushing loss.
One thing about that Guyer hit: following the game, Breslow suggested it wasn't a bad pitch, and he was right. For the most part, Breslow effectively jammed the right-handed-hitting Guyer, who nonetheless dumped a single into right-center field. Were Breslow a power left-hander instead of a finesse one, maybe he would have broken Guyer's bat. Maybe the pop would have reached only second base, where Pedroia might have devoured it. Maybe Guyer would have hit a dribbler back to the mound.
In the end, the point is that the Red Sox don't have enough power arms on their pitching staff, at the front end or the back. Yes, Kelly is an exception. To a degree, so are Junichi Tazawa, Alexi Ogando, and Robbie Ross. But take a good look at the Boston staff, from top to bottom, and you find many more pitchers who throw harder than, say, 91 or 92 miles per hour, which makes you wonder about how the Sox constructed their pitching staff all the way through, not merely at the top.
Ask yourself this: as a hitter, who is the one Sox pitcher who might make you feel, well, uncomfortable? The right answer: No one, not even Koji Uehara, who has looked something less than stellar, no matter what the numbers say. Against Washington in the home-opening series, Uehara hung a pitch to Ryan Zimmerman that was hit into Kenmore Square, barely foul. Against Tampa on Wednesday, he made the same mistake to a struggling Evan Longoria, who mysteriously let the pitch float by him.
Two years ago, in the playoffs, Longoria hit the same pitch – on that occasion, thrown by Clay Buchholz – for a crushing homer.
But back to the point: there's just not a lot of stuff on this staff, which should scare the life out of you.
Kelly, of course, is the consummate stuff guy, at least as it pertains to his fastball. He routinely hits 96 or 97 miles per hour on the radar gun. His ability to throw his off-speed pitches for strikes may ultimately be the key to his success. But on Wednesday, entrusted with a 5-1 lead against a very soft offense and with the Sox all but screaming for someone to take control of their rotation, Kelly simply coughed up a fur ball, putting the Red Sox pitching staff right back where it was as the season began.
Without any apparent leader.
And without one man – dare we say an ace? – that the other 24 players can truly rely on.
Tony Massarotti co-hosts the Felger and Massarotti Show on 98.5 The Sports Hub weekdays from 2-6 p.m. Follow him on Twitter @TonyMassarotti. You can read more from Tony by clicking here.
