BOSTON — Red Sox reliever Chase Anderson hasn’t pitched in many tight spots this season. He had faced 218 batters entering Saturday with 206 of those plate appearances being considered low leverage situations by Fangraphs.com.
But manager Alex Cora called upon the 36-year-old righty to pitch the 10th inning with Boston and New York tied 8-8 on Saturday.
Anderson allowed three runs, including the extra-inning automatic runner, on two hits and one walk. He was charged with the loss. The Red Sox dropped the second game of this three-game series, 11-8, in 10 innings at Fenway Park.
The rivals will play the rubber game Sunday at 7:10 p.m. on ESPN.
Why did Cora use Anderson in that spot?
“Where we are bullpen-wise, we needed Chase to go in there and finish the game,” Cora said. “So a tough one but I think we battled. The pitching part of it, we will be better. Our starters obviously have struggled lately going deep into the game. Kutter (Crawford) the last two. So just go back to the drawing board and be ready for the next one.”
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Crawford lasted 4 ⅔ innings Saturday, forcing Cora to use seven different relievers. Cora had used six relievers Friday after Brayan Bello went 5 innings.
Boston’s bullpen, therefore, is extremely taxed heading into Sunday’s series finale. Nick Pivetta went just 2 ⅔ innings Wednesday in Colorado. And so Red Sox relievers have had to cover a lot of innings the past three games.
The Red Sox moved Cooper Criswell to the bullpen Saturday after trading for James Paxton on Friday. Criswell threw 105 pitches Tuesday in Colorado. He would have been on short rest if Cora had used him.
Cora was asked if he would have used Criswell only in an emergency situation Saturday.
“Not emergency but where we’re at in the bullpen we need him tomorrow to go more than two innings,” Cora said. “(Greg) Weissert, too. Like I’ve always said, we have to manage today, tomorrow, the series, the week, the month. Where we’re at right now, it didn’t make sense to use him in a short stint. So he’ll be ready for tomorrow.”
