BOSTON — Sometimes, it seems as if Alex Cora is holding nightly auditions among his relievers.
One night, he tries one combination. The next night, he goes with another. Some nights, all the shuffling works. Some nights, it doesn’t.
On Tuesday, it worked well enough that the Red Sox got themselves a 9-4 win over the Texas Rangers.
It helped that the Red Sox had themselves a 6-0 lead after five. Starter Kutter Crawford retired the first 15 hitters he faced, and was perfect entering the sixth. He remained that way when shortstop David Hamilton made a terrific play on an in-between hop for the first out of that inning.
Then, Crawford came undone as the next four Rangers all reached, ending the perfect game and the shutout in the span of a few hitters. Before Crawford could record another out, the Rangers had scored two runs and had two runners on base.
Cora first turned to Cam Booser, who failed to retire anyone as he yielded a run-scoring single and two more walks. Next up was Lucas Sims who got a loud lineout and a strikeout.
Spin the wheel. If it’s not working, try someone else. Keep shuttling pitchers in until you find the right mix.
“We’re going to be aggressive,” vowed Cora. “We’re going to use everybody and we’re going to try to get 27 outs however we can to win games. We’re in the middle of a playoff chase and if I feel like that’s the moment of the game, that’s the moment of the game. Sometimes, it’s going to work; sometimes, it’s not going to work.
“But it’s not going to be for the lack of aggressiveness. If I feel like they’re throwing the ball well, we’ll keep rolling with them. If I fee like the matchups, benefit the bullpen, we’ll go to the bullpen.”
As Crawford was methodically mowing down the Texas lineup in the first few innings while the Red Sox were jumping on Rangers starter Jose Ureña for five runs in the fifth, it felt as though bullpen performance was going to be of little consequence on this night.
When Crawford took the mound for the sixth, he had thrown just 50 pitches, and while no one was realistically expecting a perfect game, a complete one didn’t seem very far-fetched. But then Crawford faltered and the conga line from the right field bullpen began in earnest.
That’s been a disturbing trend from the rotation of late. Brayan Bello managed to get through six the previous night, but the day before James Paxton was hobbling off the field a handful of pitches into the game. The day before, the Sox were forced to contruct a start from a handful of relievers after Nick Pivetta was given a few extra days to deal with what was ominously labeled “arm fatigue.”
Before that? Tanner Houck had given them six, but the last two starters on the road trip couldn’t get through five innings. There’s only so long that you can go more than a week with just two starts of six innings before it begins to catch up with you.
Now that Pivetta is tiring and Paxton is almost certainly done for the season, it’s not going to get any easier. After the homestand concludes Wednesday night, the Red Sox face two first-place teams over the next seven games — all of them on the road.
Nor can the Red Sox keep asking more than three outs from Kenley Jansen without tempting fate…or injury. Jansen saved them with a four-out save Monday night, the way he did a week ago in Kansas City. But how sustainable is that strategy?
In the absence of any reinforcements on the way, the Red Sox will continue to experiment. There are two newly acquired veteran relievers — Sims and Luis Garcia — to add to the equation.
On most nights, Cora can turn to Chris Martin for the eighth and Jansen for the ninth. The rest, leading up to the final two innings, when games are frequently won or lost, remains very much a work in progress.
And so Cora mixes and matches, searching for “pockets,” and mostly crossing his fingers. The fact is, this Red Sox bullpen is full of journeyman types who don’t have long track records of success. Both Booser and fellow lefty Bailey Horn fit that category, as does Zack Kelly.
“I feel like we’re trying to build some chemistry,” said Sims, “and build some momentum and get a good things rolling here.”
On Tuesday night, they rolled. There are no guarantees going forward.
