Red Sox pitching has given up just 15 runs on this west coast trip. 15 runs in five games 15 runs in 45 innings of work. Take out Kluber’s last performance and it's TEN. Now the flip side. The Sox have scored ELEVEN runs in five games. TEN of those came in game one and two against the Padres.
This is what a .500 ballclub does. It either pitches well or hits well. It never seems to come together. Yes there are runs in the season where you can string together eight wins in ten, but then you immediately drop four of six. Win five and lose seven of the next ten. And it goes on and on and on for 162 games. Mystifying and maddening fan bases. The once hot Jarren Duran has one hit in his last nineteen at bats, Raffy Devers has three in his last twenty, Yoshida has six in his last twenty but just one RBI on this trip. Can’t drive in men who aren't on base now can he? Triston Casas? I'm going to have a stroke - two hits in his last fifteen AB. Seven of them ended with a strike three. Even Alex Verdugo has taken time off at the plate. He’s two for his last twenty and hasn't had a hit since game two of this west coast swing.
It’s maddening. And it isn't like they have faced Jake Peavy and Trevor Hoffman when they stopped for three in San Diego, Nolan Ryan and Frank Tanana are not warming up in the pen and taking the hill for the California Angels of LA , Anaheim and Orange county. Will the Sox come out of this funk? Sure, I have no doubt about it. But will the starting pitching keep giving them the outings. Will the bullpen stay as is or return to it's rock steady performances of early May? To contend you need both to happen for long stretches. You can sprinkle in a week or two like this as long as they aren't on top of one another, and this division is beating up on one another. So there is time and opportunity. Will the Sox grab it?
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