By: Declan Flavin | Follow me on Twitter / X @FlavinDeclan
The Boston Red Sox are a few games into the playoff bracket at this point, but there are always teams looming. This team has to make sure that its inefficiencies don’t allow another club to leapfrog them in the last few games of the season. The pitching, in particular, is a facet of the team that could catch up to the Red Sox in due time.
It’s an area that has performed well to this point, but cracks in the wall are starting to show, and they could lead to catastrophe. Certain bullpen arms have to gather themselves, and rotational pitchers need to avoid letting bad outings stack.
Relievers like Greg Weissert, Jordan Hicks, and Justin Wilson have to keep it together for the rest of the core. This is beginning to happen after the lesser relievers allowed another big lead against the San Diego Padres over the weekend to dwindle and require their star arms.
The roles given to them may be better than the potential of the player, but even so, they have managed to get this far, and falling off the rails now would put enormous amounts of stress on Aroldis Chapman and Garrett Whitlock. If Chapman and Whitlock are required for most games down the stretch, this team will simply flame out in a wild card scenario or miss the playoffs outright. At the least, these pitchers have to make the batters work a little harder, because walks are what’s making everything worse.
Similarly, Lucas Giolito, Bryan Bello, and Walker Buehler need to be at their best down the stretch if the Red Sox want to hang around. Buehler pitched six strong innings over the weekend, while Bello’s break on his pitches looked to have some major upside going forward.
Although Buehler has had his bumps, Giolito is a guy who can easily fall off the right path with a muscle tweak here or a bad outing there. Staying in the zone and staying healthy will be the ideal mix. He, despite common opinion, remains the most important piece in the rotation down the stretch.
The lesser arms in the bullpen and the middle of the rotation holding up is what will arguably carry the Red Sox to a much-needed postseason berth. The currently constructed offense, although dynamic, will not be the area of the team that can do the heavy lifting.
The middle of the pitching unit will allow the bigger arms to perform their best against the best. If these structural pieces continue to falter, look for chaos to ensue quick.
Flavin Media 
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