Red Sox starting pitching impresses in first turn through the rotation
Entering the 2024 campaign, the Red Sox starting rotation was full of question marks. Through five games, the Red Sox have started to change the narrative with a string of impressive starts, creating excitement about what this group can accomplish.
In the first Opening Day start of his career, Brayan Bello set the tone. The talented 24-year-old held the Mariners to one run in five innings of work. Nick Pivetta followed Bello with a dominant outing, striking out 10 Mariners batters in six innings.
On Saturday night, Kutter Crawford struck out seven batters and allowed one unearned run. Although the Red Sox lost in extra innings, Crawford put together arguably one of the best starts of his career. It was an encouraging sign for the Red Sox as Crawford continued to build on his success in the spring.
While the Red Sox have also gotten timely hitting, a big reason for their early success has been pitching. They were able to split their series with the Mariners due to an eight-strike-out performance by Garrett Whitlock on Sunday. Entering play on Monday, Sox starters had a 1.64 ERA, the second-lowest mark in the majors. That number continued to drop after Tanner Houck held Oakland scoreless in six innings of work.
With the first turn of the rotation in the books, the Red Sox have plenty to be happy about. So far, pitching coach Andrew Bailey has gotten the most out of his new staff, which will be critical to this team making a playoff run.
Additionally, each starter has pitched at least five innings. That is not something the Red Sox accomplished last year when they put a lot of pressure on the bullpen. That has been due to Red Sox pitchers such as Nick Piveta making adjustments.
“You saw his stuff, it's really good,” Red Sox manager Alex Cora told reporters following Pivetta’s first start of the season. “Today, finally, the breaking ball played. He struggled with it the whole spring, and tonight he threw it for strikes. The cutter was good. The sweeper was great. The fastball played at 93-94 [mph]. So it was a good one.”
Although the season is far from over, the Red Sox could not have asked for much more from their starters. Over the last week, they have shown that they are better than some had predicted while racking up strikeouts at will.
