It's really difficult to criticize a team just hours after a thrilling walk-off victory over an arch-rival.
But watching yesterday's 11-inning Red Sox/Yankees gem unfold--and believe me, there was nearly five hours worth of baseball to ingest--could do nothing to quell a growing concern.
The Boston Red Sox need pitching and they need it in the worst way.
Don't get me wrong, I love watching the likes of Drake Britton and Pedro Beato navigate extra innings baseball as much as the next guy, but in order to fend off an increasingly potent American League East Boston will need more in the reliability column.
Last night, Ryan Dempster labored through two innings, throwing over 50 pitches and quickly falling behind 3-0. Yet the Red Sox eventually scored seven straight runs, spotting Dempster--a notorious innings-eater--a four run lead which allowed him to pitch into the sixth inning.
A division leading team in the confines of its own ballpark is expected to hold a four run lead, especially with a series on the line and gargantuan match-ups against Tampa Bay and Baltimore on the immediate horizon.
Boston coughed it up quickly.
Craig Breslow, who inherited a three-run lead and two baserunners, promptly allowed back-to-back singles and a run. He came back out for the seventh inning and quickly allowed both Vernon Wells and Eduardo Nunez to reach base before being relieved for Junichi Tazawa.
Tazawa, who has seen his velocity drop since the beginning of the season, could not get out of the jam. Thankfully, all's well that ends well.
But the Red Sox inability to get out of a jam posed a reasonable question; who can John Farrell rely on?
According to Brooksbaseball.net, Tazawa saw his four-seam fastball velocity drop over a mile per hour from April to June before seeing a slight increase in July. He's also seen the amount of swings and misses generated on his split-fingered fastball cut in half.
The trend points to Tazawa's early season usage potentially wearing him out, a troubling sign for a critical reliever in the bullpen. Tazawa, a starter-turned-reliever, has already set a career-high in appearances and has thrown just one inning less than last season, a season in which he came back from Tommy-John surgery.
And if Tazawa is not who he once was, who can Farrell turn to in order to bridge the bullpen to Uehara?
Craig Breslow, the first lefty out of the bullpen, is stranding only 71.8% of runners on base and is posting a career-low in strikeouts per 9 innings with 5.03.
Matt Thornton is the newest addition to the bullpen but has struggled so far in Boston and has seen his fastball velocity decline from 96.5 MPH in 2011 to 94.5 MPH in 2013.
Other options include Britton, Beato, and Jose De La Torre.
Gulp.
And if the Red Sox are struggling to find answers in the 7th and 8th innings, how much longer can Uehara's magic run? Dominant since inheriting the closer role, Uehara has also struggled with heavy workloads and doesn't possess typical "stuff" for a back-end reliever.
The pitching woes don't end in the bullpen either. Clay Buchholz hasn't pitched since June 8th and is scheduled to visit medical grim reaper Dr. James Andrews. Jon Lester has shown outward signs of frustration with the media and has posted an ERA north of 6.00 in his last handful of starts.
As of now, Boston is treading water much in part due to resurgences from John Lackey and Felix Doubront. Tonight, they lean on Brandon Workman for stability. That's far from reassuring.
Fans and media personalities will clamor for Ben Cherington to "makes moves" and "get aggressive" at the trading deadline, imploring the Red Sox to magically fix everything at once. But for a team which is no stranger to how crucial pitching is to overall success (2011 anybody?), Cherington is faced with a difficult decision.
Where does he start?
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