There have been two phrases you could count on Alex Cora busting out at least a few times a week over the past month.
"We have been consistently inconsistent."
"We will see where we're at on Sept. 1."
Well, the first one seemed to be drifting off until Saturday night when the Angels' seven-run eighth inning led to a disastrous 10-4 loss for the Red Sox at Angel Stadium. All that goodwill which had built up heading into the final few innings, with Cora's club seemingly on its way to its sixth win in seven tries on the current road trip, just took a hard turn for the worse. (For a complete recap of the Sox' loss, click here.)
Instead of making up some ground on Oakland and Cleveland, both of which had already lost by the time the collapse came around, the Red Sox found themselves heading into the series finale 5 1/2 games out of a Wild Card berth.
So that leads us to No. 2. August is officially over so according to Cora, it is fair to take stock of the situation.
The reactionary approach toward figuring out the Red Sox' lot in life would be to highlight their 25th blown save of the season, along with the inability by Ryan Brasier -- one of the bullpen's original foundation pieces -- to hold the lead, instead getting charged with six runs on five hits over just 2/3 innings. But uncovering this team's true existence should be more about the beginning than the end.
Up until Brasier came in the bullpen did what it had been doing for the past month, picking up the slack. This time it was the combination of Josh Taylor (who is understandably running on fumes), Marcus Walden, Brian Johnson (4 innings) and Matt Barnes that allowed the Red Sox' to cling to their lead.
Since Aug. 1 the Red Sox bullpen has thrown the fourth-most innings in the majors while allowing the second-lowest ERA and batting average against.
That's all well and good. The danger here, at this designated check-in point, is two-fold: 1. That these relievers aren't equipped to do this for another month; 2. That the starters never allow for a relief-pitching respite.
Brandon Workman has pitched in 18 more games than his previous career-high. Marcus Walden is already at 68 2/3 innings. This is the first time Darwinzon Hernandez is being asked to pitch an extra month. Matt Barnes has pitched in 200 games over the past three seasons. All potential red flags.
After the disastrous start to August, it has worked for the most part, allowing the Red Sox hang around heading into the final 26 games. But it's hard to imagine the Sox duplicating their recent success without some sort of starting pitching cavalry coming to the rescue. That conversation obviously starts with the return of David Price -- who gets his first chance to grab the role of a get-on-my-back-boys-kind-of-ace Sunday. Then there is Nathan Eovaldi, who showed signs of stepping up Friday night with four solid innings. And, of course, there are Eduardo Rodriguez and Rick Porcello, who each have helped keep their club's head above water over the past few weeks.
Maybe the Sox can catch lightning in a bottle with newly-signed Jhoulys Chacin, whose last two outings with the Brewers resulted in a combined 11 runs over 5 2/3 innings. It might be a longshot, but without Chris Sale or a productive Hector Velazquez that -- along with some extra arms due to roster expansion -- seem to be where they are at.
To this point, it is hard to comprehend the starting rotation stepping up out of nowhere and changing a narrative that that was built on the 10th-fewest innings of any group of starters in the big leagues along with a collective ERA of 4.99. That is the Sept. 1 here and now. As Cora pointed out all along the way, this is the time to figure out how to adjust to where you're at and what you have.
Now that we've checked in, maybe we should reschedule once again. See you in a week.
