The emergence of Justin Slaten
Brayan Bello. Triston Casas. Liam Hendriks.
Remember them? They were all supposed to be part of the Red Sox' solution. Tuesday night during the team's 8-3 win over the Mariners they all finally lived that life.
The puzzle pieces are starting to fit, as the Sox' sixth win in their last seventh game would suggest.
It started with Bello, who hadn't pitched in a major league game due to a right shoulder issue. The anticipation and expectations that reside with the righty seem far different than a year before, when he served as the team's Opening Day starter. Now? The 25-year-old is somewhat of a conundrum.
As Red Sox manager Alex Cora pointed out before Bello's first start of the season, excusing the pitcher due to inexperience is a thing of the past. Yet, his up-and-down 2024 and slow start to this season certainly hasn't cemented any sort of benefit of the doubt.
Against the Mariners, Bello took a big step toward defining himself the kind of positive light many had been expecting for some time.
For the 18th time in his career, Bello pitched at least five innings while giving up one or fewer runs (games in which the Red Sox carry a record of 16-2). This time it was a five-inning, one-run outing. It was a reminder of how good - and how important - he can be.
Somebody else offering perhaps an even more potent - and important - reminder was Casas.
The struggling first baseman blasted a three-run home run in the seventh inning to help the Red Sox pull away, offering the image some had forgotten existed. The swing was a huge sigh of relief for both the player and the team, which is now 8-3 when Casas notches at least one hit.
Casas still isn't out of the woods yet, by any means. He is still just hitting .043 (2-for-46) against starting pitchers and only three other first basemen in baseball have worse batting averages than his .167. But, as was evident Tuesday night, even a slightly better Casas go a long way.
And, finally, there was Hendriks.
After an uneasy return to a major league mound Sunday after 681 days, the pitcher who many believed would be the Red Sox' game-ender finally ended a game. Three up. Three down. Seven pitches. Five strikes.
If Hendriks can start stringing these together, Cora's proclamation that his team has more than just Aroldis Chapman and Justin Slaten to close out games might actually be a thing.
And if all three of these players do what they did this time around, the Red Sox actually also might be a thing.