Firing The Pitching Coach Didn't Work, You Guys
You mean to tell me that firing the pitching coach didn’t make the shitty pitching — that you knew was shitty going into the season — any better? Oh, wow! Ya don’t say.
The building is on fire, and the Red Sox threw a cup of water at it by firing pitching coach Juan Nieves on Thursday. Hey, all the credit in the world to John Henry for going down there and demanding some changes, but that wasn’t the change that was going to actually make an impact on the field.
While we were busy with our pitchforks and burning torches over how awful the starting pitching has been, the offense has now gone and completely shit the bed, all while the pitching staff has remained the worst in the league. Here’s the part where I give you a statistical kick in the balls with how bad the Red Sox have been. After an 0-for-7 performance with runners in scoring position on Friday night, stranding seven men on base, the Red Sox are now 4-for-52 (.077) with runners in scoring position since May 1.
In that same span, the Red Sox have been outscored 32-15 in the month of May, while leaving a grand total of 51 men on base. Fifty-fucking-one. That’s about the full capacity of a lifeboat on the Titanic. The Red Sox have left a full Titanic lifeboat on base in the last eight days, and that’s with an off-day mixed in. My god.
And what happened to this being a rotation full of ground ball pitchers? Wade Miley got taken deep twice in the series opener against the Blue Jays, watching his ERA actually drop to 6.91. But that doesn’t change the fact that the Red Sox have allowed the most home runs of any team in the American League (34), and have also surrendered the most first-inning runs (23) — and that’s not even their worst inning. They’ve also let up 25 runs in the third inning, which, again, falls on the starting pitchers.
They’ve now lost 11 of their last 15 games, and with a record of 13-16, they now have the same record that they had at this point last year, when they finished last in the American League East. Keep in mind that this is the highest payroll in franchise history. But no, let’s just sit back and let these guys “figure it out” a little longer, while the percentage that the Red Sox will make the playoffs continues to shrivel like A-Rod’s balls when he’s on a cycle.
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