Hurley: These Red Sox Look Familiar
By Michael Hurley, CBS Boston
BOSTON (CBS) -- Is it happening ... again?
At the risk of overreacting to one game, the question is this: Are the Red Sox headed down another path of wasting another summer of baseball in Boston?
Obviously, it's much too soon to say either way. The season is only 9.3 percent complete, and a seven-game win streak, or a 13-5 stretch, or something of the like always has a way of changing the outlook of a season.
But, with the Red Sox sitting at 7-8, with the manager looking incapable of making the right decision at the right time, and with the new high-priced pitching acquisitions failing to make much of a difference at all through two-and-a-half weeks of baseball, you have to wonder.
Is it happening again?
Consider this: Through 15 games, the 2015 Red Sox were 9-6. The 2014 Red Sox were 6-9. The 2012 Red Sox were 5-10.
The 2013 team, aka the one that actually succeeded, was 11-4.
At 7-8, it's not the end of the world, but for one, everyone stressed the importance of getting off to a good start this season in order to build some type of confidence that the team could be legitimate. But secondly, it's been the way they've dropped some of these games that makes it feel like deja vu all over again.
On Thursday, after taking a 5-1 first-inning lead over the meek-hitting Tampa Bay Rays, it should not have mattered if an in-his-prime David Price was pitching or if a 56-year-old Oil Can Boyd was on the mound. The Red Sox should have won that game. Alas, Price was shelled and had to leave the game early, looking very much like a 2014 start from Clay Buchholz or a 2015 start from Rick Porcello.
But -- but! -- the one distinction about this year's team is that the bats never quit, and that was the case in the bottom of the seventh, when Travis Shaw drove in David Ortiz to tie the game. It was a sloppy game, yes, but at least the Red Sox were probably going to recover in time to be able to walk away victorious.
But then ... John Farrell asked someone named William Cuevas to pitch a second inning in a game that was now tied. Someone Named William Cuevas isn't exactly off to a great start himself in 2016, compiling a 6.17 ERA in his two starts in Triple-A thus far. Someone Named William Cuevas has just over 50 innings of Triple-A experience under his belt, and Someone Named William Cuevas was making his major league debut on Thursday. And unsurprisingly, Someone Named William Cuevas didn't pitch too hot in his second inning of work. He walked Steve Pearce and gave up a double to Steven Souza, coughing up the Red Sox' lead.
Mystifyingly, Farrell saw enough out of Someone Named William Cuevas to actually send him back to the mound for a third inning of work. He gave up a leadoff double. The run eventually came around to score. The Rays turned it into a three-run inning. The game was, for all intents and purposes, over. Another Red Sox loss.
After the game, because of the bullpen having to pitch more than nine innings two nights prior, Farrell said he knew that they'd need multiple innings out of Cuevas if the team didn't get a deep start out of Price. One problem: He apparently never told that to Cuevas.
And despite witnessing Cuevas allow two earned runs in 2.1 innings, Farrell liked what he saw out of the right-hander.
"I thought he handled the environment well. He didn't seem to be rattled," Farrell said of Cuevas. "He threw his off-speed pitches for strikes. The first pitch of his major league career is a change-up, which I don't know that you see that very often. So I think that just gives you some sense of his presence and feel for the situation."
Um ... John? He allowed three hits and he walked two batters while recording just seven outs. And one of those outs came on a hit, when Brandon Guyer tried to stretch a single into a double. Another out came on a sacrifice bunt.
He walked Pearce on four pitches. He fell behind 3-1 before giving up a double to Souza, who was tied for 127th in the American League in doubles last season.
The manager doesn't have to sit in front of a microphone postgame and rip the inexperienced pitcher. But he need not shove the "presence and feel" pill down our throats.
(A change-up on his first pitch though? Wow. That's remarkable.)
Farrell also explained his curious bullpen management by saying that Koji Uehara "was only available if we were ahead," which is strange. If you can pitch, you can pitch. And if the team needs Uehara to pitch, then Uehara should be available to pitch. The thing about waiting till you get a lead is that sometimes you hang a kid out to dry in the middle of a game that counts in the standings.
Farrell also said that, "we had a number of guys that were unavailable," which might have indicated that Craig Kimbrel likewise couldn't pitch. That, too, is odd, considering Kimbrel threw 12 pitches two days earlier on Tuesday, a day after struggling on Monday afternoon against Toronto. Perhaps he was taxed, but the goal when the Red Sox take the field should be to win games, not to throw their stock in Someone Named William Cuevas and hope for their best. The second-highest paid closer in baseball can't go three times in four days?
Right now, the team smells a whole lot like last year's team. And last year's team smelled a whole lot like the 2014 team. And, to put it plainly, it doesn't smell good.
Again, yes, obviously, it's early. We know that. But so far we've seen missed opportunities, such as the chance to win a four-game series against the Blue Jays going by the boards. That process included a confounding use of Chris Young in the ninth inning against a righty, as well as a Uehara/Kimbrel meltdown in the eighth inning of the final game. The Red Sox should have won three of those four games, much like they should have won a number of games over the past two seasons. But they did not, instead earning a split. And splits won't be good enough if this team is to become anything worthwhile.
We've seen bad starting pitching, which currently has the Red Sox with the worst starters' ERA in the AL and the second-worst starters' ERA in all of baseball. Sounds familiar? And the bullpen ERA isn't much better, ranking 11th in the AL and 18th in MLB.
We've also seen questionable managerial decisions, including Farrell taking Shaw out of games as early as the sixth inning for no tangible reason and the aforementioned use of Young. After that infamous Young at-bat, Farrell told us all how Young needed to get his at-bats and how great Young's swings were. In fact, prior to that ninth-inning at-bat, Young had swung the bat exactly once in his previous three plate appearances, a swing that resulted in a ground-ball out. He struck out looking at all three pitches in the third, he struck out looking at all three pitches in the seventh, and, lo and behold, he struck out looking in the ninth. His best swings in that at-bat resulted in foul balls.
Yet, Farrell tried to sell us on the quality of Young's swings that day.
Enough of that. Please.
Plenty of time remains for the Red Sox to play better and (at least theoretically) manage better. Price has always pitched poorly in April, and while the rebound ability of the 41-year-old Uehara is fair to question, it's safe to assume Kimbrel will find his stride sooner than later.
But, using the past four years as guides, the Red Sox sat at 12-10 after April last year and 13-14 after April in 2014. The lovable Bob Valentine bunch in 2012 finished April at 11-11. In 2013 -- again, the successful season -- the team was 18-8 at the end of the season's first month.
That can't happen this year, but for the Red Sox to have a decent record that makes them look like even a wild-card contender come May, they'll need to go something like 7-2 over a stretch that has them visiting Houston and Atlanta (two struggling teams) before hosting the Braves and Yankees to close out the month. It's possible, sure, but it'll require significant improvement from the pitching staff and the manager. With Joe Kelly on the DL, Eduardo Rodriguez still working his way toward being strong enough to make his debut, and with a bullpen that's already overtaxed, the prospect of that 7-2 record coming together doesn't feel great.
Again, for the umpteenth time, the season is not over. It is April. But with respect to Potter Stewart, I know a bad team when I see it, and so far, that's all I can see with the 2016 Red Sox.
You can email Michael Hurley or find him on Twitter @michaelFhurley.
