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Help needed: Red Sox still must improve pitching to bolster playoff chances
- Updated: July 27, 2016
1:06 AM ET
BOSTON — Maybe it’s simply the effect of four losses in five games, all at home. Or perhaps it has to do with a looming 11-game road trip entirely on the West Coast. Whatever the reason, the Boston Red Sox’s promising season suddenly feels a bit like a house of cards.
And it’s time for Dave Dombrowski to really go all-in.
Dombrowski was roundly praised two weeks ago for acting swiftly and aggressively to plug leaks on the roster. The Red Sox’s president of baseball operations made four trades in eight days, acquiring help for the bench (Aaron Hill and Michael Martinez), the bullpen (Brad Ziegler) and the starting rotation (Drew Pomeranz), and the team responded with six wins in seven games before the All-Star Game and five out of six upon its return.
But if Dombrowski really believes what he said earlier this week, that the Red Sox are “not looking to necessarily do something significant [before next Monday’s trade deadline] because we’ve already added,” the past five days are proof that they still don’t have enough pitching in either the rotation or the bullpen to be considered a rock-solid playoff team.
Steven Wright allowed four of his career-high eight runs in the fifth inning, failing to hold a one-run lead for the Red Sox. Adam Glanzman/Getty Images
For four months, knuckleballer Steven Wright has been the Red Sox’s most consistent starting pitcher. But in Tuesday night’s 9-8 loss to the Detroit Tigers, Wright gave up a career-high eight runs, four in the fifth inning after the Sox had fought back from a 4-0 deficit to take a 5-4 lead. He fumbled that one-run edge by allowing a pair of walks and three hits before being lifted with two outs in the fifth.
Wright said he “actually felt pretty good,” and after back-to-back solid outings against the …
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