Red Sox Win Fourth Straight After Another Strong Start By Steven Wright, Two Homers From Dustin Pedroia
We’re four starts in, and Steven Wright has the third lowest ERA in the American League, and the sixth lowest ERA in all of baseball. Steven Wright. The Red Sox sixth starter coming into the 2016 season.
On Wednesday night, Wright struck out eight batters in seven innings, both of which were season highs for him, and lowered his ERA to 1.37. The eight strikeouts for Wright came within one of tying his career high of nine, which he did last August against the Yankees. Again, just like I said with David Price the night before, yes, it’s just the Braves. They’re awful. However, unlike Price, Wright has been pitching like this in every single start this year. He’s been Boston’s best and most consistent starter, and he’s not going anywhere once Eduardo Rodriguez is ready to join the rotation. Same goes for Joe Kelly.
And here’s the thing about Wright. Sure, a 1.37 ERA is not sustainable over a full season. That much, we know. But over the last three years, Wright has logged 120 innings at the major league level, and has a 3.23 ERA with 99 strikeouts in 26 games (14 starts). Dating back to last year, Wright has allowed two earned runs or less in each of his last eight starts, and has a 1.95 ERA over that span. The guy can pitch in the big leagues. This is Moneyball 101 right here. Did we overlook Wright because he’s a knuckleball pitcher and not a traditional pitcher? I think we did, because if any other pitcher in the Red Sox organization had numbers like that, there would be an uproar over why they weren’t guaranteed a spot in the rotation to start the year.
When Rodriguez is ready to return to the Red Sox rotation, you option Henry Owens back to Pawtucket. But when Kelly is ready to come back? Sorry, bud. You’ve had plenty of opportunities to prove that you should be one of the five starters in Boston’s rotation, and you haven’t. Kelly said last August that he prefers starting to relieving, but I prefer that he pitches well over sucking, so I guess we can’t all get what we want. To the bullpen you go.
Another game, another day we’re talking about how awesome the Red Sox offense is. Boston has scored 6 or more runs in 11 of their first 21 games (52%). They’ve scored 20 runs in just the last two games alone, and they’re averaging 5.3 runs per game. The big thing for the Red Sox this year is that they’ve attacked early and been able to hold onto early leads more often than not. As a team, they’re hitting .362 with a 1.002 OPS in the first inning, scoring at least one run in the first inning in seven of their last eight games.
Dustin Pedroia tied his career high after putting together a 5 RBI game with four of those runs being driven in on the third grand slam of his career. It was also the seventh multi-home run game of his career. Over his last seven games, Pedroia is hitting .441 with a 1.369 OPS. Coming into Thursday, Pedroia leads all American League second basemen in hits (30), and he’s third in runs (17) and OPS (.904).
The Red Sox have won four straight games for the first time in 2016. Time to party.
Final score: Braves 4, Red Sox 9