There are four games left before the All-Star break next week, and the Red Sox are both riding high winning ten of their last twelve contests, and also kind of desperate to get into the annual summertime stoppage.
For the next two games, the starting rotation is simple. Patrick Sandoval will make his Red Sox debut this afternoon in the finale against the White Sox as the Red Sox go for a sweep, and Sonny Gray is set to go on Friday as he tries to extend his American League lead in pitching wins. After that? Things get dicey.
The issues stem from Connelly Early going on the IL with left elbow discomfort (we’re still waiting for additional clarity there as he’s schedule to see a doctor sometime this week), and Ranger Suarez leaving his last start on Saturday with a groin injury where the severity is uncertain. The good news is Suarez still hasn’t gone on the IL and may be able to go on Saturday, but given how import he is to the rotation both now and going forward with his contract, it also kind of makes sense to just shut him down until the other side of the All-Star break to give him additional time to recover.
If that happens, the Red Sox are left without a starter for Saturday and then have Payton Tolle going on regular rest on Sunday. The Tolle piece of this is also fascinating because ideally you want to keep his innings down this year given he’s never thrown 120 innings in a season and already is beyond 80 this year. Despite pitching on an extra day of rest in Tuesday’s game against Chicago, they actually bumped him up a slot in the rotation to Connelly Early’s spot using the double off days surrounding the Angels series on Thursday and Monday to their advantage. The problem with that is they essentially created an additional Tolle start for the season because that space in the rotation is now slated to land on Sunday instead of falling into the All-Star break.
So on one hand, the Red Sox don’t appear to have anybody that can really go deep on Saturday or Sunday, but on the other hand, they have a really rested bullpen with two recent off days and the rotation pitching extremely well of late. With guaranteed addition rest on the horizon, do the Sox just piggyback everybody in the bullpen in those last two games to try and get to the checkpoint? Does it depend on how deep Sandoval goes today? Do they dare call up Brayan Bello to make a start in a pinch? (Shivers went down my spine as I typed that.) Regardless of how they choose to navigate this chokepoint, they’ve got some pretty compelling decisions coming up in the next 48 to 72 hours.
The good news? Their next opponent is the Mets who are having the season from hell (even for them), so the Sox might be able to get away with a weird pitching arrangement for this series. After that, even more fascinating decisions will come on the other side of the All-Star break when we get a better idea of injury timelines.
Talk about this and whatever else you’d like, and as always, be good to one another.
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