Good morning! Last night, Jake Bennett was unable to hold the Rangers in check during the team’s 7-3 loss in Texas. Some of his numbers look good (seven strikeouts against just one walk), but he also surrendered eight hits in just 4.2 innings, which did in his evening.
With just ten games left in the season, the question now becomes how should the Sox use Bennett going forward? With some combination of Sonny Gray, Payton Tolle and Ranger Suarez likely to get lined up in a best of three Wild Card Series, do you just hold Bennett on the sidelines and hope he gets to come back into the fold as a fourth starter in the ALDS or even ALCS? Or do you start transitioning him to some sort of relief role?
It’s a bit of an awkward moment for Bennett. He’s been getting knocked around during his last two outings while Suarez is seemingly getting locked in. It almost certainly cuts him out of the Wild Card rotation, and if the Sox get some combination of Garrett Crochet, Tanner Houck and Tyron Guerrero back to add to Aroldis Chapman, Garrett Whitlock and Erik Miller in the bullpen, Bennett largely gets squeezed out of relevance.
So how do you want him used? Do those six shutout innings Bennett threw against the Yankees back on August 29th make you want the Sox to find a role for him if they play New York? Do you think he’s just a young pitcher who looks out of gas and want to hide him until the team needs a fourth starter?
Use this space to talk about Bennett and the rest of the difficult upcoming pitching staff decisions, and, as always, be good to one another.
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