The Red Sox don’t need Patrick Sandoval to go out and dominate Wednesday afternoon. They need him to keep the game from getting away early.
Boston turns to Sandoval in the series finale against the Seattle Mariners at Fenway Park after rookie Jedixson Paez was tagged for eight earned runs in Tuesday’s 9-6 loss. That outing pushed the bullpen into 5 1/3 innings of work and left the Red Sox at 75-64, four games back of the New York Yankees for the top American League wild-card spot.
Sandoval comes in with a 1-3 record, a 4.20 ERA, 48 strikeouts and a 1.71 WHIP.
That WHIP tells the story. Boston has lived with some inconsistency from Sandoval in his first season back from elbow surgery, and the club understood there would be an adjustment period after he went nearly two years without pitching in the majors before being activated in July.
The issue now is less about perfection than survival. The Red Sox need him to avoid the kind of traffic and crooked inning that wrecked Tuesday’s start before the middle innings even arrived.
There was at least a sign of life from the lineup late Tuesday. Boston trailed 9-2 entering the ninth and still managed to bring the tying run to the plate.
Mickey Gasper and Jahmai Jones each homered, while Roman Anthony, Wilyer Abreu and Trevor Story all had two hits. The problem was the lack of timely damage, as the Red Sox went 1-for-10 with runners in scoring position.
That makes Sandoval’s assignment even clearer: give the offense a chance to work with a manageable game.
A start of five or six competitive innings would do plenty for Boston, not just in the series finale but also in helping preserve the bullpen before Thursday’s trip to Baltimore. The Red Sox have lost five of their last seven, a stretch that also included a costly series loss to the Yankees, and the standings have started to tighten enough that September doesn’t leave much room for more missteps.
Sandoval doesn’t need to carry all of that on his back. He just needs to steady things after one of the rotation’s roughest performances of the year. For Boston, that’s the job Wednesday.
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