Rick Porcello capped off the most recent turn through the Red Sox’ starting rotation with a typical Rick Porcello win Friday night.
Efficient and fairly effortless.
That’s finally carried over to the rest of the starting five.
Drew Pomeranz started on Monday with a 7 2/3-inning effort -- the longest of his career -- and only allowed two runs against the high-scoring, playoff-bound Indians. On top of that, he finally got his first win for the Sox.
Eduardo Rodriguez followed with seven strikeouts in four innings of work against the high-octane Orioles offense. Unfortunately, his left hamstring injury shortened his outing, but he’s expected to be ready to go in his next start.
On Wednesday, David Price went six innings in the rain-shortened game in Baltimore, giving up the lone run off a Chris Davis long ball. And he would’ve pitched deeper into the game had weather permitted.
After the win, Price did his normal postgame routine, not too high, not too low.
Boston Red Sox
In the course of the postgame comments he had a pretty important one:
“It’s all on the starting pitching.”
Pretty powerful from a pitcher who hasn’t been as advertised for much of 2016 -- even if he wasn’t trying to make a statement.
In fairness, he’d just picked apart one of Boston’s competitors for the A.L. East title.
Clay Buchholz followed that up with one run over six innings Thursday afternoon. He looked much like his 2013 self, back when he was an All-Star following a dazzling first half.
That was the lone loss this time through the rotation, but Buchholz left the game with the lead, so in no way was that 4-3 loss his fault.
Then Friday, Porcello was typical 2016 Rick Porcello.
This was one of the best turns through the rotation in 2016 -- and that’s without the Red Sox’ lone All-Star starting pitcher, Steven Wright.
Much like the offense, Boston’s starting pitching made adjustments as the season progressed.
The result? They’ve finally become part of the solution.