As the Red Sox attempt to push themselves forward by physically pushing their players a little less early in the season, there’s one principal matter they need to avoid: Regret.
So far, the Sox’ plan to preserve the roster’s durability has worked well. Their 3-1 record after an opening series with the Rays is about as much as can be asked. Four-game sweeps on the road are rare.
At the same time, winning three straight one-run games against a bad team -- while playing with varied lineups and conservative pitching limits -- also reminds us how easily the outcome could have been different.
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If David Price’s 76 pitches in Game 2, for example, got him through only four or five innings rather than seven, what kind of shape would the bullpen be in now after its eighth-inning meltdown in Game 1? In the opener, two of the six relievers the team is carrying were not available in the highest-leverage spot. One, lefty Bobby Poyner, had yet to make his major-league debut and manager Alex Cora preferred it come in a less pressurized setting. The other, Craig Kimbrel, had a short spring training and, for that reason, Cora had yet to ask him to pitch outside of regular save situations.
Games in April count the same as games in August. Red Sox management has not forgotten this point, but is walking a fine line with consideration toward the future.
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Although the team remains in Florida, these are not exhibition games. The Rays and Marlins, whom the Sox face exclusively in the first nine games of the season, are weak opponents. The Sox are smart to try to take advantage of those matchups.
But J.D. Martinez sitting out on Monday in Miami is a bit head-scratching, even in a National League park.
The Sox lineup is not scorching, by any means. Cora is rightly sensitive to his players running around on an artificial surface at Tropicana Field for four straight days. But, surely, Martinez wants to find rhythm at the plate. There is also a scheduled off-day for the Sox on Wednesday before the home opener Thursday, and then they're off again on Friday after that first game at Fenway -- and then again a week from Monday. That’s three scheduled off-days in a six-day span, if you're keeping track.
“Got to take care of them and we feel like it’s good for J.D. to play, I asked him if he wanted to DH or play left field, he said left field,” Cora told reporters in Florida on Sunday morning, when Martinez was in the outfield for a second straight day. “Most likely, he’ll have [Monday] off. He can go see his family down there [in Miami] and hang out.”
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The baseball world looks more and more flat, as Theo Epstein noted recently in his visit to Fort Myers. The search for any sort of advantage in baseball is ever wider.
The Sox’ plan of physical preservation is ultimately a form of innovation: Less reps in spring training for the pitchers, a rotation of position players to begin the season. Chris Sale clearly tired out last year. (Yet, he also threw more pitches than any other Sox starter through the first four games this year.)
Experimenting in this arena makes sense. The 162-game regular season, played in a 186-day schedule now, is ever grueling, even with the addition of three more off-days this season.
Experimentation, however, invites error. Some potential errors are a little easier to see coming than others. The Yankees are a tremendous team. Cora last year was on an Astros club that ran away with everything. As the Sox try to ease the burden on their guys, they might be making September and October -- exactly what they're preparing for now -- unnecessarily more difficult.
The Sox are smart to challenge convention when it comes to safeguarding their players' durability. There is risk involved in the plan, and it was visible even as the Sox won three out of four.