When the Red Sox lose, the blame usually falls on one of two groups: The starting rotation or the bullpen.
On Sunday, Andrew Cashner only recorded five outs against the Angels before Alex Cora pulled him from the game, leaving it up to the bullpen to retire the remaining 22 Los Angeles hitters.
The bullpen allowed just two earned runs after Cashner let up three, but the two runs came at the worst time. Matt Barnes blew a save after Kole Calhoun took him deep to tie the game in the eighth inning, and Ryan Weber let up the go-ahead score on a single by Anthony Bemboom in the 10th.
Josh Taylor, Mitch Walden and Nathan Eovaldi delivered strong performances, and Cora made sure to give credit to his bullpen after the loss despite blowing a lead late.
"They did an outstanding job throughout," Cora said on NESN's postgame coverage. "(Barnes) had just one fastball that was down and in and (Calhoun) put a good swing on it. But all around, Nate (Eovaldi), (Mitch) Walden, everybody threw the ball well."
Cora also noted how impressed he was with Taylor's fastball, so while the bullpen might take the heat for letting up the tying and go-ahead runs to a lesser team at home, it was the starting pitching that put them in that spot.
Boston Red Sox
"We were in a tough situation the last few days as far as relievers and length and all that stuff," Cora said.
The Red Sox had to go deep into their bullpen on Friday as well. After Brian Johnson lasted just 2.2 innings, Cora had to use four relievers to secure the win. Thankfully that day, the offense put up 16 runs.
The bullpen is by no means a serviceable unit relative to the top clubs in the game, but games like Sunday serve as a reminder of how bad the rotation has been too.
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