I don’t lump all of the starters together and conclude that they are not getting it done. We need a 5th starter and Porcello needs to get straightened out. Price is fine. He is not a problem. ERod is going deep into games more often than ever before. Sale has been the victim of lack of support, bad defense and the bullpen losing 5 quality starts. In two of those games he gave up 1 run. One was a 1-0 loss. In another game he struck out an unbelievable 17 batters and they managed to lose that game. Other than those quality starts, he gave up 4 runs against the wrecking ball Yankees offense, and our offense answered with 0 runs. These were all games where he did the job and he was spectacular in 3 or 4 of those games and his team found a way to lose. Sale is not a problem and doesn’t need to step up. Part of the reason that Sale and Price are not going deep often enough is that Cora is saving them for a post season that may never come.
Even if these guys go deep more often, it will not cure this undermanned bullpen which only has 2/3 major league arms— Barnes (who has been awful), Workman and possibly Brasier. This bullpen needs fixing or we will never get on a sustained winning path, because they are too unreliable and will blow games where the starters put up quality starts.
Here’s a message for DD. Yes, we desperately need a #5 if you put Eovaldi in the pen, but it is the bullpen stupid! That is the problem.