Originally Posted by
Maxbialystock
It's already been said, but is maybe worth repeating. Leaving Shawaryn in to give up 8 runs was no doubt a calculation that, after the first two or so--giving the Yankees both a 4 run or so lead and the strong impression of having red hot bats, the game was unwinnable, especially when the Yankees have such a great bullpen. It turned out that leaving Shawaryn in was the one move that did in fact make the game unwinnable and it still required Cora to use four more bullpen arms in a loss.
As bad as Shawaryn was yesterday, he was still better than Porcello, who got 1 measly out, a hard hit liner to CF, and gave up 6 runs. Shawaryn got 4 outs while giving up 8 runs. The next 4 Sox relievers went 4.2 innings, giving up 1 run.
I continue to believe that the Sox real problem is with the high-priced rotation. Sale, Price, Eovaldi, ERod, and Porcello are currently being paid $88M--and this is Sale's last "bargain" year at $15M. None of them can be considered reliable, and ERod and Porcello, with ERA's slightly below and above 5.00, are especially unreliable. Just a personal opinion, based on my memory of what made Sand Koufax so great, is that none of our starters has a pitch that breaks sharply downward. Sale, Price, and ERod all depend on fastballs primarily, but will mix in changeups and sliders, which I think break more side to side than up and down. Same for the cut fastballs. Roger Clemens cheated, but he also developed a splitter late in his career which extended it (along with the steroids or whatever).