It’s win-or-go-home for the Boston Red Sox on Wednesday, and they’ll have to quickly turn the page after the drubbing they suffered on Tuesday at Yankee Stadium.
The New York Yankees came to play in all three facets of the game on Tuesday, and they flat-out embarrassed the rival Red Sox in a 9-0 Game 1. Ben Rice hit two home runs, while Cam Schlittler tossed 6 1/3 shutout innings with 10 strikeouts and a career-high 24 swings and misses.
The pitching performance in Game 1 was clearly lacking, but the only silver lining was that the Red Sox avoided using all of their most important bullpen arms. Unfortunately, so did the Yankees, as Game 2 is set up to be a hotly contested showdown.
Who can pitch out of the bullpen for Red Sox in Game 2?
Here’s a breakdown of the Red Sox’s bullpen for Game 2. There aren’t any pitchers who couldn’t throw if the Red Sox truly needed them, as no reliever threw more than 21 pitches in Game 1. But there are three guys who essentially filled mop-up duties and struggled in the process, making them unlikely to see action on Wednesday.
Definitely available (6): Aroldis Chapman, Garrett Whitlock, Erik Miller, Greg Weissert, Jake Bennett, Garrett Crochet
Chapman and Whitlock not being used was indicative of just how uncompetitive the Red Sox were on Tuesday. Miller threw nine pitches, and one of them was Rice’s first home run, so he’ll have revenge on his mind if he gets into this one.
Weissert was the only reliever to put up a scoreless inning for the Red Sox on Tuesday, while Bennett could be deployed if Boston takes a huge lead. Crochet is the ultimate wild card, as the ace hasn’t thrown in a game since April 25.
Maybe available, but unlikely to be used (3): Alec Gamboa, Wyatt Olds, Brayan Bello
These were the three biggest reason the Red Sox didn’t have a fighting chance at the end of Tuesday night’s contest. Boston won’t punt on Game 2 and accept the end of its season, so these three would likely only be in play if the Red Sox were up by 10 runs and Bennett was already exhausted.
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