This Stat Highlights Borderline Historic Start For Red Sox Starters
The Red Sox promised all offseason improving the starting pitching was a priority in the Craig Breslow era and insisted the team could take steps forward with an overhaul of the organization’s approach to pitching.,
Through four games of the 2024 season, Breslow and company have lived up to their word.
There’s obviously a long, long way to go, but the most pleasant surprise of the young Red Sox season has been the performance of Boston’s starting rotation. The Red Sox split a four-game set in Seattle to open the campaign, a split that certainly could have been a series win if not for the offense being blanked 1-0 on Friday night.
Red Sox starters were downright dominant through four games in the Pacific Northwest. As Red Sox media relations director J.P. Long pointed out Sunday night, this sort of start has been extremely rare over the long history of the club.
The success isn’t totally random. At the least, it appears to coincide with adjustments under Breslow and new pitching coach Andrew Bailey. Brayan Bello all but abandoned his four-seam fastball. Nick Pivetta also reduced his four-seamer usage, instead relying more on a sweeper and his cutter. The sweeper is also Kutter Crawford’s new best friend, apparently, and Garrett Whitlock leaned more on the sinker while featuring a new cutter.
Even before Whitlock’s dazzling outing Sunday, the Red Sox had done something rarely done by big league staffs in the history of the sport. By virtue of Crawford’s performance Saturday night, the Red Sox became the seventh team in more than 120 years to log 35 or more strikeouts and five or fewer walks in their first three games of the season, joining the 2021 Padres and Philles, 2020 Indians, 2019 Mets and Astros as well as the 2013 Rangers.
Only the Los Angeles Dodgers — through six games — have a higher collective wins above replacement through the first weekend of the season among starting pitchers. Just three teams have a higher strikeout-per-nine rate than the Sox starters, and no team has walked fewer batters per nine. The .177 batting average against is third-best in the big leagues.
No matter how you slice it, the Red Sox starters were the stars of the club’s season-opening series. They need to build on that early success, sustain it for the season and stay healthy if they want to truly exceed expectations for the 2024 season. Based on solely the evidence in front of us, though, there’s reason for optimism moving forward.