Boston Red Sox 100 game Report Card: Grading a World Series contender
By Gio Rivera
Rick Porcello and David Price (The overpaid underachievers)
The unfortunate end of Alex Cora’s rotation. Rick Porcello and David Price have underachieved indeed. It’s almost hard to believe that these are two former Cy Young Award winners we’re talking about. Porcello won it just two years ago in 2016. Price, in 2012. Yet a few pay days later and the Boston spotlight, and we’ve got underachievement. Porcello hasn’t taken faltering steps since his remarkable 2016 season.
Just take last year for example. Porcello led all of baseball with 17 losses! Not the ideal follow up season to a Cy Young Award year. This showing much resemblance to a former Boston Red Sox pitcher. Dennis Eckersley was the recipient of the 1992 MVP and Cy Young Award, deservingly so.
However, his follow up was rather disappointing. His ERA skyrocketed from 1.92 to 4.16 at the end of the season, much like Porcello’s loss total. In 2016, Porcello lost just 4 games. He allowed 85 runs and 23 home runs. A year later, Porcello has 17 losses, allowing 125 runs, and 38 total home runs. Oh yeah and the ERA sit 4.65 to end the year.
While Porcello currently sits with 11 wins, don’t let the record mislead you. He still allows over 4 runs per game. Remember back when Porcello was virtually un-hittable back in 2016? You know, the season he had a .929 win percentage in 2016. You can kiss that goodbye.
Porcello has been significantly more successful on the road. At home Porcello is 4-3 with a 4.97 ERA. On the road, 7-1 with a 4.34 ERA. Put that together with the unbalanced monthly ERA and you’ve got an underachieving and confusing season for Rick Porcello. Thus far at least.
Current stats: 11-4/4.13 ERA/120.0 IP/115 SO/1.242 WHIP.
Ahhh David Price…
It’s been an eventful road for Price in a Boston Red Sox uniform hasn’t it?
From postseason woos to the Eckersely encounter, to this season’s Fortnite saga. Seems like there’s always something going on with David Price. Headlines for the wrong reasons. Now the issue with Price remains the same as it always has his entire career. That being the big game situations. Pitching in the spotlight.
Most noteworthy, the pine-stripe PTSD. That’s right. The Yankees are currently sitting 5.0 games away from the first place Boston Red Sox. They’re fully in contention with plenty of time remaining. A team that Boston can easily come across in October.
However, $127 million can’t justify a bullpen lefty this year. With reliable pitching options being limited for Cora, Price needs to step up this year! Unfortunately we are yet to see that. The Yankees are fully comfortable and happy to see number 24 on the mound for Boston.
New York is hitting .480/.519/1.320 with 6 home runs and 12 runs. These are all highs of any opponent Price has faced this season, and he’s only pitched against the Yankees twice. His ERA? Try 24.92 on for size. That’s not a typo.
It’s hard to remain optimistic with this one.
Current stats: 11-6/4.17 ERA/114.1 IP/114 SO/1.224 WHIP.