Boston Red Sox need Rick Porcello to emulate his recent dominance

Boston Red Sox starter Rick Porcello pitched one of the best games of his career against the New York Yankees on Friday night. The question now is, can Porcello consistently pitch well for the rest of the year?

On Friday night in front of the Fenway Park crowd, Boston Red Sox starting pitcher Rick Porcello had one of the best performances of his career in a 4-1 Sox win. Even better, he did it against the New York Yankees.

The former 2016 Cy Young winner finished a complete game with only 86 pitches under his belt; 68 of them being strikes.

Porcello is the first Boston pitcher since Roger Clemens in 1991 to throw a complete game against the Pinstripes, according to Sports Illustrated.

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On top of that, after giving up a home run to Miguel Andujar in the third inning, Porcello retired the next 21 New York hitters to finish out a stellar performance. This ended a fantastic two-day stretch where Boston’s bats took over the contest the night before in a 14-6 slaughter.

As of right now, the Sox are 7.5 games up on the Yankees heading into Saturday’s matchup.

The complete game was timely for Porcello, especially after such an abysmal month of July, where he mustered a 5.74 ERA in five starts, according to Baseball-Reference. Oddly enough, he still accumulated a 4-1 record, which speaks volumes about Boston’s offense, and the help they give on a night-to-night basis. In fact, Porcello has alternated between incompetency and excellence for the entire season.

After a strong month of April in which he posted a 2.23 ERA, Porcello struggled mightily in May, where his ERA ballooned to over 5 once again. He’s been about as inconsistent as any pitcher in the league up until this point.

In a year where the Sox are clicking on all cylinders, whether it be their big bats, or tremendous pitching performances, it seems almost too good to be true. Someone new always steps into the spotlight, whether it be Steven Pearce on Thursday with three home runs, or Porcello on Friday.

Unfortunately, Rick Porcello has come up quiet in the past during the months of September and October, specifically last year, where he gave up 18 earned runs in only five starts. Much like Chris Sale however, that may have been because of over-exposure.

Alex Cora is doing a much better job of handling the pitching staff this year, limiting their innings tremendously compared to last year, especially with Sale. However, Porcello seems to be carrying bigger load this season. Porcello finished with 203 innings under his belt after the postseason back in 2017. In 2018, entering the month of August, Porcello already has 140 innings pitched.

With Sale on the DL, and David Price struggling with his own injuries, Porcello has been the guy Cora leans on. Hopefully, Cora will decide to rest Porcello more no that their AL East lead is so huge.

Throwing only 86 pitches shows that Porcello was aggressive, and trusted himself. Simply put, if he continues to have that mindset, then his inconsistencies will vanish. He definitely has the talent to be an ace on playoff team, and his Cy Young award represents that.

However, if he continues to rely too much on the offense bailing him out, then he may not emulate Friday night’s performance again. The more urgency the better, especially since we are entering the dog days of the season.

Sooner or later, it will be playoff time, which means Porcello and the pitching staff must iron out all of their kinks before they fall prey to the Houston Astros for a second straight year. The media continues to praise this year’s Boston Red Sox team.

Rick Porcello needs to play a big part in not falling short of people’s expectations this fall.