Boston Red Sox: Martin Perez defining fifth starter role despite no wins

The Boston Red Sox can’t win them all, but the difference between this year’s squad and last year’s squad is that they are competing and in position to win the majority of games no matter who the starting pitcher is.

With J.D. Martinez, Rafael Devers, Xander Bogaerts and the boys tearing it up offensively, the Red Sox haven’t needed their starting pitching to be dominant, but at least solid and they have been. From Eduardo Rodriguez, to Nick Pivetta to Martin Perez, they have been doing their thing.

Speaking of Perez, the fifth starter has pitched well enough to win in previous outings, but a lack of run support has him winless on a team with the most wins in baseball.

That was the case Monday night as Perez took another no-decision in the team’s 4-1 loss to the Baltimore Orioles.

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In pitching five solid innings, Perez continued to do what most teams want out of their No. 5 starter. He has pitched well enough to give his team a win. Giving how the bats have been booming in Baltimore during the first three games of the four-game series, allowing just one run should’ve been good enough.

Boston Red Sox bats go silent whenever Martin Perez pitches

But as bad luck has it, the bats were silent, and Martin Perez will have to wait another start for a win.

Hey, the good part is he felt good out there on the mound, which was demonstrated by his effectiveness.

"“Everything was good tonight,” Perez said following the game, via MLB.com. “It feels good when you have this kind of outing.”"

In his last three starts, Perez has a 2.20 ERA in 16 1/3 innings pitched. I would say that is pretty good for a fifth starter who, if he had the run support, could have the record to show it.

When it comes to Monday night’s outing, there was a chance to leave Perez in for a little longer than the five innings pitched, but Red Sox manager Alex Cora decided to turn to his bullpen, which backfired when Trey Mancini hit a solo shot off of Matt Andriese. That ended up being the deciding run.

Questionable decision?

Well, it’s easy to look back and question it, but the Red Sox veteran starter hasn’t completed six innings all season, so the manager’s decision was in recognition that he got the most out of Perez at that point.

As Cora stated, Perez put his team in a good position to win the game, which is all you can ask for from backend starter.

"“When we got to the eighth inning, they’d only scored two runs,” Cora said. “That’s the name of the game: Avoid runs and score runs. And today we didn’t score runs. But as far as the usage and all that, I don’t think that’s an issue right now. We manage the game as a group and we had a plan.”"

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The plan didn’t play out this time around, but the Boston Red Sox have five starting pitchers who are getting the job done even if they don’t result in wins. By Martin Perez eating up innings, the bullpen is rested and ready when called upon, though that wasn’t the case with Andriese when it comes to being ready.

Again, you win some and you lose some. Perez, however, just want to score a win one of these outings.

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