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The injuries were not favorable to the starting rotation of the Red Sox during the first 45 games of the season.
David Price and Nathan Eovaldi are currently on the injured list, with starter number 6 Brian Johnson. This forced the Red Sox to call on Hector Velazquez to start seven games, and while they had won their last five starts, reality settled Saturday night against the Astros.
Velazquez allowed five points and scored only one before being eliminated from the match. This is the shortest start for a Red Sox pitcher since September 24, 2003, when John Burkett only lasted 1/3 of a run against the Orioles and awarded seven points.
Although the Red Sox did not resign, they still lost 7-3.
(Click here for a full summary of the game.)
The Red Sox have in fact been quite lucky from the point of view of the calendar with two stoppages and three days of rest during the last three weeks. So they did not have to rely on anyone other than Velazquez to take part in the rotation.
Now the Red Sox do not have a holiday until June 3rd. That would change the situation, except that Price should return to Toronto on Monday. This means that it is only the place of Eovaldi that will have to be filled until his return. It should take about three weeks and Velazquez will probably continue to be deployed every five days.
And it's not good.
First, he only throws more than three innings once. So he put a lot of stress on the pen in the games he started and a day or two later. Then the numbers were not better. Early in the game, his ERA is now 6.53 and he made 11 batters in 19 innings and two-thirds.
In addition to the limited number of days off, the teams that the Red Sox face will not solve the problem. After a four-game game in Toronto, they will travel to Houston next weekend to return home for three games against the Indians, before heading back to a four-game series in New York against the Yankees.
These are all tough series "and are against teams that can take advantage of facing a pitcher like Velazquez, which is exactly what happened on Saturday.
There are not many other options either, because the only other pitcher to have started a game this season was Josh Smith and he is unlikely to be much better than Velazquez.
"We will wait and see [to decide if Velazquez starts next], "Said Alex Cora afterwards." This task will not happen again until the last day in Toronto, so we'll talk about it again in the next few days. Just a bad one. He could have launched a good one. "
Unless Johnson can return before Eovaldi, the Red Sox seem to be in a position where they have to wait a few more weeks before they can recover their full complement.
Overall, although the rotation of the Red Sox has been much better lately, the liability remains enormous.
Christian Vazquez scored his sixth home run of the season, a career high.
Related: Rick Porcello had no doubt about throwing the eighth inning against Astros
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