The Red Sox won a series in Houston against the red-hot Astros this week, the latest twist in what has been a tremendously uneven season for Boston.
The three-game set at Minute Maid Park encapsulated much of what the Red Sox have gone through over the past month — for better and for worse. Monday’s game featured a script all too familiar for the Red Sox. Home runs from Jarren Duran and Masataka Yoshida helped stake a 4-2 lead heading into the bottom of the sixth inning, but that lead then slowly crumbled, culminating in a walk-off home run by Yainer Diaz surrendered by closer Kenley Jansen. It was a rare misstep for Jansen, who was roughly flawless in the first half of the season before scuffling in July but had seemed to regain his form in August before Diaz teed off on Monday.
While Jansen hasn’t generally been at the center of Boston’s recent barrage of blown leads, Monday’s conclusion marked another troubling sequence for a bullpen that has been stunningly bad since the All-Star break. From the start of the second half through Monday’s game, Boston relievers combined for an MLB-worst 6.93 ERA, more than a full run worse than the 29th-ranked White Sox (5.88) over that span.
It hasn’t been just the bullpen, either, as a rotation that excelled earlier in the season has posted a 5.00 ERA since the break, good for 24th in MLB. With one of baseball’s best offenses — one that has gotten only better as the year has gone on — Boston has been able to overcome poor pitching performances to avoid substantial losing skids. But the state of the staff has made the final handful of frames particularly precarious recently.
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That context set the stage for a game Tuesday that seemed to be teetering toward a similarly frustrating result. A back-and-forth affair sent a tie game into the sixth inning, presenting another delicate situation for which the Red Sox bullpen was responsible. This time, four relievers combined for four scoreless frames, and Duran delivered a go-ahead solo homer in the eighth that held for the victory and tied the series.
Wednesday’s rubber match hardly seemed to favor the Red Sox on paper, with Boston’s No. 5 starter, Cooper Criswell, getting the start opposite a future Hall of Famer in Justin Verlander returning from the IL. But after allowing a lead-off home run to Alex Bregman, Criswell settled in, followed by six Red Sox relievers — none of whom was Jansen — who…