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Boston Red Sox Need Bullpen To Form Established Roles

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Uehara pitching

Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports

As of recently, the Boston Red Sox have been playing better. It hasn’t been fantastic baseball, but at least they are not looking like the team that couldn’t get out of its own way back in May. There is still a long way to go for Boston to get back into contention, and the bullpen is going to play a big role in that.

The Red Sox have three relievers that they can truly count on: Tommy Layne, Junichi Tazawa, who has been really tough this season, and Koji Uehara. That is a good threesome, but it isn’t going to be enough to get this team back into contention. One pitcher who has done well but hasn’t gotten a lot of attention is Alexi Ogando. He was a great pitcher when he was with the Texas Rangers, and now that he finally looks healthy, he has electric stuff again. He is currently 2-0 with a 3.09 ERA which is not bad at all.

A concern is how long can the Red Sox can keep on running Tazawa out there before he runs out of steam. There have been some games where he has pitched more than one inning, and those can’t keep happening. The good teams with the great bullpens are the ones that have a guy in the seventh, eighth and ninth inning. The matchups that make the most sense would be perhaps Layne in the sixth, Ogando in the seventh, Tazawa in the eighth and Uehara to close.

The Red Sox always seem to be the last team to embrace a trend. They almost think they are above doing what other teams are doing, and it’s thinking like that which has Boston floundering in last place. The three-headed monster in the bullpen works, and it is time to get some of these guys to step up and take those roles.

Boston needs to do that before it’s too late, if it isn’t already.

Carter Roane is a Boston Red Sox writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter@CarterGRoane, “Like”him on Facebook or add him to your network on Google.

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