The Boston Red Sox season is finally underway, and although we must acknowledge that the two teams they’ve played are in a rebuilding process, they have started the year off the right way. The Tampa Bay Rays and Miami Marlins will probably go on to be in the bottom quarter of Major League Baseball (MLB), but the Sox pitching has looked exactly how we expected it to look last season. Because Giancarlo Stanton is now on the New York Yankees with Aaron Judge and Gary Sanchez, because the Astros retained most of their World Series winning offense, and because the Red Sox still lack a lot of offensive firepower, the only way the Red Sox can counter the rest of the American League (AL) is with a strong pitching staff.

Opening day went about as good as anyone could’ve asked for with Chris Sale on the mound. He struck out nine batters while only allowing one hit over the six innings he pitched, which left the game with a very comfortable 4-0 lead. Unfortunately, the bullpen imploded in the eighth inning and completely blew the game by giving up six runs. Since then, the Sox have won five straight games. They’ve been winning games because their starters have been pitching to their full potential, unlike how they’ve won in years past.

David Price has, of course, faced a ton of scrutiny in his short time with the Red Sox over the past two seasons, but finally he’s starting the year off healthy and ready to go. In September and October of 2017, he began coming out of the bullpen. He finally saw some success and gained some trust back from the Boston fan base. In his first start of the 2018 season, he picked up right where he had left off. Red Sox Manager Alex Cora wants to ease the pitchers into the year and not let them go too deep into games this early in the season, so Price only threw 76 pitches. However, those 76 pitches got him through seven innings of work while allowing no runs and striking out five batters. The Red Sox won the game 1-0 and gave Price a win to start off his 2018 campaign. 

Since the Price win, the Red Sox have won four straight games. Their starters have thrown 22 innings and have only given up four earned runs. The recipe to win championships in the MLB the last few years has been to have power on offense and a strong bullpen. The Red Sox have pretty good hitters, but their starting pitchers are really going to be the difference if they can keep up this success. Of course, it would be unrealistic to expect them to continue putting up these numbers, but if they can chew up innings and limit the runs they allow, there is no question the Sox can compete with anyone.

The Red Sox will begin a 10 game home stand which will start with Tampa Bay again, but after that the competition will really start to pick up. They host the Yankees and the Orioles, followed by a West Coast road trip which starts with the red-hot LA Angels. The Boston offense has been a bit of a problem as they’ve been held to under three runs three times already, but hopefully the bats will come to life when they come to Fenway Park. Regardless of the offense, look for the rotation to continue pitching at a high level and winning games for the Red Sox.