BOSTON -- The Red Sox reshuffled their bullpen mix a bit Saturday morning, optioning Hirokazu Sawamura to Triple-A Worcester and placing Hansel Robles (back spasms) on the 15-day injured list while recalling righties Ryan Brasier and Phillips Valdez from the WooSox. After the bullpen allowed 10 runs in a brutal loss to Baltimore on Friday, some sort of shakeup was needed.
Robles, though, is injured and has been dealing with back issues since the middle of the week in Chicago. He hasn’t pitched since Sunday, when he gave up a game-tying homer to Eugenio Suárez before Franchy Cordero won the game with a walk-off grand slam. On the year, the righty owns a 2.65 ERA.
Cora said Robles was unavailable Friday night, when the Sox turned to Jake Diekman, John Schreiber, Matt Strahm and Sawamura in relief of Garrett Whitlock. Boston was short on right-handed options in the series opener against Baltimore.
“With Hansel, it has been going on for the last few days,” he said. “I was surprised nobody asked me yesterday about it. Where we’re at, we have to make a move. Hopefully, he can come back as soon as possible. With him, him going to the training room, that’s a real red flag. This guy posts, he prepares and everything. It started the other day in Chicago and he wasn’t available the last few days. With the doubleheader and everything that’s going on this week, I think it’s smart for the individual and, of course, for us.”
Sawamura, who allowed a run and two hits in a single inning Friday night, has fallen down Cora’s list of trustworthy options. In 15 innings, he owns a 3.60 ERA and 1.333 WHIP. He would have been unavailable Saturday after pitching three times in the last four days, so the Red Sox took advantage of the fact he could be freely optioned to the minors.
“We still need to get better throwing strikes and throwing the fastball for strikes,” Cora said. “But getting two fresh arms here to help us win ballgames is very important.”
Sawamura has been frequently used with runners on base this season and has done an admirable job, stranding 13 of 17 runners he has inherited. Still, he has not been a late-inning option and was dispensable with the Red Sox in need of fresh arms.
“The way we’ve been using him is with traffic,” Cora said. “If you look at his numbers -- and I know it’s a small sample size with statistics -- he has been really good with traffic. We find a spot for him doing that and he was able to do the job. It just happens that now, with where we’re at, we have to move forward. There’s a few things he still has to work (on) as far as command. Yesterday, we got very split-heavy. He wasn’t able to throw his fastball for strikes.
“Nothing has changed. We still like the player,” Cora added. “But where we’re at, we have to make moves. We’ve got Ryan here, we’ve got Phillips here. Hopefully, they can help us win games in the upcoming days.”
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Boston Red Sox bullpen gives up 10 runs, blows six-run lead in ugly loss to Orioles
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