Bullpen Gives It Up

Yes, the kiddie relief corps is learning hard lessons on the job. Drake Britton, Brandon Workman & Rubby de la Rosa are being used in situations where they need to hold teams from running up the score. Sometimes they learn the hard way, like last night against the Yankees. Coming into a 6-3 Red Sox lead in the 6th with the bases loaded, Drake Britton gave up a bases clearing triple to Brett Gardner. Later, Brandon Workman would give up a run on a few bloop hits. And Ruby de la Rosa gave up one in the 9th. The Red Sox offense got to C.C. Sabathia for 6 runs in 5+ innings, but the Yankees bullpen outpitched the Red sox bullpen the rest of the way. It's hard to start your career in the bullpen for Britton, Workman & de la Rosa, but they will learn from their failures & be better for it down the road. Too bad the learning curve happened last night against the Yankees & will continue during this year's pennant race. By the way, it was nice to see Will Middlebrooks go yard against Sabathia to right-center. Middlebrooks may be moving up in the order soon to provide some right-handed power. Off to the west coast & a week of late-night games for fans back at home.