The Red Sox have made a habit of blowing a lead. Can they get over it?

Boston Globe

05-05-2025

Wobbly processions in the relay from starter to closer can turn good teams into mediocre ones. Through the first five-plus weeks of the 2025 campaign, that appears to be precisely what's happening with the Red Sox.
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The Sox have been one of the best teams in baseball through the first six innings of games. Sunday marked the 19th time in 36 contests this year that the Sox held a lead after six innings – tied for fourth most in the big leagues, behind only the Cubs, Mets, and Yankees, each of whom is in first place in their divisions.
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Yet the Sox have been tugged down to 18-18 mediocrity in no small part because they have joined the Diamondbacks as the only teams in baseball that have lost four games this year when leading after six innings.
The problem hasn't been with the starters. The rotation has handled a sizable workload (an MLB-high 199 innings, with an average of 5.5 innings per game that ranks fourth in the big leagues) and, more often than not, either positioned the Sox to win or kept them in the game.
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The problem hasn't been at the end of games. The Sox are 14-0 when leading after eight innings, with Aroldis Chapman delivering dominance (38 percent strikeout rate, 1.59 ERA) as the primary line of last defense.
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But the Sox have been unable to pass the baton cleanly in between the first and last pitchers of the game. The team now has eight blown leads, most in the big leagues. They have coughed up leads in 31 percent of potential save or hold situations, worst in MLB. (At the opposite end of the spectrum, the Padres have blown just one lead in 41 save or hold situations – an incredible, MLB-best 2 percent rate.)
The Sox' recent woes have been particularly puzzling, given that two of their top setup options – Garrett Whitlock and Justin Slaten – have quickly gotten to two strikes against opposing hitters, but have then proven incapable of putting them away.
Righthander Justin Slaten is 27.
Matthew J. Lee/Globe Staff
The Sox bullpen has been profoundly bad in high-leverage, two-strike counts in the seventh and eighth innings. It's been a small but costly sample – in 13 plate appearances that fit the designation, opposing hitters have a .455/.538/.818 line.
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In contrast to the 2024 season, when the Red Sox bullpen derailed shortly after the All-Star break when opposing hitters sat on breaking pitches, the damage has come against a variety of pitches from Sox relievers. In this case, pitchers have simply been failing to execute pitches to their intended locations – producing either non-competitive misses that batters can ignore, or hittable pitches that get smoked.
'We have to execute,' Cora emphasized prior to Sunday's game. 'We need to be better, especially late in games. That's the most important thing. When it's a breaking ball with two strikes, don't be afraid to bounce it, get it down. If it's a fastball up, it's up – not in the middle of the plate. I think that's an ongoing conversations. Obviously they don't want to do it – they don't want to hang a breaking ball, but we need to start executing.'
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A few hours later, Cora once again was lamenting his team's inability to do just that following the loss to the Twins.
It happens. Bullpens almost invariably endure a stretch where they endure a cluster of meltdowns. Slaten and Whitlock have both flashed electric stuff – with Slaten's fastball and Whitlock's slider looking overpowering at times. Cora seems convinced that both will remain late-innings fixtures alongside Chapman.
If they continue to falter, perhaps the Sox will recall Luis Guerrero from Triple-A or eventually give opportunities to some of their depth starters (Hunter Dobbins, Richard Fitts) in late-game, multi-innings roles.
Still, for now, the Red Sox bullpen remains a work in progress – one whose inability to reliably convert leads over the past week contributed to the team's inability to get on a run against sub-.500 teams.
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If the Sox are to fulfill their ambitions to emerge as a legitimate contender that can compete for the AL East title, they'll need to identify a reliable late-innings formula – something that has, thus far, eluded them.
Alex Speier can be reached at