KANSAS CITY, Mo. — From the standpoint of the Red Sox’ postseason plans, the most important outing of Tuesday night may not have been that of starter Paul Byrd.
Byrd, of course, had an interesting tale of two games in the Sox’ 5-1 loss to the Royals (recap). He got shelled for five runs in the first, then shut out the Royals for the next 5-2/3 innings.
But the starter’s up-and-down outing may ultimately prove to have been less significant than the one inning of relief turned in by right-hander Michael Bowden.
Bowden tossed a scoreless eighth inning on Monday, requiring just 12 pitches to make it through a perfect frame. Pitching on back-to-back days for the first time in his pro baseball career on Tuesday, Bowden was even stronger, needing just 10 pitches to produce another 1-2-3 eighth inning that included a strikeout.
Bowden’s fastball ran from 92-94 mph. He proved capable of maintaining his stuff despite pitching on back-to-back days. Catcher Jason Varitek described the pitcher as “strong … powerful,” an assessment with which manager Terry Francona agreed.
“Bowden actually came out and threw the ball I thought better [Tuesday than Monday], which is great to see,” said Francona.
Because Bowden spent all year as a starter in the minors, he is stretched out to the point where he could pitch in long relief. But because his arm is resilient, he also is capable of pitching with the sort of regularity that other potential Sox swingmen — particularly Tim Wakefield, Paul Byrd and Daisuke Matsuzaka — cannot.
It may well be the case that Bowden doesn’t sniff the postseason roster. That said, the usage of the 2005 sandwich pick on Tuesday was intriguing.
Once Byrd recovered from his disastrous start, he navigated deep enough into the game that the Sox could turn to their normal relief corps, starting with Manny Delcarmen, who produced the last out of the seventh. But the team decided to go with Bowden to pitch on back-to-back days, even though Francona said before the game that using Bowden in that fashion was “not something we’re rushing to do.”
The 23-year-old handled that challenge, and in so doing, he showed that he possessed the sort of versatility that is absent in his fellow Sox pitchers. For his part, Bowden suggests that after taking up residence in the bullpen for more than two weeks, he has become far more comfortable with a relief role than he was at the time of his call-up.
“I feel like I know what I’m doing out there a lot better, what I need to do to get ready. Now, I think I’m past that point,” Bowden said. “I know how much I need to throw, when I need to warm up, so now it’s just a matter of bringing that to the game. I feel extremely comfortable being out there.
“It’s just kind of going out there and pitching now without the nervousness. I feel like I’ve been here for a while. It’s taken away the nerves.”
Going forward, it will be interesting to see how the Sox employ Bowden. If he continues to be called upon, and continues to succeed, then it would not be entirely out of the realm of possibility that he could make a claim to a postseason roster spot, potentially at the expense of Wakefield, Byrd or even Delcarmen. Even though Bowden was not called up until Sept. 5, the Sox — assuming that they make the playoffs — could add him to the postseason roster in place of Miguel Gonzalez, a Rule 5 draftee who has spent the entire year on the 60-day disabled list following Tommy John surgery. If the Sox go with 11 pitchers in a given playoff round, Bowden is showing glimpses of the sort of versatility that could establish him as an asset in October.
Here are four other things we learned on a night when the Red Sox’ magic number slipped to six thanks to the Rangers’ 8-1 loss to the A’s:
PAUL BYRD SHOWED THAT HE COULD MATCH
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