So far during the 2019 season, the Boston Red Sox have largely been a disappointment. Though the defending World Series champions are in the Wild Card hunt, the team is only in third place in the AL East and has been hovering just a bit above .500 for most of the season. And part of that falls on their pitching staff.

This season, the team's starters haven't been particularly good. Only David Price has a sub-4.00 ERA while ace Chris Sale has gotten off to one of the worst starts of his career (3-8, 4.04 ERA). And given the construction of the Red Sox's team, this has been a problem for them.

“We built this team from the first inning through the sixth, and then the last three,” said manager Alex Cora per Alex Speier of The Boston Globe. “There are other teams that build from the ninth all the way through the first inning. For us to do the things we want to do, our starters have to give us quality starts and we go from there.”

Though the Red Sox are built around getting these quality starts, they simply haven't been able to do that consistently. The team has only logged 33 quality starts this year which is good for dead-middle in the MLB. That's well under the pace they were on last season when they logged 85 while winning 108 total games.

Of course, part of the decrease is related to the injury to Nathan Eovaldi that impacted their starting rotation. Eovaldi hasn't pitched since April 17 after making four starts. He had to have a procedure to remove "loose bodies" from his elbow, and in his place, the team has struggled to find a consistent fifth starter.

In fact, since Eovaldi's injury, the Red Sox spot starters have combined to start 14 games. They were only able to last five innings or longer in three of the outings. And that has led to negative effects on an overtaxed bullpen, as Red Sox president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski pointed out.

“They’re a very talented group of pitchers. … They’re the guys who are supposed to carry us, really. That’s why I think they’ve been fine. They’ve been OK. But I can’t say they’ve really carried us at any point,” said Dombrowski, per Speier. “The bullpen keeps getting pointed to all the time, I think a lot of times unfairly. It’s just that collectively, in a lot of places, we haven’t done as well as we hoped.”

With the trade deadline drawing nearer, the Red Sox may have to long for a solution for that fifth starter spot -- especially with Eovaldi reportedly moving to the bullpen upon his return from the IL -- in addition to seeing their other top pitchers step up. The Sox reportedly scouted a couple of starting pitchers in a recent game in Detroit, so they do appear to have an interest in making an upgrade in the near future.

Perhaps things will change for the Red Sox moving forward, as they do have the top-end talent needed to have a strong pitching staff. But, for the moment, their starters haven't been the strength that many, including the coaching staff and front office, expected them to be.

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