Astros 5, Red Sox 4: Arrighetti & Meatballs

So here’s something that’s not good:

team OPS vs ERA

since the all-star break pic.twitter.com/kDffqK2fjz— BrooksGate (@Brooks_Gate) August 10, 2024

First things first: the presence of the Oakland A’s in the top right quadrant serves as an important reminder that, in baseball, even 19 games counts as a small sample size. The Boston Red Sox probably won’t have the second-worst pitching staff in baseball for the remainder of the year. But right now they do.

So this afternoon, as they turned to a bullpen game against the Astros — despite having just lost two in a row thanks in no small part to a fatigued bullpen — it was understandable if you didn’t have high expectations.