It’s understandable if Terry Francona doesn’t want to lean on his bullpen right now. Like the rest of us, he’s stared into the abyss of whatever random Triple-A arm the team has been forced to call up or acquire in a trade, and there are very few good options there outside of further torching the arm of Cody Allen.
Francona’s solution, naturally, has been to rely more heavily on his starting pitchers, a group that was historically good last season, and is somehow looking even better this year. Having starting pitchers go deeper into games is undoubtedly more enjoyable to watch (don’t even pretend like you enjoy watching bullpenning), but it’s rarely seen as the right decision this early in a season.