Boston Red Sox: What Can We Take Away from This 4 Game Win Streak?

With Jon Lester’s complete game win over the Seattle Mariners, the Boston Red Sox have won four games in a row. This isn’t the first winning streak for the Red Sox this season, so have they really turned it around, or are they going to continue their streaky play?

Over the last four games, the Red Sox have started to show signs of improvement—not just a flash in the pan, but they're getting into a sustainable rhythm.

It may have taken longer than most of Red Sox nation would have liked, but this team is starting to play like just that—a team. And if they keep it up, they may climb out of the cellar of the AL East and begin to fulfill the potential that this team has.

Let’s take a look at some of the improvements the Red Sox have made that give hope for the rest of the season.

The Youth Movement

Daniel Nava, Will Middlebrooks, Felix Doubront—all making a serious impact at the major league level. And in addition to the stats, it’s exciting to see young players contributing to the big league club.

The Red Sox have a reputation of being an overpaid team of veterans—and they’ve earned it. But there’s something to be said about getting players that are excited by aspects of the game that may be old-hat for older players. 

The younger guys getting called up have something to prove.

If anything, I’d like to see more young players get called up. Find a place for Ryan Lavarnway and Jose Iglesias to contribute to the team.

For each of these young players, the sample size has been small. But their impact cannot be denied.

The Surprisingly Elite Bullpen

According to MLB.com, up until the epic meltdown against the Yankees on April 21, the bullpen posted an 8.43 ERA. But since then, the bullpen has sported an impressive 1.40 ERA over 76.2 innings.

Now that’s far too many innings, but if the starting pitching continues to improve, hopefully the bullpen won’t continue to be overworked.

The lefty-righty balanced bullpen of Andrew Miller, Franklin Morales, Rich Hill, Vicente Padilla, Scott Atchison, Matt Albers and Alfredo Aceves has been getting into a groove with each player starting to fall into their roles.

The only thing this bullpen really lacks is a dominant, strikeout pitcher who can come in with a man on second and third with one out and finish out the inning. Hopefully, Andrew Bailey can come back and provide this for a bullpen that has become a strength of this Red Sox team.

The Balanced Offense

We expect Dustin Pedroia, David Ortiz and Adrian Gonzalez to produce offensively. But over this four-game win streak, the Red Sox have been getting contributions from the entire lineup.

On Sunday, Jarrod Saltalamacchia had five RBI’s; Ryan Sweeney has been thrust into the leadoff position and has a .385 OBP; Will Middlebrooks is slugging .674. And Cody Ross and Daniel Nava keep driving in runs in the bottom half of the lineup.

With the absence of Kevin Youkilis, Jacoby Ellsbury and Carl Crawford, the rest of the roster is filling in and giving tough at-bats, one through nine.

Bobby Valentine Starting to Figure out of How to Use the Bullpen

After Bard had thrown 97 pitches through six innings on Sunday, Bobby Valentine didn’t hesitate in making a call to the bullpen. Finally.

For a while, it seemed like Bobby was a batter too late in going to the bullpen—the damage was already done. Or he would go to the wrong reliever for the matchup. Or he didn’t even know if it was a lefty or righty on the mound.

But the way he’s managed the bullpen—figuring out that Padilla is the guy to bring in with runners on base, trusting Andrew Miller in the seventh inning of a three-run game—shows that he’s starting to figure out each pitcher’s role and the best way to utilize the bullpen as a unit. 

And while he may not be the best one to put in front of a microphone, he seems to be learning the strengths and weaknesses of this team. Hopefully he can keep it going.

The Starting Pitching

The greatest weakness for this team, by far, has been the starting pitching. The bullpen has worked 76.2 innings—far to much to continue to be dominant.

But over the last four starts, the starting pitching has been great, at least by the 2012 Red Sox standards.

Clay Buchholz, who can’t seem to find his 2010 form, labored through 6.1 innings, giving up three earned runs in his last start. At this point, we'll take it, though it's still far from what he can be, but it's a start.

Felix Doubront and Daniel Bard each pitched six innings and only gave up one run in their most recent starts. Doubront looked much more in control than Bard, but each were able to find ways to keep their team in the game and not force the bullpen to pitch extended innings.

And all Jon Lester did was pitch a complete game giving up one run to keep the win streak going.

Now let’s see if Josh Beckett can keep it going.