3 Boston Red Sox to blame for embarrassing sweep at Cardinals’ hands

Red Sox to blame: Kenley Jansen and the bullpen

Outside of Corey Kluber on Sunday, who got shelled for four runs, including two home runs, while allowing 10 baserunners over five innings, the Red Sox had to like what they saw from their starters in the series against the Cardinals. Chris Sale gave up just three hits, one walk and one run over 8.0 innings on Saturday and James Paxton’s debut was solid with four hits, one walk and two runs allowed over five innings while striking out nine.

The bullpen was a different matter entirely. Over a combined nine innings pitched, the bullpen gave up 13 earned runs against St. Louis.

Ryan Brasier was predictably bad, giving up three runs over 3.1 innings of work across two appearances while Brennan Bernardino and Josh Winckowski didn’t help in the slightest either as they gave up a combined five runs over 2.1 combined innings of work.

No one was more emblematic of the bullpen’s issues than Kenley Jansen. After earning his 400th career save on Wednesday against the Braves, the Red Sox closer was shelled on Friday night, recording no outs while giving up three hits, a walk and three earned runs to blow the save. He then blew another save on Saturday, though he gave up just one hit, allowing two earned runs (three in total) while walking three batters, giving him a ripe 45.00 ERA for the series.

Jansen has been light out overall this season but his last two outings have been horrendous. They also both cost the Red Sox wins against an entirely beatble Cardinals team.