Henry Owens’ First Big League Start Ruined by Boston Bullpen

Photo Credit: AP

The Boston Red Sox brought up Henry Owens from their minor league AAA affiliate and started him against the New York Yankees in Yankee Stadium on Tuesday night.

Owens, a 23-year-old left hander, was 3-8 with a 3.16 ERA for Pawtucket. Last year, he was 17-5 between Pawtucket and AA Portland with a 2.94 ERA and 170 strikeouts in 159 innings pitched.

In the eight games this year in which Owens took the loss, the Pawsox got shut out three times, scored one run four times and two runs once; a total of six runs in eight losses for Owens. In those eight games, he gave up a total of 20 runs for an ERA of 4.00. With a little support, his win/loss records could have been much better.

Owens started against the Yankees and appeared to have a case of the jitters in the first inning, giving up a run on two hits and a walk, before getting out of the inning. He gave up a single to Chase Headley to lead off the second and then proceeded to shut down the hot hitting Yankees for the next four innings, getting 12 batters in succession.

At the end of five innings, the Sox had come back and led the Yankees 2-1 going to the sixth. At that point, Owens had thrown 87 pitches and the Yankees had the meat of their order in Chris Young, Alex Rodriguez, Mark Teixeira and Brian McCann due up.

In his first big league outing, it looked like an ideal time to take the rookie out, making his first big league experience a positive one. Taking him out at that point would ensure that he couldn’t lose and he had had a great game against the first place team in the division. The last thing he needed was a bad finish to his first outing.

Instead, Farrell sent him out to start the sixth and he gave up a single to Young and a double to Rodriguez. Then, Farrell took him out and the floodgates opened and the Sox relievers gave up 12 runs as 21 Yankees batters came to the plate in the next two innings.

In his 21 starts at Pawtucket this year, Owens had averaged 95.3 pitches per game and he had already thrown 87 when the sixth inning started. Why leave him in when it was obvious he would be over 100 before the inning was over? Why leave him in when the bullpen had had a day off the day before and should have been ready to go? Why leave him in to face the meat of the Yankee order, for the third time? It isn’t as if the game was crucial to the Red Sox winning or losing the pennant.

There was no logical reason to send him out there in the sixth. There was every reason to take him out after five and let him savor his outing and build his confidence.

Henry Owens is going to be an effective major league pitcher for many years. The Red Sox have kept him in the minors, not wanting to rush his development and hurt his future and rightfully so.

The decision to leave him in the game in those circumstances is just the latest example of bad decision making at the field and management level that has given Boston fans a last place team that can’t get out of its own way.

The Red Sox have 47 wins and 60 losses through their first 107 games. To put that into perspective, even Bobby Valentine won 53 of his first 107 games.