Red Sox’ superpower amid season turnaround: Late-inning relievers beginning in fifth inning

WEST SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Among the themes of the Red Sox’ season-saving hot stretch: a newfound ability to go to their late-inning relievers as early as the fifth inning.

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The emergence of Tyron Guerrero as a high-leverage option has given interim manager Chad Tracy at least four such options, including Justin Slaten, Garrett Whitlock, and closer Aroldis Chapman.

On days when the entire quartet is available, and the Red Sox hold a lead, it starts to get late awfully early.

For a manager, that amounts to a superpower.

“If they’re all rested and available, theoretically you can feel like you could shorten the game to like 4⅔ innings,” said Tracy, who has gone to Guerrero in the fifth for one-plus innings on three occasions this month. “It doesn’t mean it’s always going to work that way, but … if they’re all up, it’s going to be very difficult to hit off [them] in that last part of the game.”

Slaten (seven consecutive scoreless appearances), Whitlock (one run allowed in the past five weeks), and Chapman (nine saves in nine chances in July despite some scares) were staples of the Sox’ 15-game winning streak.

Tracy and pitching coach Andrew Bailey have managed to balance all that winning with providing proper rest for those and other arms. The Red Sox typically don’t use relievers more than two days in a row or more than three out of four days.

Regardless of game situation, relievers are deemed unavailable when they hit certain workloads.

“It really is a matter of, who did we use last night? Who are we comfortable with using again, if any?” Tracy said. “You just do it that way to try to not only, one, physically take care of them, but how do you win the game today with the bullpen available? So we have some guys that maybe you’re not regularly throwing [in high-]leverage, but are very capable of doing it [such as lefthander Jovani Morán and righthander Greg Weissert].”

Guerrero’s transformation from obscure journeyman to legitimate and highly effective option — with a routinely triple-digit fastball — has been the key. Entering Wednesday, he had a 2.25 ERA and 1.04 WHIP in 23 appearances.

Critically, he had racked up 28 strikeouts to just three walks — a stark contrast to career-long control problems for the 35-year-old who had not been in the majors since 2019.

“The best thing I can say is I remember in spring training that he was throwing a billion miles an hour, and everybody was talking about he’s throwing strikes,” Tracy said. “And everybody’s like, ‘Well, the history has been maybe he wasn’t the best strike-thrower.’ All he’s done since he’s been in a Red Sox uniform is throw strikes.”

The Red Sox formalized their roster move, putting Curtis Mead (fractured left wrist) on the injured list and calling up infielder/outfielder Nick Sogard from Triple-A Worcester.

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For Sogard, a Sacramento native who grew up attending minor league games at Sutter Health Park, the circumstances were fortuitous.

“It’s cool for sure. That’s cool timing here, and then LA right around the corner, too [beginning Friday],” said Sogard, who started at second base. “Probably the two spots that would be the coolest for me. So the timing’s cool for sure.”

The Sox did not do the transaction Tuesday, when they learned Mead would be out for weeks, because Sogard did not make it across the country in time for the game.

Coming from Virginia, where the WooSox are this week, he wound up stuck in Dallas on an overnight layover after missing his connection. He arrived in Sacramento around 10:30 a.m. Wednesday, he said.

Since recovering from an oblique injury and returning to Triple-A July 8, Sogard was hitting .270/.386/.378. He figures to be in a middle-infield rotation of sorts with Andruw Monasterio (the everyday shortstop lately), Anthony Seigler, and Romy Gonzalez.

Tracy said the Sox did not have an update on Mead, who saw a hand specialist in Boston. They were still gathering information about injury specifics and timeline as of Wednesday evening.

Frustration from the Red Sox over the Athletics’ late-inning usage of the automatic ball-strike challenge system Tuesday turned out to be a misunderstanding.

Twice, Athletics reliever Hogan Harris triggered ABS on pitches called balls. Because his challenge came from the mound — rare in the first-year system — plate umpire Mark Wegner did not initially acknowledge it. Second-base umpire Nate Tomlinson did.

To Tracy and others in the Sox’ dugout, it looked like a late challenge, which shouldn’t be allowed. But it actually was standard procedure for a pitcher challenge.

“Those were challenges that were coming from the mound that the umpire doesn’t see. He’s looking at the catcher,” Tracy explained. “And the base umpire behind, if they see it, they can yell at [the plate ump] and say he did challenge. So we were hollering because we’re watching the catch and we think it’s late, but it’s actually coming from the pitcher’s mound instead.”

An every-few-days check-in: outfielder Roman Anthony (sprained left hand/wrist) has not begun swinging, and starter Garrett Crochet (left shoulder injury) has not resumed throwing. Crochet has not gotten back to throwing weighted balls, a necessary prelude to throwing actual baseballs. “Things are progressing well with his strength, but nothing’s changed as of yet as to what he’s doing,” Tracy said … Knowing Mead is out for at least for several weeks, Tracy reverted back to his previous lineup arrangement: Ceddanne Rafaela second, Willson Contreras third, Wilyer Abreu fourth.

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