Bullpen Blues

This road trip in Colorado and San Franisco has been a nightmare for the bullpen. Papelbon's ineffectiveness has been well chronicled. But don't forget the rest of the relief corps (especially Okijima's) struggles.

The more we watch Major League Baseball the more the hard truth becomes painfully obvious, a team's bullpen will make or break a season or playoff series. The key to recent past world series champions (2007 White Sox being the exception) has been having a couple of dominant or reliable arms at the end of games. Starting pitchers are not going to give teams eight innings any more.

The game of baseball has evolved where starters give six or seven innings if you are lucky. Then a combination of one or two middle relievers turn the game over to the closer. The closer is expected to near perfect. Very similar to a kicker in the NFL. People only remember when you don't get it done.

This is what makes Mariano Rivera so incredible. He has been as near perfect as any closer in the history of the game. But what are the two most memorable Mariano moments? Luis Gonzalez's bloop to win game seven in the 2001 World Series and Bill Mueller's game tying single in game four of the 2004 ALDS.

Papelbon has had an amazing career as the Sox closer. We realize he won't be perfect but the last two outings have been hard to stomach. Daniel Bard is clearly the closer of the future but we cannot lose faith in Papelbon because the fortunes of this year's team rest heavily on the entire bullpen's ability to get key outs. This includes Papelbon, Bard and Okijima in particular because they will be getting the majority of the opportunities in the eighth and ninth innings.

Starting pitching, defense and timely offense are certainly important factors in determining the fate of the 2010 Red Sox but we will go only as far as the bullpen carries us.