Josh

Winckowski

The Red Sox decided against using Kenley Jansen with a two-run lead tonight after he struggled through a 28-pitch outing Wednesday. More surprising was that they also stayed away from Chris Martin, who hadn’t pitched since Tuesday. Still, it’s not like the Red Sox needed them against this lineup. Zack Kelly, Brennan Bernardino and Winckowski combined to retire nine of 10 batters after Nick Pivetta departed.

Winckowski finds himself back with the Red Sox just a few hours after being demoted to the minors with both Lucas Sims (lat) and Luis García (elbow) hitting the injured list prior to Tuesday’s game against the Blue Jays. The 26-year-old righty will operate in a versatile swingman-type role moving forward.

Winckowski pitched a scoreless inning in the suspended game today, but he’s given up 12 earned runs in 13 1/3 innings during August. He’ll likely return to the Red Sox bullpen next month anyway.

Winckowski got the call to protect a three-run lead in the final frame with veteran stopper Kenley Jansen unavailable after working each of the previous two days and was unable to convert the save. He immediately gave up back-to-back singles to Corey Seager and Josh Smith before eventually coughing up a game-tying homer to rookie sensation Wyatt Langford with two outs in the frame.

Winckowski did his part, with a Yordan Alvarez homer accounting for the only damage. He was used as a starter today because Cooper Criswell went on the COVID-19 injured list, and he’ll likely return to the pen in a few days.

Criswell was expected to fill in for Nick Pivetta on Saturday, but after landing on the COVID-19 injured list on Friday the Red So had to turn in another direction. Winckowski has been pitching out of the bullpen, so he shouldn’t be expected to work too deeply into Saturday’s game, making him a poor streaming option if looking for wins.

Winckowski got the start for the Red Sox on Saturday and was chased by the fourth inning. Ben Rice took him deep for a solo homer to lead off the first inning. Winckowski worked out of a bases loaded jam in the second, then surrendered a two-run homer to Alex Verdugo in the third. He allowed a leadoff double in the fourth inning and recorded the first two outs before his day was done at 66 pitches. The 26-year-old right-hander holds a 3.23 ERA, 1.44 WHIP, and a 32/14 K/BB ratio across 39 innings. He’s currently lined up for a start against the Royals in Boston on Friday.

It’s his first win in nine starts dating back to Aug. 5, 2022. Winckowski generated quite a bit of soft contact today, which was important since he had just three missed swings and one strikeout. Interestingly, all three missed swings came on the slider that he threw just seven times in the 58-pitch outing. Winckowski should stay in the rotation for now, but he has a very tough matchup coming up against the Yankees in New York.

Cora noted that the team wanted to give the 25-year-old hurler a couple of extra days to work on some of the issues that have plagued him recently. Josh Winckowski will start in his place on Sunday against the Padres in San Diego.

The veteran struggled in his first two outings for the Red Sox before seemingly righting the ship over his next six appearances, allowing just one run on five hits in 9 2/3 innings. However, he had a rough outing on Sunday, allowing three runs on four hits in one inning. He will continue to operate as organizational relief depth and could be back up in a multi-inning capacity at some point in the future. Josh Winckowski was called up in a corresponding move.