Is MLB’s Crackdown on Spider Tack Already Exposing the Red Sox’ Pitching Staff?

On the day the SI piece came out,  Red Sox starter Nathan Eovaldi pitched at Yankee Stadium and allowed one earned run over six innings while striking out seven batters in a 5-2 victory. Though Eovaldi threw the ball well and got the win, the spin rate on the majority of his pitches was down substantially, with his cutter down 26 revolutions per minute compared to his yearly average, his slider down 30 RPM, his fastball down 51 RPM and his splitter down 166 RPM, according to The Boston Herald. In the 10 days after Eovaldi pitched, three other Red Sox starters (Rodriguez, Nick Pivetta and Martin Perez) also saw the spin rates on their off-speed pitches drop.

In the nine games since that win, the Red Sox have given up at least three runs in every game and allowed five or more in six straight games (as of Monday afternoon), including 18 to the Blue Jays in a Sunday slugfest that saw Toronto hit eight home runs and chase Perez after he recorded just four outs. That game was the third in a row against the Jays, a stretch that was preceded by three against the Astros. In those six games, the Red Sox surrendered 53 runs, which equates to 8.83 per game. Over the course of seven May games against the Jays and Astros, two of the best offensive teams in baseball, Boston pitchers gave up 37 runs, an average of just 5.28 per game.

Entering play on Monday, Red Sox starters had an 8.20 ERA and allowed 40 earned runs on 66 hits over 39 innings in the nine games since Eovaldi pitched in the Bronx. That evidence strongly suggests that the team put the kibosh on whatever its pitchers were doing on the mound in order to avoid attracting the raised attention of MLB and risking another suspension — or worse — for Cora.