WORCESTER, Mass. — The Boston Red Sox have the playoffs on their radar with a month remaining in the regular season.
Pitching is a massive part of where Boston stands, which is firmly in a playoff spot and in reachable distance of the top of the American League East standings.
The Red Sox have three starters leading the rotation in Garrett Crochet, Brayan Bello and Lucas Giolito. Dustin May and Payton Tolle among others have filled in starts at the back of the rotation, but another left-hander could bridge the rotation to get to October.
Boston acquired Kyle Harrison in the widely-discussed June trade of slugger Rafael Devers to the San Francisco Giants. Harrison holds a 3.65 ERA in 11 starts for Triple-A Worcester.
That stretch had some inconsistencies to fight through as the young starter worked through arsenal changes in the Red Sox organization. Boston worked to get more out of his fastball and slider with the additions of a cutter and changeup to his toolbox.
Worcester manager Chad Tracy, who recently won his 300th game in the role, compared the work with Harrison to the organization’s development of Quinn Priester, who the Red Sox acquired last summer from the Pittsburgh Pirates before they flipped him to the Milwaukee Brewers in early 2025.
Priester made nine starts for Triple-A Worcester in 2024 before he tossed five innings of one-run ball for the Red Sox in the season finale in the big leagues.
“When he is consistently getting ahead in the count and inside the strike zone, it’s very, very good,” Tracy said Tuesday at Polar Park. “When he has those moments where he lapses and falls behind in the count, that’s when baserunners can stack up on him. At least here, he seems to get out of those spots.”
Tolle consistently worked with extra rest this season. May will work out of the bullpen this week for the Red Sox, where his stuff could also tick up after posting an ERA over 5.00 in Boston’s rotation since the trade deadline.
May and Tolle each make sense in the bullpen for Boston this postseason. The team will need to make a decision eventually for a playoff starter behind Crochet, Bello and Giolito. For now, should Harrison make his Boston debut in the coming days, the lefty can make competitive starts to keep the Red Sox on pace for their first postseason berth in four years.
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