The Boston Red Sox Sunday, August 16, 2020 * The Boston Globe They’re history: Red Sox pitching officially reached a new low on Saturday Alex Speier Children and their parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents across New England can convene — or at least connect via Zoom — on Sunday morning and marvel that in the 120-year history of the Red Sox franchise, no one has ever borne witness to the pitching carnage currently taking place. On Saturday night, the Red Sox sent ace Nate Eovaldi to the Yankee Stadium mound. The righthander — memorably dominant in the 2018 playoffs in New York — represented the team’s most stabilizing presence. But the anchor could not hold. Instead, the Yankees continued their season-long thrashing of Red Sox pitching, crushing three homers off Eovaldi en route to an 11-5 victory that introduced a new level of infamy to a beleaguered pitching staff. The Red Sox have allowed at least eight runs in six straight games, all (shockingly!) losses. That never previously occurred in the history of the franchise. If the Sox give up eight or more on Sunday, their streak of games allowing a touchdown and two-point conversion will match a major league record. “It seems like when it rains, it pours,” said Eovaldi. “Right now, we’re all kind of going through it.” Indeed they are, in a way that has challenged the limits of comprehension. It’s become a David Lynch movie, an exploration of whether there is something so gruesome as to become aesthetically compelling. The gory details since Monday: 52 innings 63 runs (10.9 runs per 9 innings, and tied for the most ever allowed by the Red Sox in a six-game stretch.) 55 earned runs (9.52 ERA) 84 hits 13 homers .357 average/.427 on-base/.626 slugging In 267 plate appearances and 1,049 pitches, Red Sox pitching has turned every opposing hitter into Hall of Famer Lou Gehrig, a career .340/.447/.632 hitter. There have been some very talented players among the Rays and Yankees lineups, but nary a Gehrig in the bunch. In any season, a six-game stretch along these lines would be painful. But this year, that’s 10 percent of the season, making it significantly likely the 2020 Red Sox pitching staff will distinguish itself as the worst in franchise history. The highest ERA in franchise history is 5.02 in 1932, a dismal bunch with the worst winning percentage (43-111, .279) of all time by a Red Sox team. With Saturday’s loss, this year’s group is at 6.10, and their 6- 15 record (.286) likewise has them, about 35 percent of the way through the season, in view of the standard for futility. There are reasons for this, of course. The Red Sox pitching staff is reduced drastically by the February decision to trade David Price, the season-long losses of their two best pitchers (Chris Sale and Eduardo Rodriguez), and the absence to this point in the season of two of their best five relievers (Darwinzon Hernandez and Josh Taylor). Contention has become virtually impossible, a notion publicly acknowledged by chairman Tom Werner on Friday. There’s a lot of losing left in front of the team during what amounts to an ongoing audition for future (2021 and beyond) roles in three rotation spots. “It’s not fun going out there and getting your head beat in every day,” said J.D. Martinez. “It’s hard to hit when your offense is always on the field, just tired. Whenever you’re out there for 45 minutes, 30-45 minutes before you’ve got to get in there and hit, it’s not easy.” Resignation seems to be taking hold. On Saturday afternoon, manager Ron Roenicke tried to address the spreading atmosphere of defeat. He talked about the need to avoid getting consumed by the enormity of the team-wide struggles, and to instead focus more narrowly on executing individual pitches. “When you make quality pitches, you get people out,” said Roenicke. “It’s no different here than in the minor leagues.” But it is. The hitters are better, the audience is larger, and the measuring stick of 120 years of history more easily accessed. Pitchers with minor league track records of success are not necessarily equipped to handle elite big-league hitters, a notion the Red Sox have encountered in game after game after game. Several hours and 11 runs after delivering his pep talk to the pitchers, Roenicke could do little but shake his head. Optimism had been drained by yet another dismantling. “It’s just tough when you send Nate out there and he gets hit,” he said. “Just, it’s hard.” Indeed it is. And as difficult as it has been for the Red Sox staff to compete to this point, an ominous date looms on the horizon: By August 31, the team may well deal some of its best pitchers. The bottom may still be to come. Yankees rough up Red Sox again, continue domination of rivalry Peter Abraham NEW YORK — Red Sox manager Ron Roenicke met with his forlorn pitching staff before Saturday night’s game against the Yankees and presented them with what he thought was good news. Roenicke and pitching coach Dave Bush said they planned to use the pitchers in better-defined roles moving forward. The idea was to give them an opportunity to re-set after a string of terrible games. “Just try and ease their minds a little bit. Trying to free them up and get them to stop pressing and be themselves,” Roenicke said. But it somehow got worse. Nate Eovaldi had his worst start as a member of the Sox in an 11-5 loss. That’s six consecutive losses for the 6-15 Red Sox. They have allowed eight or more runs in each of those games, a staggering 38 in the last three. The team’s earned run average has swelled to 6.09. “It sucks. It’s definitely not fun,” said J.D. Martinez, who saw two hits and two RBIs wasted. “It’s not fun going out there and getting your head beat in every day.” Clint Frazier homered and drove in five runs for the Yankees. Gio Urshela and Gary Sanchez also homered as Eovaldi allowed eight runs over 5⅓ innings. The Sox are planning to call up Chris Mazza to face the first-place Yankees on Sunday night in what would be his first major league start. He’ll be the 11th starter tried in 22 games. “We need to start playing good baseball. We’re not playing good baseball,” said Roenicke, who night after night takes the heat for roster decisions made above him. “We’re lacking in something it seems like every day. We don’t play good defense one day and then we don’t hit another day or we don’t pitch.” As the Red Sox stagger, the Yankees feast. They are 5-0 against the Sox this season, scoring 40 runs. The Yankees had 11 hits off Eovaldi and three relievers, eight for extra bases. The Sox have lost 13 of the last 14 games between the teams including eight in a row for the first time since 1985. Eovaldi was one of the heroes of the 2018 championship run and was rewarded with a four-year, $68 million contract. He is 3-3 with a 6.32 ERA in 28 games since. “It’s extremely frustrating, for sure,” Eovaldi said. Eovaldi took a 3-2 lead into the fourth inning and to that point had thrown only 40 pitches. With two outs and a runner on first, he got ahead of Sanchez 0 and 2. Sanchez came into the game having struck out in 44 percent of his plate appearances this season. The third pitch was just off the plate and Sanchez took it. Sanchez fouled off a cutter to stay alive then appeared to have struck out when he took a curveball at the bottom of the strike zone. Umpire Jansen Visconti didn’t call it, which drew some comments from the Red Sox dugout audible in the press box. The next pitch was a splitter that stayed over the plate and Sanchez hit it 391 feet into the left-field seats. It was his fourth home run of the season, the second in as many games. “I felt like there were a couple of close calls,” Eovaldi said. “I felt like I made a lot of really good pitches tonight and I felt like they laid off a lot of those as well.” Eovaldi wasn’t unlucky in the sixth inning. He just pitched poorly. In a 4-3 game, Eovaldi allowed a leadoff single by Gleyber Torres and a double into the right-field corner by Mike Tauchman. This time, Eovaldi struck out Sanchez. But Frazier drove the first pitch he saw — a cutter that did nothing — into the right-field stands for his second home run. When Brett Gardner doubled, that was it for Eovaldi. Gardner scored when Tyler Wade doubled off Heath Hembree. Matt Barnes, who hadn’t pitched since last Sunday, started the seventh inning and allowed three runs, two on a single by Frazier. Yankees starter James Paxton (1-1) wasn’t particularly impressive, allowing three runs on six hits over five innings. All three runs came in the third inning. Martinez drove in two runs with a sharply hit ball down the left-field line but was thrown out going to second.