‘He saved us:’ Red Sox pitcher (8 Ks) just recalled a bright spot in loss

Starter Brayan Bello struggled to throw strikes in Red Sox’ 9-4 loss to the Blue Jays on Tuesday.

Manager Alex Cora described reliever Josh Winckowski as doing “the opposite.”

“He pounded the strike zone the whole night and he saved us today,” Cora said. “His stuff was really good.”

Winckowski, who Boston recalled from Triple-A Worcester on Monday, recorded a career-high eight strikeouts in 6 strong innings. He gave up two runs, six hits and one walk. He threw 66% of his pitches for strikes (91 pitches, 60 strikes) while Bello threw just 55.8% strikes.

What did Cora see differently with Winckowski that he wasn’t seeing earlier this year?

“The changeup for strikes instead of trying to get swings and misses,” Cora said. “When you’ve got stuff like that, you really don’t need swing and misses. You induce the opposition to ground balls and weak contact. The slider was better but the changeup was good and he was throwing it over the plate.”

Winckowski threw 31 sinkers (94.4 mph average, 96 mph max), 28 cutters, 13 changeups (90.4 mph average), 10 sliders and one four-seamer, per Baseball Savant. He got seven swings and misses with his cutter.

The Red Sox demoted Winckowski on May 12 after he had posted a 3.33 ERA, 4.25 WHIP, 1.56 WHIP, 19 strikeouts and 11 walks in 12 outings (24 ⅓ innings). His advanced stats weren’t good. He ranked in only the eighth percentile in expected ERA (5.47) and the seventh percentile in expected batting average against (.288).

Winckowski said Monday his time with Worcester “went really well.”

“Obviously, the first few days, you’re a little grumpy,” he said. “But I feel like I tackled it pretty well and worked on a lot down there. I worked on the changeup, the cutter and the slider and just kind of throwing more strikes. I feel like I made a lot of progress down there.”