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Massarotti: With Morale Slipping, Red Sox Desperately Need An Ace To Step Up

BOSTON (CBS) -- This is what losing does, from the collapse in 2011 to the 93 losses in 2012 to the 91 defeats a year ago: it creates a sense of impending doom, preys upon the doubts that exist in most everyone's minds.

The Red Sox haven't had the pitching from the start, folks. The question was whether they had enough. And so now, 26 games into a season that suddenly feels as if it is beginning to spiral, the Sox feel like a lumbering collection of heavy-legged softball players with a cast of pitchers incapable of making it through the first inning without allowing a run, let alone an entire start.

Know what the Sox could use right now, tonight, against the Tampa Bay Rays?

A well-pitched game.

An ace.

"It is on our starting pitchers to create some stability to hopefully sustain any kind of run to put any kind of streak together," Red Sox manager John Farrell told reporters following last night's 5-1 loss to the Rays. "But we're not looking at streaks. We're looking at every game individually, whether it's to stop a losing streak or whether it's to sustain success. We have to rely on a starting group that pitches with more consistency."

And so here's to you, Rick Porcello. But beware of the consequences.

One mistake, and you'll be right back there with the Five Aces – or is it Five Asses? - who are treating the baseball like the proverbial hot potato.

I don't want it, you take it.

See, an ace doesn't merely put an end to losing streaks, serve as the so-called "stopper" who puts his foot down when a team is sliding. (And this one is.) An ace inspires confidence. He allows the team to leave the ballpark after a tough defeat and arrive the next day with invaluable hope. He allows someone like Dustin Pedroia or David Ortiz to go home and show up at work the next day, earnestly and honestly, with the belief that the next scheduled starter is capable, reliable, trustworthy.

And rest assured, at the moment, Porcello is the closest thing the Red Sox have. In his last outing last week against the Blue Jays, Porcello went seven innings, allowing just two hits, one run and a walk. That was just the second and most recent outing this season in which a Red Sox pitcher went seven innings while allowing fewer baserunners than innings pitched, suggesting that he was, as Farrell might put it, in "control" of the game.

The other? Joe Kelly on April 11 at New York. Since that time, Kelly is 0-1 with a 7.17 ERA.

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Don't forget: ballplayers are as human as anyone else, no matter what they look and sound like on the outside. Veterans like Pedroia and Ortiz, especially, know this. Each has played on multiple championship teams. Each knows the psychological battle that takes place on a daily basis. After losses like last night, when Clay Buchholz allows a pair of runs in each of the first two innings and digs the Red Sox an immediate 4-0 hole, Pedroia wouldn't be human if he failed to stand there, on the field or in the clubhouse, and wonder whether anybody on the pitching staff can step up and stop the bleeding.

C'mon, Clay. What the heck? Give us a chance.

Ditto for you, Joe Kelly. Or you, Justin Masterson. Or you, Wade Miley.

All of that brings us back to Porcello, who has been the Red Sox' best chance at a front-end starter from the very beginning. Truth be told, Porcello is the only starter on the Boston staff with a combination of past performance, stuff and durability in the American League. Kelly really hasn't done it anywhere. Masterson has obviously lost velocity. Miley pitched in the National League. As for Buchholz, well, we are now all too schooled on his unfulfilled potential, for an array of reasons from mental to physical.

But Porcello? He went 15-13 with a 3.43 ERA in 204.2 innings for Detroit last season, which is nothing if not serviceable. It is certainly better than anybody else in the Boston rotation seems capable of right now. Porcello doesn't need to be a true ace so much as he needs to be the ace of the Red Sox, that one pitcher whom the Sox can seemingly rely on for a stable outing turn after turn after turn. That was always the goal for the 2015 Red Sox, who already seem to be losing the grip on their season.

This year, the Red Sox seemingly cannot afford that.

And if Rick Porcello takes the mound tonight and simply falls in line behind the rest of the flailing Boston rotation, the Red Sox will not merely slide just a little deeper into the standings.

Their morale will slip a little more with them.

Tony Massarotti co-hosts the Felger and Massarotti Show on 98.5 The Sports Hub weekdays from 2-6 p.m. Follow him on Twitter @TonyMassarotti. You can read more from Tony by clicking here.

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