Dreaming up a Red Sox playoff rotation

It’s September and the Boston Red Sox are in first place. If they keep this up for the next few weeks, then they will win the division and be guaranteed a spot in the ALDS. If they drop off a bit and still make the wildcard, they could still make the ALDS. With that in mind, let’s take a look at what their playoff rotation might look like:

No. 1 Chris Sale — There’s not even a question here. Sale has been a Cy Young candidate this season. He’s 15-7 with a 2.85 ERA while striking out 270 batters in 189.2 innings. He is on pace to strike out over 300 men this season. That should say it all.

No. 2 Drew Pomeranz — At the beginning of the season who saw this one coming? A lot of people wanted Pomeranz in the bullpen, as weird as that may sound now. In 19 starts since May 25, he has been on Chris Sale’s level; Pomeranz is 11-2 with a 2.80 ERA while striking out 109 batters in 109.1 innings. Not bad.

No. 3 Doug Fister — Not really sure who else you could go with right here right now. Fister earned his spot back in the rotation because of David Price’s injury and in his seven starts back, he is 5-2 with a 2.79 ERA while striking out 44 batters in 48.1 innings. He honestly kind of reminds me of 2016 Clay Buchholz at this point. Plus, he is 4-2 with a 2.60 ERA in nine career postseason apperances, so there’s that too.

No. 4 Rick Porcello — Here’s one of those teams where they’ll probably try to skip over the No. 4 starter as much as possible in the playoffs. Porcello has a 4.50 ERA in 10 second half starts and in that span, he has surrendered 16 home runs in 62.0 innings. That’s less than ideal, but better than Eduardo Rodriguez’ 5.20 second half ERA I guess.

That’s all folks.