Why rookie Jake Bennett is the reason behind the Red Sox having a bullpen game Monday

BOSTON — As the Red Sox return home for the beginning of a week-long homestand Monday, they’ll do something different with their starting rotation in hopes of benefiting a rookie starter who has looked to have hit the wall in recent weeks.

Boston will have a bullpen game against the Diamondbacks in Monday’s series opener with lefty Alec Gamboa starting, the team announced. The expectation is that righty Brayan Bello will play a meaningful long relief role following Gamboa against Arizona.

The Red Sox will then start Ranger Suarez on Tuesday and Payton Tolle on Wednesday before an off day Thursday, their first day with no game since July 23. That will line up Sonny Gray to pitch Friday’s series opener against the Giants on five days of rest and Patrick Sandoval to potentially go Saturday in a similar scenario. Boston plans to hold out Bennett until the weekend against the Giants in hopes of giving him eight or nine days between outings.

“It pushes Bennett back,” interim manager Chad Tracy explained after Sunday’s loss to Pittsburgh. “Mostly, we’re gonna push him back (to) the next series with San Francisco. He’ll get eight or nine (days of rest). It helps to do that, and it gives a couple of the guys behind him an extra day. Gives them some (rest) and we can back J.B. up. That’s the plan right now.”

Bennett, who was tagged for four earned runs and five hits in four innings Friday night in Pittsburgh, has logged a 5.67 ERA in his last five starts (27 innings) dating back to July 22. The rookie dazzled before that point — he pitched to a 2.35 ERA in his first nine starts — but has been hit hard in recent outings. On Friday, Bennett and manager Chad Tracy said they were not worried about recent results.

“I’m not overly concerned,” said Tracy. “I think he just left some soft pitches in very hittable spots is all it was. They were obviously able to string some together. JB didn’t get balls in the corner. But no, I wouldn’t say I was overly concerned about that.

“I don’t want to overdo it. Dating back to (Sacramento), we had some questions about that (outing). He was pitching in the seventh and gave up a two-run homer. He pitched and gave up three runs (in an inning) against the Dodgers and then didn’t give up anything else and grinded through that. It is the big leagues; there are going to be periods of time when you leave some pitches in areas and they get hit. He was so, so good (earlier). I still look up and in this outing, I saw a lot of (pitches measured at) 94 mph, 95 mph. I’m still pleased with the velocity.”

Bennett’s struggles have coincided with the 25-year-old setting a career high in innings. Across three levels in the Nationals’ system last year, Bennett, after undergoing Tommy John surgery in September 2023, threw 75 ⅓ innings during the regular season, plus 20 more in the Arizona Fall League for a yearly total of 95 ⅓. This season, between 14 starts in the majors and nine more at Triple-A Worcester, he has already thrown 120 innings. There’s a month left in the season so Bennett should expect to make six or seven more starts.

In a perfect world, the Red Sox would find different ways to lighten Bennett’s load down the stretch, but injured starters Garrett Crochet, Tanner Houck, Johan Oviedo and Kutter Crawford are not close to returning and the club’s depth has thinned out in the upper levels of the minors. For now, the best option behind the starting five of Gray, Suarez, Tolle, Bennett and Sandoval is some combination of an opener and Bello, who has a fantastic 0.75 ERA in 48 innings as a reliever this year but posted a 10.35 ERA in eight starts.

Gamboa’s first major league start will come against Diamondbacks rookie lefty Mitch Bratt with first pitch at 7:10 p.m. ET.

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