Red Sox pitching may have made the Pittsburgh Pirates ad Cleveland Guardians look like offensive powerhouses, but just a week ago the Boston offense had beaten Paul Skenes before the bullpen gave it away. In the Red Sox favor this weekend? Struggling starting pitchers for the Dbacks facing a strong part of the Boston rotation.

Payton Tolle will make his second major league start against a Diamondback team that sold offense at the deadline. As these things go, Arizona has, of course, gone 19-13 since the calendar turned to August. They may not have Gino anymore but old friend Eduardo Rodriguez is here. E-Rod has struggled in Phoenix. He has a 5.30 ERA / 4.63 FIP in his time there. It’s a far cray from his time in Boston. In his last start he held the Dodgers scoreless for 6.0 innings but with 4 walks and 4 Ks it wasn’t a dominant outing. Expect the Lefty Mashing Core of Romy and Refsnyder.

A righty, Brandon Pfaadt is in his third major league season. After 79 starts he has a career ERA of 5.15. Yes the bats have been up and down or silent and are missing Roman Anthony now but this one, with Lucas Giolito on the mound, is a must-win. Take out E-Rod and win the series Saturday. Boston is in the easy part of the month and dropped 2 games to the Pirates. When they were doing well the Sox were taking care of business against bad teams.

We stay with right-handers facing Ryne Nelson. He’s been great this year. After hitting .284 and .266 against against him in the last year years, batters have done comparatively nothing in 2025: .214/.269/.384. He is giving up fewer hits than ever before and striking out nearly 3.5 batters for every walk. Left in Arizona after the selloff, he’s the bright spot this weekend for their rotation.

Alex Bregman has been in a slump since the deadline hitting just .246/.351/.342. Over the same time, old friend Rafael Devers found his bat is putting up nearly a 1000 OPS: .291/.390/.607.

Connor Wong still doesn’t have a home run on the season but over his last, uh, 14 games he’s hitting .289/.347/.400. Since the deadline he’s at .255/.304/.353, which if you were trading for a backup catcher you’d probably be happy with.

Probable Pitching Matchups

Friday, September 5: Payton Tolle (3.38 ERA / 1.26 FIP) vs. Eduardo Rodriguez (5.40 ERA / 4.65 FIP)

Saturday, September 6: Lucas Giolito (3.38 ERA / 4.08 FIP) vs. Brandon Pfaadt (5.33 ERA / 4.32 FIP)

Sunday, September 7: Brayan Bello (3.07 ERA / 3.77 FIP) vs. Ryne “Judd” Nelson (3.57 ERA / 3.72 FIP)

Friday August 29: 9:40 PM ET on NESN

Saturday August 30: 8:10 PM ET on NESN

Sunday August 31: 1:35 PM ET on NESN