BOSTON — Entering the middle game of their weekend series with the New York Yankees, the Red Sox had won six of their previous eight games, bringing them to within a game of .500.

It’s not hard to pinpoint why things have stabilized some: the team is getting far better — and deeper — contributions from the team’s starting rotation.

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Whereas as recently as a few weeks ago, the team was getting quality starts from Garrett Crochet and no one else, the Sox went into Saturday with a string of six straight games in which they got at least five innings from their starting pitchers.

That may not qualify as dominant, but it’s a step forward from what they had been getting.

“I think, at the end of the day, if we pitch, we’re going to be fine,” said Alex Cora. “That’s the feeling right now. It’s been, what, six games in a row that we’ve pitched and hopefully, we can make it seven. And if we continue to be consistent the first five or six innings, we should be OK.

“We talk about (the importance of) shutdown innings, and I think we’ve been shutting down the inning – the first one. I think we’ve done a good job with that. I don’t know if we’re throwing more strikes, but it feels that way. We’re playing better defense behind them, which is important.”

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Perhaps the biggest developments in the last little while is the ability of veteran starters Lucas Giolito and Walker Buehler to make adjustments and figure some things out.

After getting rocked in the series opener in New York, Buehler rebounded Wednesday against Tampa Bay and turned in his best outing in a while.

Meanwhile, Giolito supplied arguably his best start of the season on Tuesday night against the Rays, allowing a single run over six innings while noting postgame that it’s imperative the Sox get length from starters other than Crochet.

Both made some tweaks and realized improved results.

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“That’s who we counted on before the season,” said Cora of Buehler and Giolito. “They were going to give us innings, especially Gio. He was behind in spring training and to start the season. I think (Brayan) Bello, the last two have been great and he’s been more efficient.

“But those two (veteran) guys have been solid of late and hopefully we can continue doing that.”

From there, the Sox also hope to get buy-in from Hunter Dobbins, Saturday’s starter, or anyone else occupying the fifth spot in the rotation, however temporary.

“I’m happy with it,” said Cora of the recent turnaround. “If you dominate the first five innings, offensively we’re going to do the rest. In a perfect world, they go six. (But) for them to go deeper into the game, it’s been very important for us.”

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Read the original article on MassLive.