Brandon Walter does Red Sox a solid as depleted bullpen begins to rear ugly head

That Brandon Walter was even pitching in a Major League ballgame is a feat in itself. 

Selected in the 26th round of the draft in 2019, he wouldn't even be picked in the new 20-round format. Walter became the first Red Sox draft pick from the 26th round to make his debut for the club in 40 years, and just the third of 12 of those 41 26th-rounders to make his debut while still in the organization.

He might not have thrown the first nine-inning complete-game shutout in five years. That was Joe Ryan's job in the Red Sox' 6-0 shelling at the hands of the Twins in Thursday's getaway game. 

But what Walter did do in his Big League debut was do Boston's bullpen a solid. 

The Red Sox were staring a bullpen game in the face. When Justin Garza could barely make it through an inning of work, the outlook for an already depleted pitching staff looked bleak. 

Walter came in with Boston already in a quick 2-0 hole and a runner on base. A few more paper cuts for the Twins in the second inflated the lead to 4-0 (only one run charged to him. The other to Garza). 

"His stuff was good early," Cora told reporters. "The [single in the second] by [Willi] Castro was a groundball that went through, and the [two-RBI double] by [Michael A.] Taylor, it was a groundball that actually kind of kicked back." 

But the 26-year-old settled in from there, finishing with 6.2 innings of work (92 pitches/56 strikes) and giving up three earned runs on six hits, including one absolute tank for Byron Buxton, with two strikeouts and three walks.

"I mean it was a blast, obviously getting to pitch in my first Big League game," Walter told reporters of his debut. "I tried not to think of that aspect of it too much. Just wanted to kind of keep us in the game, give us length, save the other bullpen guys and just try to get quick innings. I was able to do that sometimes. Other innings kind of got away from me, but I think overall, pretty good."

Walter threw 21 pitches in the second inning but needed no more than 17 in any inning the rest of the way. He got through the fourth, sixth and seventh innings in 10 pitches or less. 

"I'd say [I settled in]," he said. "That first inning went fast, for sure, in my head. After that, I think I made some good pitches." 

The southpaw wasn't amazing by any stretch, but he saved Alex Cora from needing to cycle through the bullpen on a travel day ahead of three more road games in Chicago without an off-day until Monday. In a day where the Sox could have easily gone through four or five pitchers had Walter struggled, the only other arm they needed was Joe Jacques, who came on for the final out of the eighth, needing just five pitches to get out of the inning. 

"Pretty good," Cora said of his overall assessment of Walter. "Overall, a really good one. Six and [two] thirds. Gave us what we needed. It just happens that they cashed in early in the game."

Walter adjusted early to be able to go over six innings. His sinker, self-admittedly, wasn't cutting it. His cutter, which he threw 31 times, was. It induced the lowest average exit velocity of any of his pitches (75.2 mph), per Baseball Savant. Five of his 16 sweepers were called strikes.

"If you come in with a gameplan, sometimes the hitters are going to come in with a different gameplan, and you're going to have to switch. Or that pitch just isn't working, and you're going to have to switch to something else and ride with what's working," Walter said. "That's what I did today. Fastball command was, honestly, terrible. Went to the cutter, went to the changeup and went to the slider. Was able to get ahead with those, create soft contact and get through those innings quickly."

Cora said, "Induced a lot of weak contact and threw a lot of strikes. The cutter seems like it was playing. It's a good one. He was able to move the ball around the strike zone. We were talking about ... usually when they come up, we start talking about guys, and he reminds me of ... very [Ryan] Yarbrough-like a few years ago with the cutter. Sinking it, throwing it up and down. That was a good one."

That Boston needed to turn Garza as an opener before hoping that Walter could effectively eat innings speaks to the mounting injuries taking their toll on the bullpen, to say nothing of the rest of the lineup becoming short-staffed as well. Alex Verdugo will be out for the weekend as he's on the bereavement list after the loss of his grandmother earlier this month. Reese McGuire is down with an oblique injury. Enmanuel Valdez went down in Worcester, and Yu Chang is delayed in his rehab. 

Thursday should have been Tanner Houck's start. He's down with a facial fracture and now surgery to insert a plate to aid the healing process after taking a line drive to the face against the Yankees last Friday. The Sox were already down Chris Sale, and John Schreiber, also capable of going multiple innings out of the pen, moving to the 60-day IL certainly hurts, too. Corey Kluber, Richard Bleier and Joelly Rodriguez are all on the shelf as well. 

Once Boston appeared to have some sort of momentum, the roster headaches piled up. Go figure. Who was that talking about hope the other day, anyway?

Boston turned to the Dodgers, acquiring RHP Tayler Scott for cash. Scott has given up six earned runs in six innings for Los Angeles this year and has a career 10.75 ERA in 34.1 innings in his career. But, right now, the Sox just need a warm body in the bullpen.

Whether Walter remains with the club and contributes in a similar role remains to be seen.

'We'll talk about that," Cora said.