It's time the Red Sox move on from Junichi Tazawa in the closer's role.
With the Sox leading 5-2 in the ninth inning, the Red Sox turned to Jean Machi to protect the lead -- which he did, barely.
But Machi was only closing Monday night because Tazawa was unavailable after throwing 30 pitches in the ninth-inning explosion against Kansas City on Sunday.
Interim manager Torey Lovullo maintained that Tazawa would continue to get the ball in the ninth. "I think we're going to stay with Taz, for sure," Lovullo told reporters. "Just because you might have a situation where you don't get the job done and don't execute, it wouldn't help him right now to just pull it away from him."
Problem is, Sunday was far from atypical for Tazawa in the closer's role. He's never adapted to it. In 43 appearances in the ninth inning in his career -- not all, obviously, were traditional save situations -- Tazawa has a 3.62 ERA and hitters are batting .297 against him.
Contrast that to his eighth inning numbers: 2.38 ERA with a .220 batting average against.
There's tremendous value to doing the job Tazawa has done for the last 3 1/2 seasons. Quality, durable set-up men are important.
But the Sox seem intent on trying to convince themselves that Tazawa will eventually figure things out in the ninth. Why? Koji Uehara is under contract for 2016 and will be the closer again next year.
The better plan would be for Tazawa to return to the high-leverage spot in the eighth and take the final five weeks to look at some younger options in the ninth. Heath Hembree, who has pitched well in his last three outings, might be worth a look.
Historically, teams have found closers by default. Such was the case with Uehara, who was the fourth choice in 2013. Perhaps rather that trying to have Tazawa do something he can't do, the Sox could try that approach again.