It has traditionally taken a special breed of left-hander to succeed in Fenway Park. The Green Monster leaves many southpaws hesitant to pitch inside to right-hander hitters, but the ones who conquer those fears become linchpins.
The turn of the century brought a couple of championship left-handers in Dutch Leonard and the Bambino himself, Babe Ruth. The '30s gave us Lefty Grove, the '40s and '50s Mel Parnell, and then a long fallow period that ended with the arrival of Bill Lee in 1969.
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The Red Sox began developing better lefties in the 1970s and '80s, from John Tudor to Bobby Ojeda to Bruce Hurst, before a recent deluge of draftees, free agents and trade acquisitions like Jon Lester, Chris Sale, David Price, and Eduardo Rodriguez.
The days of the Red Sox shying away from left-handed starters have long passed. Now they're integral to the team's success. Read on for the top five southpaws in Sox history.