Red Sox minor lines: Roenis Elias, Boston's fifth starter

Pawtucket W 5-1

Deven Marrero: 1-3, BB, K

Roenis Elias: 7 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 7 K
Roman Mendez: 1 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 2 K
Pat Light: 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 2 K

Alright, that's it. The competition is over. Roenis Elias is the fifth starter. He must be. His last two starts, since John Farrell mentioned he was one of the candidates for the June 18th start, have been 16 innings of one-run ball with 15 Ks to 2 walks. Going back five games, it's 36 innings, 8 runs, 27 baserunners, and 40 strikeouts. In that time, Buchholz has had one successful relief outing, Joe Kelly failed to get out of the fifth in Pawtucket, and Henry Owens Honked his way through an outing with 3 BB and 0 K.

Let's be clear about this: if Roenis Elias isn't the starter, then John Farrell lied, and he was never in contention in the first place. He couldn't have done anything more than he has, and the competition has barely provided a single positive. This is a landslide victory pretty much no matter what happens in everyone's next outing. We'd need a perfect game at this point to even put it in question.

I don't know if Elias will be any good at the majors, but of the four, he's the only guy who's actually pitching well right now, and if Elias is at his best, then he's at the very least a reasonable major league pitcher, as he has demonstrated in years gone by.

Portland W 8-3

Andrew Benintendi: 3-5, 2B, HR, K

Benintendi has struggled to put together any sort of prolonged streak of success. Perhaps this is a harbinger of a hot streak, or maybe just a positive spike. Either way, he's at least been better this past week or so than he was at the beginning of his Portland stay.

Salem L 4-5

Yoan Moncada: 1-4, BB, K, SB
Mauricio Dubon: 2-4
Nick Longhi: 1-3, 2B, BB
Rafael Devers: 0-4, K
Joseph Monge: 2-4, K

Dangit, Devers, that's not how you follow up a 5-for-5! Granted, that leaves him 5-for-9 in his last two, but still.

Greenville W 5-4

Josh Ockimey: 0-3, BB, K
Kyri Washinton: 2-4, 2B, 2 K
Luis Alexander Basabe: 0-3, BB, 2 K

Kyri Washington's line continues to amuse: .292/.305/.553. Not many guys over .550 SLG that are just barely staying above a .300 OBP.