The Boston Red Sox continued to put their poor start behind them on Tuesday, defeating the Baltimore Orioles for their fourth win in five tries. The Red Sox have now won 12 of 18 since being swept into last place by the New York Yankees in mid-April. Perhaps the most notable part of Tuesday's victory is that it saw the Red Sox win despite having to resort to a bullpen game.

Manager Alex Cora permitted Hector Velasquez to throw three innings before turning the game over to Marcus Walden, who then delivered three frames of his own. Consider it a creative solution to a rotation-depth problem that has surfaced lately due to injuries to Nathan Eovaldi and David Price. Remember, this is the same Red Sox team who had to give a start to Josh Smith, a 31-year-old journeyman with a career 78 ERA+ in 131 big-league innings.

The (relative) good news for the Red Sox is that Smith and the rest of Boston's reinforcements won't be needed as much as if these injuries had occurred at another time. As Chris Cotillo pointed out on MassLive.com, the Red Sox can pitch the remaining portion of their Opening Day rotation -- Chris Sale, Eduardo Rodriguez, and Rick Porcello -- in seven of their next 10 games.

How? Because the Red Sox are embarking on a stretch of schedule with multiple off days. The Red Sox will have Thursday off after completing their series with Baltimore on Wednesday night. They'll then have the following Monday and Thursday off, too, before resuming the typical grind of playing consecutive series without a breather in between. It's possible at least one of their two injured starters, Price or Eovaldi, will be back by then.

Before anyone accuses the schedule makers of favoritism towards the Red Sox -- a large-market team and the defending World Series champions -- keep in mind that Boston opened the year on an 11-game west-coast road trip and will play a pair of games in London against the Yankees in late June. Certainly this stretch of the schedule comes at a fortuitous time for the Red Sox, but scheduling highs and lows tend to balance out like hot streaks and slumps.

Right now, the Red Sox are benefiting from both evening out.