Red Sox fire pitching coach Bob McClure - Yahoo! Sports

BOSTON (AP) -- The slumping Boston Red Sox will have a new pitching coach for the remainder of their tumultuous first season under manager Bobby Valentine.


Bob McClure was fired Monday and replaced by Randy Niemann with the Red Sox on the fringe of the playoff race following another rough stretch.


''We felt like we needed to make a change to put our pitchers in the best position to do what they needed to do,'' general manager Ben Cherington said. ''The next six weeks are important to create a foundation going into the offseason. We felt like this change was needed to give ourselves the best chance to do that.''


The Red Sox have lost 12 of 18 games this month to fall off the pace in the competitive AL East. Boston's 4.30 team ERA was 11th in the American League heading into Monday's games.

At what point are they going to fire Beckett?