Larry Eugene Andersen, where are you when we need you? It was Aug. 30, 1990. The Red Sox were in the midst of the pennant chase and were in dire need of relief help.

They primarily needed a set-up man for the seventh and eighth innings to get to Jeff Reardon, who would go on to lead them in saves that year with 21 to go with a 3.16 earned run average.

Jeff Gray had nine saves and a 4.44 ERA and Rob Murphy had seven saves and a 6.32 ERA.

The Red Sox decided to part with one of their top minor league prospects, a former University of Hartford star by the name of Jeff Bagwell.

Andersen, the possessor of a nasty slider, did his job down the stretch. He made 15 appearances spanning 22 innings with 25 strikeouts, just three walks and a sparkling 1.23 ERA.

He helped the Red Sox win the American League East but they were swept by the Oakland Athletics in their pre-wild card era American League Championships Series.

Bagwell?

He will probably be a Hall-of-Famer.

Bagwell, who had shoulder surgery in June, has a career .297 average with 449 homers and 1,525 RBIs. He is the only first baseman in history with at least 400 homers and 200 stolen bases. He has 202 steals.

However, I maintain you never know how he would have handled the scrutiny of the Boston media and the passion of the Red Sox fans.

It’s a lot easier to hit when you’re out of the pennant chase on July 4.

Andersen became a free agent after the season and signed with the San Diego Padres.

Current Boston Red Sox General Manager Theo Epstein finds himself in a similar dilemma as the 1990 team.

The bullpen is abysmal and the problem has to be remedied as soon as possible.

The closer, Keith Foulke, has a 6.23 ERA and has been touched up for eight homers in only 39 innings.

Two of the setup men, John Halama and Alan Embree, have ERAs of 5.71 and 7.97, respectively. Matt Mantei had a 6.49 ERA before going on the disabled list.

The bullpen entered the weekend with a 5.51 ERA, which ranked 27th among 30 major league teams.

The Red Sox were 2-5 in their last seven games entering Tuesday night’s game in Texas and, in two of those losses, they overcame three-run deficits to take late-inning leads of three (Cleveland) and two runs (Texas) only to have the bullpen blow both of them.

Those types of losses are devastating.

They can erode the team chemistry.

When Epstein calls opposing GMs seeking to shore up his bullpen, the three players other teams seek are probably Kevin Youkilis, Hanley Ramirez and Dustin Pedroia.

That is three-fourths of what could be an outstanding major league infield for the Red Sox a year or two down the road.

The problem for Epstein is, everybody wants pitching and there are 15 teams within nine games of the two wild-card leaders: Minnesota (46-34) in the American League and Atlanta (46-37) in the NL.

So those teams are going to be hesitant to part with an effective reliever.

Epstein has to do something and I’m confident he will without surrendering Youkilis, Ramirez or Pedroia.

Maybe they’ll move a starter to the bullpen.

Anybody know where he can reach Larry Andersen?

Larry Mahoney can be reached at 990-8231, 1-800-310-8600 or by email at lmahoney@bangordailynews.net.