10/6 ALDS Game 2 vs NYY

[Kimmi]

One game you babies

 

Post of the game thread.

[Slasher9]

We only scored 2 last night.

 

Deserved to lose on both counts.

 

In 9. Walkoff in 12.

Are you blaming last night on the offense?

Do you expect we should win 8-7 games in the postseason?

[Kimmi]

For the people bitching about the offense. That’s the point of postseason baseball.

Pitching + defense = parades.

That offense stuff is for regular season & player stats......

In the postseason you are expected to win 3-2 baseball games.....

This is 100% on the pitching.

 

I agree that pitching + defense = parades, but there has to be some offense. Against the Yankees line up, two runs is not going to cut it. The offense has to do a better job.

[Bellhorn04]

In 9. Walkoff in 12.

Are you blaming last night on the offense?

Do you expect we should win 8-7 games in the postseason?

 

Not 8-7, no. But 2 runs doesn't get it. Maybe against Verlander. But Tanaka is a guy we've had some success against. Kelly and Brasier kept us in the game and the offense didn't do anything with it.

[Slasher9]

Or we can look at it that Tanaka stepped up big time (like he always does in playoffs) and price didn’t (like he always doesn’t)

[Bellhorn04]

Or we can look at it that Tanaka stepped up big time (like he always does in playoffs) and price didn’t (like he always doesn’t)

 

Can't argue with that.

[Kimmi]

Or we can look at it that Tanaka stepped up big time (like he always does in playoffs) and price didn’t (like he always doesn’t)

 

I am not one who usually does not complain about the unfairness of the strike zone, but last night I really thought that Tanaka was getting an unfair advantage on those borderline calls. Credit to him for being able to hit those spots, but that still does take the bat out of our hitters' hands and forces our pitchers to hit more of the plate.

[SPLENDIDSPLINTER]

Kimmi. Please don’t. He has 217 million reasons why you shouldn’t

 

+100

[SPLENDIDSPLINTER]

I just read in this morning's paper that only 6 balls have landed where Judge hit his HR last night in the history of Fenway Park. The last player to hit one there was Jim Rice in 1975.

[Bellhorn04]

I just read in this morning's paper that only 6 balls have landed where Judge hit his HR last night in the history of Fenway Park. The last player to hit one there was Jim Rice in 1975.

 

And I don't think Jim had the advantage of juiced baseballs.

[BillyWilliams]

I'm almost cheering more for Price to do well just to shut up the haters to some degree than anything else.

 

Almost.

 

I'm confident he'll do well, but I'll still be confident in his next game, even if he does poorly tonight.

 

Exactly what gives you confidence in price aside from blind homerism?

 

He's 0-9 as a starter in the playoffs, his teams have lost all 10 games he has started.

 

His postseason ERA as a starter is 6.03, which is the 3rd worst in history (min. 10 starts) only behind jaret wright (7.77) and tim wakefield (6.45).

 

He's allowed 13 HR's in 59 2/3's innings in the postseason.

 

Against the Yankees since coming to the sox, price has a 7.95 ERA (53 earned runs in 60 innings, 9 starts. 85 hits including 18 HR's in those 60 innings.

[jung]

Where I will agree on the offense is that Tanaka was NOT as dominant as I have seen him or as any of us have seen him. I have no idea why we were taking early in the count early in the game. Tanaka was throwing fatter pitches to that end early in counts than I am used to seeing from him. You just can't let Tanaka get you to two strikes that often and think you are going to beat him. You aren't.

 

If Tanaka comes out of the box throwing with the purpose to get to an 0-1 count you will know it right from the first batter and you absolutely have to take advantage of that. If you don't catch him then and let him toss up goose eggs on you he will gain confidence in his pitches and by the 2nd time through be less likely to toss cookies up there early in counts. X got a cookie to hit that Tanaka immediately took blame for with his battery mate. In other words while that was an early count pitch, it was a clear mistake and Tanaka knew it. Missed his location by a mile.

 

So there might be a couple points made in this thread that speak to our offensive ineptitude:

- You can't wait for the 2nd and 3rd time through your order to adapt to what the opposing starter is doing. Its too late then in the post season. You have to watch from your first AB's in the game and begin calculating from that point

- if you are facing a pitcher like Tanaka that lives to get you to strike 2 and then guts you, you can't think you are going to succeed letting him constantly get you to strike 2. You might have a little success, but not enough success. So don't think that just because you are great hitters you can just go to the plate and do what you do. Pitching beats hitting. The game was designed that way. Everything that happens in this game starts with a pitch which is a huge advantage for the battery over the hitter!

- Finally as has been said in this thread in other ways, they need to put their regular season behind them because if they don't that is what they will carry out of this post season, great regular season stats that went nowhere AGAIN. They are hitting a bit like they think they should just be able to toss their bats out there on the field and everybody is going to roll over for them Nope, if anything there is even better pitching downstream in this post season than they are facing now. There are very very few slugfests in the post season. You are not going to throw up big crooked numbers often no matter how gaudy your regular season stats. 8 post season games to a point in the 7th inning last night.....44 total runs. That is not some accident.

Edited October 7, 2018 by jung

[TylerD]

In 9. Walkoff in 12.

Are you blaming last night on the offense?

Do you expect we should win 8-7 games in the postseason?

 

Absolutely.

 

Scoring 2 bloody runs in 13 innings won’t cut it against any playoff team period. Especially a team like the Yankees. You bet the offense should take their share of the blame. Ask me right now if we will win tomorrow from scoring 2 runs. Hard no even if Sale was pitching and went 6 shut out innings.

[Station 13]

With limited power, we need some base runners. The stagnant 5-9 creates little runs chances. They essentially become 5 inning for the 1-4 to get the job done. Cora needs to play Holt as I have said many times. He had the 4th highest OBP on the team yet he did not start any of the games.

[jacksonianmarch]

Tanaka is a good pitcher. If the Sox were aggressive, he’d have nibbled more. Since they sat back, he just got ahead and forced them to hit his splitter, which is almost impossible. Tanaka’s splitter in his final two starts of the reg season was a hanger and he got killed. He said he found his release point in the bullpen between the end of the season and his start. When he has a splitter, he’s real hard to hit. Lots of his pitches move laterally, but the split changes the eye level. He had the splitter last night. Expecting the Sox to hit our pen is not a good bet. Your team has to make hay vs our starters. With Tanaka coming out hot, you didn’t have a shot without a transcendent performance on the mound. This team has been disjointed most of the year but we have shown some moxie in these three PO games. Now we have taken home field advantage from the Sox. Let’s see if they do something with it

[jung]

Tanaka is a good pitcher. If the Sox were aggressive, he’d have nibbled more. Since they sat back, he just got ahead and forced them to hit his splitter, which is almost impossible. Tanaka’s splitter in his final two starts of the reg season was a hanger and he got killed. He said he found his release point in the bullpen between the end of the season and his start. When he has a splitter, he’s real hard to hit. Lots of his pitches move laterally, but the split changes the eye level. He had the splitter last night. Expecting the Sox to hit our pen is not a good bet. Your team has to make hay vs our starters. With Tanaka coming out hot, you didn’t have a shot without a transcendent performance on the mound. This team has been disjointed most of the year but we have shown some moxie in these three PO games. Now we have taken home field advantage from the Sox. Let’s see if they do something with it

 

That said letting Tanaka get you to 2 strikes is just death. BA against at two strikes is .165 for the season. That is cumulative. So the hitter is not helped much even in the count or at a full count. He gets you to two strikes and guts you with a pitch that looks like a strike that you can't hit. You can't go into a game with him thinking he won't have both his Slider or his Split. His Split is the better out pitch. But the Slider is no slouch either. Tanaka was throwing NOTHING 0-0 in counts especially in the early innings and we just took and took and took. You can't do that with him into his 2 strike stats. Its just suicide. Its playing to his strength.

 

Sox got 3 hits off of Tanaka. A single and a HR off of first pitches and a single off of second pitches and that was it. As you run through his results by pitch, it is just all downhill from there. Anybody think it would have made more sense to be looking to swing earlier in counts?

 

You can't play this game based on playing it to the competition strengths. You are just asking to lose. So I care not whether Tanaka COULD have started nibbling early in counts if we were beating up on his nothing balls early in counts. If he could adjust and did adjust ...good on him.

Edited October 7, 2018 by jung

[d-money]

We need porcello to pitch the game of his life. He cannot stink it up!

[jacksonianmarch]

That said letting Tanaka get you to 2 strikes is just death. BA against at two strikes is .165 for the season. That is cumulative. So the hitter is not helped much even in the count or at a full count. He gets you to two strikes and guts you with a pitch that looks like a strike that you can't hit. You can't go into a game with him thinking he won't have both his Slider or his Split. His Split is the better out pitch. But the Slider is no slouch either. Tanaka was throwing NOTHING 0-0 in counts especially in the early innings and we just took and took and took. You can't do that with him into his 2 strike stats. Its just suicide. Its playing to his strength.

 

Sox got 3 hits off of Tanaka. A single and a HR off of first pitches and a single off of second pitches and that was it. As you run through his results by pitch, it is just all downhill from there. Anybody think it would have made more sense to be looking to swing earlier in counts?

 

You can't play this game based on playing it to the competition strengths. You are just asking to lose. So I care not whether Tanaka COULD have started nibbling early in counts if we were beating up on his nothing balls early in counts. If he could adjust and did adjust ...good on him.

 

He is a chameleon, he can adjust. The sox could jump on him, but he also only throws fastballs 33% of the time, so you are asking your hitters to go up there early in the count hacking at what will likely not be anything straight. Tanaka also had good command last night. Your best approach vs Tanaka is to try and get his fastball and lift it. Your best chance of seeing the fastball is to get ahead in the count

[jung]

He is a chameleon, he can adjust. The sox could jump on him, but he also only throws fastballs 33% of the time, so you are asking your hitters to go up there early in the count hacking at what will likely not be anything straight. Tanaka also had good command last night. Your best approach vs Tanaka is to try and get his fastball and lift it. Your best chance of seeing the fastball is to get ahead in the count

 

and of course the best way to get ahead of Tanaka is to make him try to nibble early in counts instead of just letting him throw nothing-balls to an 0-1 count. There is no excuse for letting Tanaka get away with that. You have to force him to nibble early in counts and if he can do it fine. Good on him. Allowing him to just throw nothing-balls to an 0-1 count is just suicidal. The numbers just do not support what you are suggesting here and they don't support what the Sox did in the Tanaka game.

[Thunder]

We need porcello to pitch the game of his life. He cannot stink it up!

 

Nothing really suggests that he is going to stink it up. He's probably been our most consistent arm this season. But, considering that it's Eovaldi going, Porcellos does not in fact need to pitch the game of his life.

[moonslav59]

I have more faith in Porcello than Eovaldi, but it would be nice to steal a win tonight with the righty.

[BillyWilliams]

I have more faith in Porcello than Eovaldi, but it would be nice to steal a win tonight with the righty.

 

You were also confident in price ........

[Bellhorn04]

You were also confident in price ........

 

Good one Babe...

[BillyWilliams]

Good one Babe...

 

But I thought slash said that jason33 was babe?

 

It's hard to keep up with you two.........

[Bellhorn04]

But I thought slash said that jason33 was babe?

 

It's hard to keep up with you two.........

 

Yeah, jason33 isn't Babe, but you sure are.

[BillyWilliams]

Yeah, jason33 isn't Babe, but you sure are.

 

I'll take that as a compliment.........

[Bellhorn04]

I'll take that as a compliment.........

 

Here's another one.

 

It's only a matter of time before you get banned for about the thousandth time on a Sox forum.

 

Because you can't help eventually showing your true colors as an obnoxious troll.

[Station 13]

Here's another one.

 

It's only a matter of time before you get banned for about the thousandth time on a Sox forum.

 

Because you can't help eventually showing your true colors as an obnoxious troll.

 

Win and the troll disappears. They went radio silent Friday through most of Saturtday.

[Thunder]

Here's the real question. I have to be up at 6:30 for work tomorrow. Should I stay up for the whole game or nah?

[BillyWilliams]

Win and the troll disappears. They went radio silent Friday through most of Saturtday.

 

I'm rarely here on the weekends. Too nice out to sit inside on a computer.

 

Was out Friday night with some friends, fishing during the day on Saturday and a concert Saturday night....