5/12 A's @ Boston 7:10PM

[Maxbialystock]

Letting up 4 runs is no longer very good pitching.

 

Times have changed.

 

The Yanks are scoring as much as us and winning.

 

Hard to blame just one aspect of this team.

 

True. The rotation has been better than I expected. So was the bullpen until recently. Renfroe's terrific throw notwithstanding, the defense has been lousy all year.

[illinoisredsox]

Meh. Sometimes our guys are making contact and outs. But in the 4th Orioles game--the one we lost 4-1--the Orioles pitchers had 11 k's and 0 walks.l Watching him, I thought Lopez pitched a solid game despite his season ERA (5.63). Plus--and everyone commented on this part--the Orioles bullpen went 3.1 innings giving up nothing, zero, zilch, no hits, no walks--nothing but outs, 6 of which were K's.

 

Ditto yesterday and today by the A's. It would be different if in any of those 3 games we were seeing the Sox hitting a lot of liners that were caught, long flies that were caught, red hot grounders that were caught, etc.

 

Au contraire, tonight we saw Devers get a double on a very weak fly to right that they were slow to get to. We also saw men on 1st and 3d with no one out on a GIDP that Bassitt threw into centerfield--and which the Sox utterly failed to capitalize on. Plus our one run tonight came when Verdugo singled and got to 3b on two wild pitches followed by a sac fly/liner by JDM before Bassitt settled down.

 

What game were you watching?

 

Devers hit tonight was a hit and run chopper over the first baseman's head that he hustled into a double.

 

That Verdugo sequence was last night.

 

Tonight's run was leadoff walks to Gonzalez and Verdugo followed by a solid JD single that they held Gonzalez at 3rd out of respect for Laureano's arm. After Bogie struck out and Devers popped out, Vazquez walked on four pitches, forcing in the only run.

 

I will grant you the last 3 games have been an awful lot alike, so forgetting which offensive juggernaut showed up on a given night in understandable.

 

Right now, this team is zoned out. Two big baserunning gaffes tonight. One was with Gonzalez on 3rd and Verdugo on 1st, when JD hit that weak grounder. Gonzalez went on contact (which wasn't a disaster and may have been the way the coaches wanted to play it) and got caught in a run down, but even when he was doing that, he was motioning Verdugo to get to 3rd, so at worst it would remain 1st and 3rd: Verdugo just stood at 2nd base. The second was Bogaerts trying to score in the 8th with what would have been a meaningless run at that point.

Edited May 13, 2021 by illinoisredsox

[jacksonianmarch]

ERod showed tonight that he’s no ace. Aces stop losing streaks and extend winning streaks. The Sox pitching has been excellent by 2020 standards, but have fallen short of 2021 playoff team standards. With the Yanks and Jays surging, it’ll end up being the pitching that’ll win this division, and the Yanks have that this year for sure. The Rays are paper tigers. In a year of light hitting, they aren’t hitting anything. Epically bad

[Thunder]

When all hope seems lost, like it does tonight against Manaea, just remember how we have fared this year against elite pitching. Glasnow, Ryu, Giolito, and deGrom. Richards has been our best pitcher of late, so another good start from him gives us a chance.

[Bellhorn04]

ERod showed tonight that he’s no ace. Aces stop losing streaks and extend winning streaks.

 

That makes it sound like aces win every game. I guess Jacob deGrom is no ace.

[jacksonianmarch]

That makes it sound like aces win every game. I guess Jacob deGrom is no ace.

 

When was the last time Degrom gave up 4 runs? Or gave up a lead? Degrom’s issue is that they don’t score for him. Not that he gives up a lot of runs.

[jacksonianmarch]

When all hope seems lost, like it does tonight against Manaea, just remember how we have fared this year against elite pitching. Glasnow, Ryu, Giolito, and deGrom. Richards has been our best pitcher of late, so another good start from him gives us a chance.

 

You got 1 run off Degrom

[moonslav59]

ERod showed tonight that he’s no ace. Aces stop losing streaks and extend winning streaks. The Sox pitching has been excellent by 2020 standards, but have fallen short of 2021 playoff team standards. With the Yanks and Jays surging, it’ll end up being the pitching that’ll win this division, and the Yanks have that this year for sure. The Rays are paper tigers. In a year of light hitting, they aren’t hitting anything. Epically bad

 

What a joke.

 

ERod has been the winningest pitcher his last 3 seasons combined. None were "stopper" situations?

 

PLEASE!

 

2019

4/19 Had lost 3 in a row (4 of 5)> Win

4/24 Had lost 2 in a row > win

4/29 Had lost 2 in a row (4 of 6)>win

5/15 Lost the game > win

5/26 2 in a row> win

6/18 lost 1> win

6/24 lost 2>win

7/17 lost 1 (2 of 3)>win

7/23 lost 1 (2 of 3)>win

8/7 lost 1 (9 of 10)>win

8/12 lost 2>win

8/23 lost 2>win

9/4 lost 1 (2 of 3)>win

9/12 lost 5 (6 of 7)>win

9/19 lost 2>win

9/24 lost 1 (3 of 4)>win

9/29 lost 3 (8 of 11)>win

(He won 5 of our 10 games in September.)

 

Let's look at our winningest year in history, where there were hardly any 2 game losing streaks:

 

Here are all the 2+ game losing streaks of 2018

4/21-24 (3) ERod stopper

4/27-28 (2) Porcello

5/8-9 (2) ERod

5/14-15 (2) Sale

5/31-6/1 (2) Price

6/7-8 (2) Porcello

6/15-16 (2) ERod

6/19-20 (2) Porcello

7/24-25 (2) Sale

8/19-21 (3) Johnson

9/7-8 (2) Porcello

9/18-19 (2) ERod

9/22-23 (2) Eovaldi

9/26-28 (3) Porcello

 

3 three game losing streaks: ERod stopped 1 of the 3 (33%)

11 two game losing streaks: ERod stopped 3 of 11 (27%)

 

4 of 14= 29% not the expected 20%.

 

ERod is a winner- plain and simple. He's hit a rough patch, no doubt, but let's hold off on the "not a stopper" talk a bit, huh?

 

 

 

 

[moonslav59]

You got 1 run off Degrom

 

So what? Is there only 2 aces in MLB, right now?

[5GoldGlovesOF,75]

But Mooooon, the Yankees have pitchER... an pitchER gonna win the East all by hisself. Cole is so great, he'll sprint to the plate to catch his own fastballs, and backpedal to shortstop to make plays behind himself, and start every game in the playoffs. The Yanks are heave-ho favorites, an unstoppable hardball armada, armed for armageddon, full of clutch hitters and championship defenders at every position. They're culpable of winning hundreds of games this year!

[Thunder]

But Mooooon, the Yankees have pitchER... an pitchER gonna win the East all by hisself. Cole is so great, he'll sprint to the plate to catch his own fastballs, and backpedal to shortstop to make plays behind himself, and start every game in the playoffs. The Yanks are heave-ho favorites, an unstoppable hardball armada, armed for armageddon, full of clutch hitters and championship defenders at every position. They're culpable of winning hundreds of games this year!

 

It's like he gets especially aroused on nights where Cole is on the hill. But, like anybody else, he can only pitch once every 5 games

[notin]

You got 1 run off Degrom

 

If we're grading on the curve against deGrom, that becomes a blowout...

[5GoldGlovesOF,75]

It's like he gets especially aroused on nights where Cole is on the hill. But, like anybody else, he can only pitch once every 5 games

 

In Little League, the best kid always plays shortstop when he's not on the mound. Unfortunately for NY, these are the Big Leagues.

[Thunder]

In Little League, the coach's kid always plays shortstop when he's not on the mound. Unfortunately for NY, these are the Big Leagues.

 

Fixed that for ya

[Bellhorn04]

When was the last time Degrom gave up 4 runs? Or gave up a lead?

 

August 31, 2020 is the answer to both.

[SPLENDIDSPLINTER]

Fixed that for ya

 

When he's not pitching.

[Maxbialystock]

What game were you watching?

 

Devers hit tonight was a hit and run chopper over the first baseman's head that he hustled into a double.

 

That Verdugo sequence was last night.

 

Tonight's run was leadoff walks to Gonzalez and Verdugo followed by a solid JD single that they held Gonzalez at 3rd out of respect for Laureano's arm. After Bogie struck out and Devers popped out, Vazquez walked on four pitches, forcing in the only run.

 

I will grant you the last 3 games have been an awful lot alike, so forgetting which offensive juggernaut showed up on a given night in understandable.

 

Right now, this team is zoned out. Two big baserunning gaffes tonight. One was with Gonzalez on 3rd and Verdugo on 1st, when JD hit that weak grounder. Gonzalez went on contact (which wasn't a disaster and may have been the way the coaches wanted to play it) and got caught in a run down, but even when he was doing that, he was motioning Verdugo to get to 3rd, so at worst it would remain 1st and 3rd: Verdugo just stood at 2nd base. The second was Bogaerts trying to score in the 8th with what would have been a meaningless run at that point.

 

Agree I confused last night with the night before. But the fact remains that good pitching beats good hitting and that's what has caused the 3 straight losses, along with so-so (but not terrible) pitching by the Sox staff. When they showed replays of Gonzalez's out I thought Verdugo was right in not trying to get to 3b because he could easily have become part of a double play. You're probably right about Bogaerts, but I think he and Devers both like to be aggressive, especially when the Sox aren't hitting, which they have not been for 3 straight games.

 

I looked up "zoned out," and it means "your brain has switched over to autopilot." And, frankly, I think these Sox are anything but on autopilot. They are frustrated because they can't hit what the Orioles dished up in game 4--which ended a 4 game winning streak--and the A's in games 1 and 2. And the pitching staff is also struggling although not as much as the hitting.

 

The central act of every baseball game is the confrontation between batter and pitcher which happens at least 200 times (including both teams) per game. Given how difficult it is to pitch and hit at the MLB level, I think "zoned out" is impossible for the pitcher or the hitter because both required a very special kind of concentration. It's possible for either to lose focus for a pitch or two or three, but not for an inning or a game--and especially not in low-scoring games.