6/30 vs Royals

[mvp 78]

Perez vs Minor

[Thunder]

Win tonight and we're on pace to win 100

[Maxbialystock]

Win tonight and we're on pace to win 100

 

Once again the nattering nabob of negativism.

 

Scratch that. Insert cockeyed optimist--as always.

 

I frankly don't see 100 wins, but then, back in early April I barely saw 80 wins.

[TylerD]

Perez has been god awful. Maybe he can give us a quality start for a change

[TylerD]

Actually with saying that, his start against Kansas City was very good. He went 5 and just gave up the run so maybe he can do that again.

[mvp 78]

Win tonight and we're on pace to win 100

 

[mvp 78]

Perez has been god awful. Maybe he can give us a quality start for a change

 

He's been Martin Perez this year. Is there a surprise to this?

[Maxbialystock]

The Sox rotation has entered a brave new world, not only the Commish's dictum against foreign substances on the ball, but also starting for a winning team with higher expectations than at the beginning of the season.

 

There is no real ace on this team, but there 5 pitchers who have each started 15 or 16 games with from 3 to 6 quality starts by each of them and ERA's ranging from 3.67 to 5.83. Since we are almost halfway thru the season, that's lot of starts by just 5 guys.

 

Lately, just about every Sox starter seems to be on a roller-coaster. Richards looked awful last week and night before last until something clicked with 1 out in the 2d inning: after giving up 5 runs, he pitched 4.1 innings of shutout ball. Pivetta pitched 6.2 innings of no-hit, shutout ball 6 days ago and gave up 6 runs in 4.2 innings last night. And so on.

 

Meanwhile, it does not help that the Sox defense leads MLB in errors, to say nothing of hits that might have been outs. The bullpen and the hitting--and the occasional good defensive play-- are key to all those come from behind wins.

 

Kimmi has said that a team that wins a lot but does not have a big run differential is, according to the experts, in peril. And that's our Sox with their 49-21 (.613) record, best in the AL and 2d only to the Giants, but a run differential of + 44, which is lower than the Rays +84, Jays +84, White Sox +82, Astros +130, Giants + 97, Dodgers +106, and Padres +78.

 

The experts say a team like ours is just lucky, but most of us who might agree with that also point out that we have a heckuva manager, particularly with respect to his sometimes erratic pitchers. Without question Cora, like all other managers these days, relies heavily on computer data, but, unlike a lot of managers, he also has fingerspitzengefuhl, a long word meaning a finger tip feel for the game as it is being played and in the context of that series, that part of the season, and the season as a whole.

Edited June 30, 2021 by Maxbialystock

[mvp 78]

The Sox rotation has entered a brave new world, not only the Commish's dictum against foreign substances on the ball, but also starting for a winning team with higher expectations than at the beginning of the season.

 

There is no real ace on this team, but there 5 pitchers who have each started 15 or 16 games with from 3 to 6 quality starts by each of them and ERA's ranging from 3.67 to 5.83. Since we are almost halfway thru the season, that's lot of starts by just 5 guys.

https://www.bostonherald.com/2015/03/06/no-joke-joe-kelly-is-1-of-5-red-sox-aces/

[d-money]

I was hoping for 3 out of 4 at least. Win the series tonight!!!!!

[TylerD]

He's been Martin Perez this year. Is there a surprise to this?

 

He actually was solid his second last start which was against Kansas City. If he can give us 6 tonight and limit the damage that would be nice.

[moonslav59]

The Sox rotation has entered a brave new world, not only the Commish's dictum against foreign substances on the ball, but also starting for a winning team with higher expectations than at the beginning of the season.

 

There is no real ace on this team, but there 5 pitchers who have each started 15 or 16 games with from 3 to 6 quality starts by each of them and ERA's ranging from 3.67 to 5.83. Since we are almost halfway thru the season, that's lot of starts by just 5 guys.

 

Lately, just about every Sox starter seems to be on a roller-coaster. Richards looked awful last week and night before last until something clicked with 1 out in the 2d inning: after giving up 5 runs, he pitched 4.1 innings of shutout ball. Pivetta pitched 6.2 innings of no-hit, shutout ball 6 days ago and gave up 6 runs in 4.2 innings last night. And so on.

 

Meanwhile, it does not help that the Sox defense leads MLB in errors, to say nothing of hits that might have been outs. The bullpen and the hitting--and the occasional good defensive play-- are key to all those come from behind wins.

 

Kimmi has said that a team that wins a lot but does not have a big run differential is, according to the experts, in peril. And that's our Sox with their 49-21 (.613) record, best in the AL and 2d only to the Giants, but a run differential of + 44, which is lower than the Rays +84, Jays +84, White Sox +82, Astros +130, Giants + 97, Dodgers +106, and Padres +78.

 

The experts say a team like ours is just lucky, but most of us who might agree with that also point out that we have a heckuva manager, particularly with respect to his sometimes erratic pitchers. Without question Cora, like all other managers these days, relies heavily on computer data, but, unlike a lot of managers, he also has fingerspitzengefuhl, a long word meaning a finger tip feel for the game as it is being played and in the context of that series, that part of the season, and the season as a whole.

 

We are still top 5 in the AL in run differential, and I think part of the reason we slipped in differential is because we had some big losses during the 2 week starter meltdown. That's not to say our starters can't go through that again, but it seems like all of them may be coming out of it.

 

Who is the real Martin Perez? To me, I'm not one to think a half season is enough to convince me, he's not who he always was, but looking at just this season, he had 2 really bad starts in mid June that really messed up his overall 2021 numbers:

3.09 ERA over first 11 starts

29.70 ERA in 2 starts in June

1.04 ERA last 2 starts

4.09 ERA in 2021.

 

Same with Nick Pivetta

3.78 ERA in first 12 starts

11.57 in 2 bad starts in June (not in a row)

2.31 ERA in 2 starts in June between the 2 bad ones.

 

ERod

3.53 over first 4 starts

7.63 in middle 9 starts

3.75 last 2 starts

 

Eovaldi has been the most consistent, other than maybe Perez.

He had 2 bad starts: May 6 and June 9

3.63 first 6 starts

2.60 between 2 bad starts

1.96 last 3 starts

 

Richards has been a mess, especially with his BB rate (4.3 v 3.3 career before), but he did have one nice and long stretch.

After first start of the season:

3.14 ERA next 11 starts (still 30 BB in 63 IP)

9.18 ERA his last 4 starts

[notin]

Once again the nattering nabob of negativism.

 

Scratch that. Insert cockeyed optimist--as always.

 

I frankly don't see 100 wins, but then, back in early April I barely saw 80 wins.

 

After the first 3 games, many felt 70 wins was a stretch…

[Maxbialystock]

After the first 3 games, many felt 70 wins was a stretch…

 

so true

[moonslav59]

After the first 3 games, many felt 70 wins was a stretch…

 

I predicted 86 wins, but after starting 0-3 vs the O's, no less, I was wondering about 81.

[redsoxrules]

The run differential is misleading to me simply because a lot of those runs as mentioned occurred when our starters slumped and gave up a ton of runs. Heck one game alone they lost 18-3. And the games where Houston pounded them added to that

[moonslav59]

The run differential is misleading to me simply because a lot of those runs as mentioned occurred when our starters slumped and gave up a ton of runs. Heck one game alone they lost 18-3. And the games where Houston pounded them added to that

 

We started the season off losing 18-5. We are not that team, anymore.

 

We did win a couple games 11-1 and 9-0.

 

Some of our biggest losses:

 

11-3 BAL

11-2 @Hou

7-1 Hou

7-2 Tor

18-4 Tor

 

It's mostly the 1 run wins that hurt our differential.

 

.

[moonslav59]

1. Kike CF Hotter than hot

2. Verdugo LF Fresh from a day off

3. JD DH Starting to warm up

4. Bogey SS Steady X man

5. Devers 3B Forevers- lock him up! (long term)

6. Renfroe RF Giving us good D & O

7. Vaz C Time to heat up

8. Marwin 2B Still starting a lot.

9. Chavis 1B Getting another long look

[Fan_since_Boggs]

It's kind of strange to see Chavis in there tonight instead of Dalbec. I wonder why?

 

I'm not too worried about the Red Sox lacking a true blue ace. Using a conservative timetable, Sale will return in September/October. And T.Houck will return sooner than that. I'm high on Houck, always have been despite the critics who can never anticipate future performance and instead can only see what is in front of them. Oh baby, I'm a roll this year just like my Sox!

 

Also, don't forget about Eovaldi. He demonstrated in October of 2018 that you don't have to be a HOF pitcher to come up big in playoff games.

Edited June 30, 2021 by Fan_since_Boggs

[illinoisredsox]

It's kind of strange to see Chavis in there tonight instead of Dalbec. I wonder why?

 

I'm not too worried about the Red Sox lacking a true blue ace. Using a conservative timetable, Sale will return in September/October. And T.Houck will return sooner than that. I'm high on Houck, always have been despite the critics who can never anticipate future performance and instead can only see what is in front of them. Oh baby, I'm a roll this year just like my Sox!

 

Also, don't forget about Eovaldi. He demonstrated in October of 2018 that you don't have to be a HOF pitcher to come up big in playoff games.

 

Couple of thoughts:

 

1) Minor is a right handed pitcher; Dalbec has been, shall we say, pretty weak against righties this season.

 

2) More likely. Dalbec had to come out of last night's game, seemingly with some heat related issue. He may not be over it yet and they are probably being cautious with him. As of right now, it appears to be 92 in Boston with a heat index of 99.

[d-money]

Rays going through a rough stretch now. Need to take advantage of this.

[Thunder]

Severe thunderstorm coming through right now. No way we start on time. I was just at the driving range overlooking downtown Boston and it looked like the apocalypse was coming

[Fan_since_Boggs]

1) Minor is a right handed pitcher;

 

I thought Minor is a lefty, which is why I'm shocked Dalbec isn't in there.

 

The heat-related issue would explain it.

[redsoxrules]

Rays getting a beatdown

[jung]

The brilliant Joe Madden proves less than brilliant again. He has Ohtani bat lead off which Ohtani does to no effect. Ohtani promptly goes out to pitch and loads the bases on walks, give up two hits, hits a batter walks another. 41 pitches later the Angles are down 4-2 to the Yanks still no outs and Madden has to pull Ohtani. Now Madden will be stuck with pitchers batting lead off as he does not have enough bench players to pinch hit for them each time through the batting order. Its now 7-2 Yanks, they are still not out of the 1st inning.

 

With all due respect to Madden, the Angels organization and the player Ohtani himself, this can't go on much longer. He is going to have to decide if he is an everyday player or a pitcher.

 

Leave to the Angels to have agreed to this PR fiasco in the first place. Not that the player is not good enough to do this for awhile. But it is something of a gimmick.

[Bellhorn04]

It's kind of strange to see Chavis in there tonight instead of Dalbec. I wonder why?

 

Tight hamstring. He came out of last night's game and was replaced by Chavis.

[jung]

At least the Perez HR is with nobody on.

[redsoxrules]

That pitch was off the plate and still hit a HR

[d-money]

Always fall behind. 🤦*♂️

[d-money]

Come on perez.