5/13 Rays @ SOX 7:10PM ET

[SPLENDIDSPLINTER]

Eflin(RH) vs Crawford

 

Duran

Abreu

Wong

Devers

O'Neill(DH)

Smith

Grissom

Gonzalez

Rafaela

 

Maybe some SOX offense will show up tonight; maybe not. Eflin's not a bad pitcher.

SOX starting pitching has been consistently good. Andrew Bailey has had a lot to do with that. His success with the Giants was no fluke.

 

Go SOX!

[moonslav59]

Eflin(RH) vs Crawford

 

Duran

Abreu

Wong

Devers

O'Neill(DH)

Smith

Grissom

Gonzalez

Rafaela

 

Maybe some SOX offense will show up tonight; maybe not. Eflin's not a bad pitcher.

SOX starting pitching has been consistently good. Andrew Bailey has had a lot to do with that. His success with the Giants was no fluke.

 

Go SOX!

 

That's a decent defensive team.

[SPLENDIDSPLINTER]

That's a decent defensive team.

 

Isn't the cliche "pitching and defense win championships'' still valid? I guess having a respectable offense was implied. Anyway, the SOX have two of the three ingredients necessary.

[Maxbialystock]

That's a decent defensive team.

 

Agree. O'Neill at DH give me lots of confidence.

 

Fact is, the defense has improved.

 

Hats off to SPLENDIDSPLINTER for two very unexpected wins.

 

A hit, a hit--my kingdom for a hit!

[moonslav59]

Isn't the cliche "pitching and defense win championships'' still valid? I guess having a respectable offense was implied. Anyway, the SOX have two of the three ingredients necessary.

 

I really thought our defense was going to significantly improve, this year, but then Story and Grissom went down. Grissom is back and Rafaela/Romy have done fine at SS on D.

 

The pitching has been shockingly good, when you look at all the injuries.

 

I felt the O would be about 10th in MLB, despite the loss of JT. I figured O'Neill & Abreu would improve on Dugo enough to make up for part of JT's loss. I hoped Story and Grissom's improvement over last year's joke on O with our keystone combination, that we'd e at least even with 2023. The drop in league offense might mean we are not as bad as we look, comparatively, but here are some numbers:

 

15th in Runs (I know some want to point to the 17 run game as skewing the numbers, but take away a few runs from that and we'd still be around 16-18th.)

 

17th wRC+ (3 from 14th)

 

12th in OPS at .714 (.10th place is just .715)

11th in OBP (.317)

10th in SLG (.398)

 

I'd say, overall, we are around average. Some more timely hitting and we can rise in the runs rankings.

[moonslav59]

Agree. O'Neill at DH give me lots of confidence.

 

Fact is, the defense has improved.

 

Hats off to SPLENDIDSPLINTER for two very unexpected wins.

 

A hit, a hit--my kingdom for a hit!

 

I'd rather have O'Neill on D in LF than Duran.

 

Rafaela in CF is the boost. Romy at SS is fine.

[SPLENDIDSPLINTER]

Btw, the only good thing I can say about the BRUINS in these PO's is Jeremy Swayman. No goalie in recent memory has gotten less defensive support in these PO's, and yet he's near the top in goalie stats among PO goalies.

[vegasbob]

Pitching with 2 outs and 2 strikes plus 2 out walks tell a story .

 

Play from behind, it's more fun that way. Now 3 runs, 27 pitches and still working

[SPLENDIDSPLINTER]

Rafaela reminds me a lot, both physically and the way he covers CF, of Paul Blair, who manned CF for the O's. That's about as good a compliment one could give to a CF. Edited May 13, 2024 by SPLENDIDSPLINTER

[jad]

Wow. That was close to being among the greatest catches I've ever seen! (I know I know ... woulda coulda shoulda ..)

[SPLENDIDSPLINTER]

Appears the Rays still own us.

[SPLENDIDSPLINTER]

Wow. That was close to being among the greatest catches I've ever seen! (I know I know ... woulda coulda shoulda ..)

 

Following the almost catch yesterday.

[vegasbob]

games not over, Sox will probably score 8 or 9. Crawford , however, continues to picth without a true "OUT" pitch. He also seems to get tight shorts when things go against him.

[moonslav59]

O'Neill must not have known men were on base.

[SPLENDIDSPLINTER]

All kneel for that blast.

[vegasbob]

Told you it wasn't over. Tyler comes alive with 2 outs and saves crawford for the moment. Great timing

[jad]

And after praising Raffaela's 'catch', I was on my way to posting about how TYler O'Neill has started to come back to earth ...

[Hugh2]

Bres-blow certainly got fleeced by the Cardinals in that O’Neill trade. Worse than Bloom

[SPLENDIDSPLINTER]

Kutter's been hitting the sweet spot of the Rays' bats.

[SPLENDIDSPLINTER]

In this era of pitch counts that was a very good at bat by Rafaela.

[SPLENDIDSPLINTER]

'Keep the line moving' would be highly unlikely with this current line-up.

[vegasbob]

Smith and Grissom should be pitchers, both are no-hitters

[Maxbialystock]

I'd rather have O'Neill on D in LF than Duran.

 

Rafaela in CF is the boost. Romy at SS is fine.

 

Duran's DWAR is highest on the Sox, +1.1. O'Neill's is 2d lowest, -0.3. Case closed.

[Maxbialystock]

What happened on the double off of Grissom's glove? I missed that play. I also missed the theft of 3b, which is usually on the pitcher. Since the dinger in the 1st, the Sox were/are scoreless through the next 5 innings.

 

This is getting so old and is why I keep mentioning the 17 runs against the Cubs--including the 6 runs in the 9th off a Cubs infielder on the mound--as skewing the Sox's hitting in the positive direction.

 

More pertinent are the last 9 games in which the Sox have scored, in order, 1, 2, 1, 9, 2, 0, 1, 4, and 3 runs.

 

The hitting stinks, period.

[vegasbob]

Smith and Grissom should be pitchers, both are no-hitters

 

On cue, Vaughn Grissom launches a scalding rocket bloop to Rf, probably 50mph exit velo. Now 5 for 32 . I know, it's early, he missed ST, still catching up to MLB speed. No, this guy is not that good with a bat. Everyone trot out his lifetime stats to show otherwise.

[Maxbialystock]

Interesting reaction by Grissom on that single. First, he stood at home plate admiring the fact that he finally, finally, got a hit. Then he trotted to 1b as if it were a dinger, giving himself no chance to get to 2b if the single was in any way mishandled. The guy (Chris Sale) the Sox traded for Grissom has had huge injury issues, but is as professional as they come when he is on the mound, especially on defense.

[vegasbob]

The sometimes extreme defensive positioning seems to hurt the Sox more than help. Let the fielders play with 10 feet of their standard positioning and get some outs. Weissert will need to bail this out, but not by walking a .187 hitting rookie.

[Maxbialystock]

This game is probably over. I say this because in the last 9 games the Sox have scored 5 or more runs 1 time.

[SPLENDIDSPLINTER]

The difference between the SOX finishing 4th or 5th in the AL East this season may depend on the SOX inability to beat the Rays. Edited May 14, 2024 by SPLENDIDSPLINTER

[SPLENDIDSPLINTER]

The difference between the SOX finishing 4th or 5th in the AL East this season may depend on the SOX inability to beat the Rays.

 

Finishing 4th would be an improvement while we all wait for those high school draft picks.