Orioles (Suarez) vs Red Sox (Crawford): 9/10/24, 7:10pm

[Brock Beauchamp]

[Maxbialystock]

Sox are only mostly dead--too soon to be checking their pockets for loose change.  

18 games to go, 3 games back of the Twins and tied with Detroit and Seattle.  Lately Sox hitting has been unreliable, as has the bullpen.  Nevertheless, if the Twins falter, the Sox have a shot--as do Detroit and Seattle.

I'd like to say righty Suarez will find all those lefty Sox bats tough, but that's not really true.  

Duran CF

Devers 3b

Abreu RF

O'Neill LF

Yoshida DH

Wong  C

Casas  1B

Valdez 2b

Rafaela SS

 

[Maxbialystock]

Crawford back to giving up dingers, which gets easier when you throw 91-92 mph fastballs and not much else.  

[Maxbialystock]

Now a really dumb K by Duran who swung at 4 straight balls to K.  

[vegasbob]

The Sox starters  seem to inevitably give up the firsts inning lead run , typically HR, so the team plays from behind .   It is a recurring story particularly  since the A-S break( down)

Early inning Sox batters compound it with a dazzling array of K's

[vegasbob]

Crawford's pitches are becoming center cuts with almost no movement.   My guess is that the arms on guys in all time high innings pitched are worn out.  Houck is similar and he gets an extra 3 days off.

One concern is whether the Sox in their Don Quixote pursuit of the elusive third WC injure  the arms of guys they will need again next year over the final 17 or so games.

[SPLENDIDSPLINTER]

Homer Crawford has given up more dingers than any SOX player has hit.

[SPLENDIDSPLINTER]

To paraphrase a couple lines from the excellent movie UNFORGIVEN:

SOX: "We don't deserve to be in the PO's."

MLB: "Deserves has nothing to do with it."

 

 

[SPLENDIDSPLINTER]

I really wish some MLB team would hire Youk as a coach.

Can anyone guess why I wish this?

[SPLENDIDSPLINTER]

Suarez hasn't thrown any hangers to O'Neill, so far.

[illinoisredsox]

Crawford with a solid 6 innings.  I’ll take that from a starter every time out.

First homer was a wind blown fluke.  Second one was powdered.

1 run very seldom gets you a win.  Too many K’s by Sox hitters.  Let’s hope they can get to the O’s pen.

 

[Maxbialystock]

38 minutes ago, illinoisredsox said:

Crawford with a solid 6 innings.  I’ll take that from a starter every time out.

First homer was a wind blown fluke.  Second one was powdered.

1 run very seldom gets you a win.  Too many K’s by Sox hitters.  Let’s hope they can get to the O’s pen.

 

Agree on all points.  Crawford in fact had a quality start.  Going into this game we knew the Sox biggest weakness was/is the bullpen, so of course Bernardino gives up 2 runs in .1 (1/3 of an inning).

The Sox scored 12 runs last night and 1 so far tonight.  

[moonslav59]

We just don't have what it takes to win these kind of games.

We are really good at coming close, but time and time again, coming close ends up in the "L" column. 

I guess we still have a shot, but where are the signs we want this thing?

Very depressing loss.

[Oscars]

You can’t win close games when your bullpen is a steaming pile of s hit 

[mvp 78]

Crawford gets bit by the longball as expected. Bernardino acts like a pig as expected. I think I'd be happy with him being elsewhere next year. 

[Bellhorn04]

.500 teams gonna .500.  Every game a flip of the coin.

[mvp 78]

Whiff counts against the Red Sox should be at a discounted rate or something. Unfair to the other pitchers that are facing batters that know how to make contact.