Red Sox (Giolito) vs Cubs (Rea): 7/18/25, 2:20pm

[SPLENDIDSPLINTER]

45 minutes ago, vegasbob said:

So 1 down, 63 to go to see where this bunch winds up.    Not an auspicious first game but take the next 2 and all will be well.

The Sox looked sluggish after the break, and the first 3 Cubs hitters sealed the outcome.     Never will figure out why Sox pitchers have trouble in the first. They avoided that during the 10 game W streak.   Watch some video boys and get on track. 

Like I posted earlier if the Sox end up 4-5 after this tough 9 game stretch, they'll still be in good shape. Losing this winnable 1st game just makes that more difficult. Oh well, Que Sera Sera.

[jdc69]

1 hour ago, SPLENDIDSPLINTER said:

Never liked him. He has the personality of an armpit.

Wow, I always figured him in the same way fans see Mookie Betts, someone the Red Sox let slip away and paid for it immediately. 

[FredLynn]

Way to start the second half. Toro with an idiotic baserunning mistake. Narvaez striking out like he’s never swung a bat then committing interference. At least Giolito looked passable. Gonna need to win five of the next 8 to stand any chance of making the playoffs. 

[Maxbialystock]

4 hours ago, SPLENDIDSPLINTER said:

Like I posted earlier if the Sox end up 4-5 after this tough 9 game stretch, they'll still be in good shape. Losing this winnable 1st game just makes that more difficult. Oh well, Que Sera Sera.

Ian Browne has a very good write-up of the game on mlb.com.  He points out that the first pitch to Suzuki in the 1st (with 2 on) was a fastball above the zone.  Without that dinger, it's a ballgame.

What's left out of the story on those 2 walks by Giolito in the first inning is both were on 3-2 counts.  In the first BB, his 5th pitch was close enough to have been called strike 3.  In the 2d BB, Tucker fouled off 4 pitches before getting the walk on pitch 8.  

Toro's baserunning mistake was bad, but I'm not confident the Sox would have scored if he had made it back to 2b.  The next better walked, and Narvaez hit a perfect double play ball, which in reality was the 3d out so no relay 1b was necessary.   

The Sox had some hard hit balls that were caught, but so did the Cubs.  Plus their bullpen was excellent, as was their defense, especially their right fielder.  Duran made a terrific catch to prevent a double or worse.   The Sox had 7 hits to Chicago's 6.  Both pitching staffs gave up 4 BB's. 

So I agree this game was winnable against a very good team on their home field where they 31-16.  

[notin]

16 hours ago, SPLENDIDSPLINTER said:

Except for the terrible Rockies and Nationals the Sox have been anemic offensively of late. 

Yep!  Only one run in the past 4 days!!

[Bellhorn04]

Sometimes you're the windshield, sometimes you're the bug.

[SPLENDIDSPLINTER]

2 hours ago, notin said:

Yep!  Only one run in the past 4 days!!

Very funny. This Sox team will have to depend on pitching and defense to stay in contention. Not a hopeful future especially if they don't acquire a top shelf pitcher.

[SPLENDIDSPLINTER]

4 minutes ago, SPLENDIDSPLINTER said:

Very funny. This Sox team will have to depend on pitching and defense to stay in contention. Not a hopeful future especially if they don't acquire a top shelf pitcher.

Btw, this is the 4th straight season the Sox were over .500 going into the ASB. Will this be deja vu all over again?

[Maxbialystock]

10 minutes ago, SPLENDIDSPLINTER said:

Very funny. This Sox team will have to depend on pitching and defense to stay in contention. Not a hopeful future especially if they don't acquire a top shelf pitcher.

Sox are ranked 5th in MLB in runs scored and 5th in team OPS.  

[SPLENDIDSPLINTER]

6 minutes ago, Maxbialystock said:

Sox are ranked 5th in MLB in runs scored and 5th in team OPS.  

Let us hope that will be reflected in tonight's game.

[notin]

33 minutes ago, SPLENDIDSPLINTER said:

Very funny. This Sox team will have to depend on pitching and defense to stay in contention. Not a hopeful future especially if they don't acquire a top shelf pitcher.

Well, what you are talking about with this “anemic offense” seems pretty unsupported beyond my comment.  Were you referring to “only” scoring 14 runs in the 4 game Tampa series?  Or the 29 runs in 3 games against Colorado? The 27 runs in 3 games against Washington?  Or the mere 22 runs in 3 games against Cincinnati?  Or were you using the phrase “of late” to mean something entirely different than is generally accepted?

[notin]

30 minutes ago, SPLENDIDSPLINTER said:

Btw, this is the 4th straight season the Sox were over .500 going into the ASB. Will this be deja vu all over again?

Last year the first 3 games out of the break were in LA.  One game the Sox blew an 8th inning lead, one game they blew a 2 run lead in extra innings. (One of those 2 games ended on a Freeman walk off grand slam.  I forget which one.) And then in the last game of that series, Kutter Crawford started his collapse, surrendering home runs to everyone in LA except Selma Hayek.

Lets not repeat that…

[SPLENDIDSPLINTER]

5 minutes ago, notin said:

Well, what you are talking about with this “anemic offense” seems pretty unsupported beyond my comment.  Were you referring to “only” scoring 14 runs in the 4 game Tampa series?  Or the 29 runs in 3 games against Colorado? The 27 runs in 3 games against Washington?  Or the mere 22 runs in 3 games against Cincinnati?  Or were you using the phrase “of late” to mean something entirely different than is generally accepted?

Let's revisit this conversation after this 9 game stretch is concluded.

[Maxbialystock]

25 minutes ago, SPLENDIDSPLINTER said:

Let us hope that will be reflected in tonight's game.

Tough starter for the Cubs.

I've repeatedly read that the Sox have the toughest post-ASG schedule.  Does anyone know where there pre-ASG schedule ranked?  

[SPLENDIDSPLINTER]

5 minutes ago, notin said:

Last year the first 3 games out of the break were in LA.  One game the Sox blew an 8th inning lead, one game they blew a 2 run lead in extra innings. (One of those 2 games ended on a Freeman walk off grand slam.  I forget which one.) And then in the last game of that series, Kutter Crawford started his collapse, surrendering home runs to everyone in LA except Selma Hayek.

Lets not repeat that…

I believe Selma could hit home runs From dusk till dawn.

[notin]

Just now, SPLENDIDSPLINTER said:

Let's revisit this conversation after this 9 game stretch is concluded.

Why?  Will this stretch change the numbers I gave?

I never said the offense was perfect or even good.  But to call it anemic when they scored 92 runs in a 13 game stretch certainly raises questions about what was expected…

[Bellhorn04]

Baseball is just a crazy freakin' game.  All that matters is the Ws and the Ls.

[notin]

1 minute ago, SPLENDIDSPLINTER said:

I believe Selma could hit home runs From dusk till dawn.

You’re really going with her worst movie here, Satanica Pandemonium?

[SPLENDIDSPLINTER]

4 minutes ago, Maxbialystock said:

Tough starter for the Cubs.

I've repeatedly read that the Sox have the toughest post-ASG schedule.  Does anyone know where there pre-ASG schedule ranked?  

Hopefully, Bello will be a tough starter for the Sox. He's been excellent in his last few starts.

The Cubs, IMHO, are the most balanced team in MLB.

[SPLENDIDSPLINTER]

12 minutes ago, notin said:

You’re really going with her worst movie here, Satanica Pandemonium?

She contributed a couple of good things in that film.

[notin]

1 hour ago, SPLENDIDSPLINTER said:

She contributed a couple of good things in that film.

And they were both on display in that costume…

[notin]

1 hour ago, SPLENDIDSPLINTER said:

Hopefully, Bello will be a tough starter for the Sox. He's been excellent in his last few starts.

The Cubs, IMHO, are the most balanced team in MLB.

Think so?

Without Steele, I think their rotation is ok but they have no depth..  If we had Daniel Palencia closing, fans would want an upgrade.  And their starting 3b has an OPS+ over 20 points lower than Campbell got demoted with.  Oh, and their bench is useless.

On the other hand, an elite defense.  If every starter got nominated for a Gold Glove, it would not surprise me. (And I will be surprised for every one that doesn’t except Carson Kelly.) They have 2 legitimate and one dark horse MVP candidates.  And Counsell seems to be a good manager.