Red Sox (Bello) vs Cubs (Imanaga): 7/19/25, 7:15pm

[Brock Beauchamp]

Exciting pitching matchup today!

[Brock Beauchamp]

And I'll drop this again for those going to the game:

The Ultimate Fan Guide to Wrigley Field - Guides & Resources - North Side Baseball

NORTHSIDEBASEBALL.COM

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Welcome! This is the definitive guide to Wrigley Field, by the fans and for the fans.

[Maxbialystock]

Another tough starter from the Cubs, lefty Imanaga with 4 good pitches (fastball, slider, curve,and changeup) and command.  

The Sox hit lefties better than righties, .790 vs .744.  Some OPS's:  Gonzalez 1.409, Bregman 1.019, Ref .932, Narvaez .902, Rafaela .822, Story .740, Abreu .686, Toro .608, Anthony .591, Duran .564, Wong .533, Mayer .400, and Yoshida .000.  

I'm guessing Cora will go with the first nine above, which would mean no Duran and no Mayer.  

[notin]

Bad thunderstorms expected this afternoon in Chicago.  But they’re expected to be done by first pitch…

[notin]

42 minutes ago, Maxbialystock said:

Another tough starter from the Cubs, lefty Imanaga with 4 good pitches (fastball, slider, curve,and changeup) and command.  

The Sox hit lefties better than righties, .790 vs .744.  Some OPS's:  Gonzalez 1.409, Bregman 1.019, Ref .932, Narvaez .902, Rafaela .822, Story .740, Abreu .686, Toro .608, Anthony .591, Duran .564, Wong .533, Mayer .400, and Yoshida .000.  

I'm guessing Cora will go with the first nine above, which would mean no Duran and no Mayer.  

Bench Mayer and play Toro? Why?

 

[SPLENDIDSPLINTER]

17 minutes ago, notin said:

Bench Mayer and play Toro? Why?

 

Toro is a great scooper at 1st base.

[SPLENDIDSPLINTER]

20 minutes ago, notin said:

Bad thunderstorms expected this afternoon in Chicago.  But they’re expected to be done by first pitch…

So you're predicting there won't be any thunder in the Sox bats?

[urban cowboy]

I've only seen a little bit of Bello so far. What's been the difference? I'm guessing his control?

[notin]

1 hour ago, SPLENDIDSPLINTER said:

Toro is a great scooper at 1st base.

And a great blooper everywhere else lately…

[notin]

1 hour ago, SPLENDIDSPLINTER said:

So you're predicting there won't be any thunder in the Sox bats?

I’m just hoping there’s a game to go to.

I do want to see Imanaga pitch, but he did shut down Boston last year to one run over 7 innings.  And that run came on a home run from a guy no longer with Boston…

[vegasbob]

Not et any sort of a critical win but it would be an important one to get into this series with Crochet going tomorrow.   

Bello needs to show up and hold the Cubs to 2 runs over 7 innings.   That's an order !

[SPLENDIDSPLINTER]

52 minutes ago, vegasbob said:

Not et any sort of a critical win but it would be an important one to get into this series with Crochet going tomorrow.   

Bello needs to show up and hold the Cubs to 2 runs over 7 innings.   That's an order !

Thank you for your order. Would you like fries with those 7 innings?

[Maxbialystock]

5 hours ago, notin said:

Bench Mayer and play Toro? Why?

 

 

5 hours ago, notin said:

Bench Mayer and play Toro? Why?

 

OPS vs lefties.  Mayer and Duran are both out and there are 7 righty bats (including Toro) in tonight's lineup.  The two lefty bats are Anthony and Yoshida.  Duran and Abreu are both sitting.    The surprises are Yoshida as the DH and Wong catching.  I think Wong is catching Bello because he caught the last two Bello starts, both of which were excellent.  

[Maxbialystock]

2 hours ago, vegasbob said:

Not et any sort of a critical win but it would be an important one to get into this series with Crochet going tomorrow.   

Bello needs to show up and hold the Cubs to 2 runs over 7 innings.   That's an order !

Agree.  Bello must have a very good game and all those Sox righty bats need to deliver.  

[moonslav59]

I'd be playing Mayer vs LHPs, but I guess Cora has his reasons. (We could have played Romy at 1B and Mayer at 2B. Toto is slumping, badly.)

Tonight's line-up:

1. R Refsnyder LF (Lefty killer.)

2. R Bregman 3B (Gotts be the man!)

3. R Romy 2B (I like him 3rd v L)

4. L Anthony RF (Coming into his own.)

5. R Story SS (Stay hot, my man!)

6. R Rafaela CF (Movin' on up...)

7. L Yoshida DH (Coulda put Romy or Ref here, too)

8. S Toro 1B (not only slumping but 165 pts worse vs L)

9. R Wong C (Bello's binky)

 

[SPLENDIDSPLINTER]

There's two things that hurt televised baseball games.... ESPN and FOX.

[SPLENDIDSPLINTER]

Runner on 2nd with no outs and doesn't score. How rare is that for the Sox?

[vegasbob]

Always enjoy watching a MLB pitcher work over less experienced guys.

[vegasbob]

Just now, SPLENDIDSPLINTER said:

Runner on 2nd with no outs and doesn't score. How rare is that for the Sox?

Back to April/May tendencies

[FredLynn]

One pitch

1-0

Game over

[vegasbob]

As the air slowly pfffffffts out of the balloon.

All Wong's fault for call the first pitch as a gopher ball

[FredLynn]

2-0

This team sucks

[vegasbob]

Never ready for the first inning.  Again, same as April/May 

[FredLynn]

As I wrote earlier after these next few series the FLOPS will reveal again their identity.

They suck

[SPLENDIDSPLINTER]

Unfortunately, the Cubs' offense is much better than the last 4 teams the Sox have played.

[FredLynn]

Gonna be a blowout today 

Non competitive.

[Maxbialystock]

This is a replay of yesterday--or worse.   

As said above, Ref gets a leadoff double and the Sox lineup is yet again unable to bring him home.  Good pitching by Imanaga, but still .  .  .

It seems that, at least at Wrigley Field, there are just two things the Sox don't do well--hit and pitch.  

[illinoisredsox]

11 minutes ago, vegasbob said:

Always enjoy watching a MLB pitcher work over less experienced guys.

Imanaga got a break on the 3-1 pitch to Bregman and took advantage of it.

Romy’s AB was the killer.

[SPLENDIDSPLINTER]

6 minutes ago, vegasbob said:

Never ready for the first inning.  Again, same as April/May 

You ordered 7 innings and 2 runs. Still a possibility.

[FredLynn]

Wong up

move on to the next half inning