Red Sox (Crochet) vs Astros (Javier): 8/11/25, 8:10pm

[Brandon Glick]

This is about as favorable of a pitching matchup as you'll ever see. Christian Javier has been out 14 months with Tommy John surgery, and he walked 15 guys in 14 innings on his rehab assignment.

[mvp 78]

Feel good about tonight. Relying on May and Buehler to take a series doesn't give me a wonderful feeling, but baseball is weird sometimes. Sox have been bad on the road so a 2-4 road trip wouldn't be entirely shocking here. 3-3 would be better!

[Maxbialystock]

23 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

Feel good about tonight. Relying on May and Buehler to take a series doesn't give me a wonderful feeling, but baseball is weird sometimes. Sox have been bad on the road so a 2-4 road trip wouldn't be entirely shocking here. 3-3 would be better!

Love "baseball is weird sometimes."  Gioliito and Bello both stunk against week-hitting San Diego, but Buehler went 6, giving up 0 runs.   

10 days ago at the Fens the Sox swept the Astros while starting Criswell, Buehler, and Giolito.  

Houston is starting three righties.  The Sox best OPS's vs righties are Bregman .894, Duran .892, Anthony .882, Abreu .831, Rafaela .732, Gonzalez .719, Story .714, Narvaez .700, and Yoshida .686 (but Yoshida's OPS in August is .822).   I think that should be the lineup in whatever order Cora chooses with Rafaela at 2b and Gonzalez at 1b.  Surprisingly--to me, anyway--that's only 4 lefty bats.  

 

[notin]

19 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

Feel good about tonight. Relying on May and Buehler to take a series doesn't give me a wonderful feeling, but baseball is weird sometimes. Sox have been bad on the road so a 2-4 road trip wouldn't be entirely shocking here. 3-3 would be better!

We all learned it was weird in the 2003 ALCS;  Sox won the 3 games started by Wakefield and  Burkett but lost all 4 started by Pedro and Derek Lowe..

[mvp 78]

14 minutes ago, Maxbialystock said:

Love "baseball is weird sometimes."  Gioliito and Bello both stunk against week-hitting San Diego, but Buehler went 6, giving up 0 runs.   

SD is a 100 wRC+ team. They are perfectly average. Hard to call them weak. 

I would not be surprised if Gio starts to fall back to earth. I'm hopeful that Bello can still pitch well down the stretch. 

[mvp 78]

18 minutes ago, notin said:

We all learned it was weird in the 2003 ALCS;  Sox won the 3 games started by Wakefield and  Burkett but lost all 4 started by Pedro and Derek Lowe..

Pedro should have won at least one of those games... 

[Maxbialystock]

5 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

SD is a 100 wRC+ team. They are perfectly average. Hard to call them weak. 

I would not be surprised if Gio starts to fall back to earth. I'm hopeful that Bello can still pitch well down the stretch. 

I think average hitting/scoring this season--the Astros are ranked 16th in runs scored--puts a team at risk in the regular season.  The winningest teams--Dodgers, Brewers, Cubs, Phillies, Tigers, and Jays--are all in the top ten in runs scored.  Seattle, 10th in runs scored, is hot and just .5 behind Houston.  

 

[mvp 78]

12 minutes ago, Maxbialystock said:

I think average hitting/scoring this season--the Astros are ranked 16th in runs scored--puts a team at risk in the regular season.  The winningest teams--Dodgers, Brewers, Cubs, Phillies, Tigers, and Jays--are all in the top ten in runs scored.  Seattle, 10th in runs scored, is hot and just .5 behind Houston.  

 

Make good deals at the trade deadline and you can get hot? What a surprise! 

[SPLENDIDSPLINTER]

At this point in the season the most bang for the buck team in MLB is without a doubt the Brewers. Total PR of 113 million.

[mvp 78]

3 minutes ago, SPLENDIDSPLINTER said:

At this point in the season the most bang for the buck team in MLB is without a doubt the Brewers. Total PR of 113 million.

Top 10 in hitting (per wRC+)

#1 in Baserunning (per BsR)

Top 10 defense (OAA/DRS/errors)

Well coached fundamental team is helping their mediocre pitching beat expected results (30th in E-F, aka their ERA good and FIP bad). 

[Bellhorn04]

In the "spiteful good news" department, Priester got roughed up yesterday.

[SPLENDIDSPLINTER]

The Sox brought up LH reliever Jovani Moran from Woo. To make room on the 40 man roster reliever Burdi was DFA'd.

[notin]

3 hours ago, mvp 78 said:

Make good deals at the trade deadline and you can get hot? What a surprise! 

The Brewers, who have been the hottest team in MLB for several weeks now, spent their trade deadline allowance on RHRP Shelby Miller, who just came off the IL, and LHSP Jordan Montgomery, who has missed and will continue to miss all of 2025.

 

This was possibly not only the worst deadline among contributors this year,  It might be the worst one for a contender in several seasons…

[Maxbialystock]

5 hours ago, SPLENDIDSPLINTER said:

At this point in the season the most bang for the buck team in MLB is without a doubt the Brewers. Total PR of 113 million.

You can bet JH knows that, but he also knows it's a little too risky.  

[Maxbialystock]

No Yoshida tonight.  Instead, Rafaela goes back to CF--hooray!!--Gonzalez to 2b, Toro to 1b (boo!!) and Anthony is the DH with Duran in LF and Abreu in RF.  

This is pretty much the Sox best defensive team because Hamilton can't hit well enough to start at 2b.  

Per moonlav's instructions, Cora has moved Abreu up to 5th.  

[5GoldGlovesOF,75]

1 hour ago, Maxbialystock said:

No Yoshida tonight.  Instead, Rafaela goes back to CF--hooray!!--Gonzalez to 2b, Toro to 1b (boo!!) and Anthony is the DH with Duran in LF and Abreu in RF.  

This is pretty much the Sox best defensive team because Hamilton can't hit well enough to start at 2b.  

Per moonlav's instructions, Cora has moved Abreu up to 5th.  

Hammy can start at 2B... in Woo.

New back-up catcher took his spot in Beantown (hope he can bunt).

[FredLynn]

3 hours ago, notin said:

The Brewers, who have been the hottest team in MLB for several weeks now, spent their trade deadline allowance on RHRP Shelby Miller, who just came off the IL, and LHSP Jordan Montgomery, who has missed and will continue to miss all of 2025.

 

This was possibly not only the worst deadline among contributors this year,  It might be the worst one for a contender in several seasons…

They didn’t need to obtain anyone. They have the best record in baseball and it’s not particularly close.

[FredLynn]

7 hours ago, mvp 78 said:

Make good deals at the trade deadline and you can get hot? What a surprise! 

Yeah-too bad Breslow didn’t go for it. The Sox are 4th in ERA and 3rd in OPS in the AL. Seems that this might have been the year to make a go of it by get #2 SP and a 1B. We didn’t improve at all. Other teams did; we didn’t. 

[harmony]

Go Red Sox!

Get within a half game of the idle Mariners in the Wild Card race (although with a Boston win Seattle would move into a tie for the AL West lead).

[vegasbob]

Anthony swings at the first pitch, gets a hit. Great idea and execution 

[vegasbob]

Bregman's home

[FredLynn]

Welcome back to Houston Bregman!

[Maxbialystock]

My goodness, the NESN coverage can't stop putting the cameras on Bregman.  

Meanwhile Duran walks and steals 2b with Story at bat--who's out on a pop foul.  

[Maxbialystock]

Excellent play on Abreu's grounder.  

[Maxbialystock]

That inside fastball worked on Anthony yesterday for strike three.  It was the sixth pitch and the only he swung at.  

[Maxbialystock]

Sox 0/3 with RISP.  

[vegasbob]

1 minute ago, Maxbialystock said:

Sox 0/3 with RISP.  

But it's early, Max. That was disappointing because it had all the makings of a big inning

[Maxbialystock]

So far the ump is on the hitters side.  

[Maxbialystock]

1 minute ago, vegasbob said:

But it's early, Max. That was disappointing because it had all the makings of a big inning

I think the Astros starter adjusted after the dinger.  

[Maxbialystock]

The worthless scumbag Astros hitter bad mouthed the ump on a strike well within the strike zone.  Hitters get away with that bs, but not pitchers.  

Crochet got the K anyway.