Pirates (Skenes) vs Red Sox (Tolle): 8/29/25, 7:10pm

[FredLynn]

Romy and Rafaela K at balls a foot out of the zone. It’s a major reason the O is sucking.

[iortiz]

3 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

Tolle hadn't pitched 80 pitches since June. His pitch counts before tonight:

53 64 64 69 64 72 71 63

So what? Does his arm fall apart if he pitches 100? 
 

[moonslav59]

The game looked so promising, early on.

Tough loss. Tougher when watching TOR losing big.

[iortiz]

Cora lost this one. 

[FredLynn]

1 minute ago, moonslav59 said:

The game looked so promising, early on.

Tough loss. Tougher when watching TOR losing big.

But the Ms just lost to Cleveland . That helps

[Maxbialystock]

1 minute ago, FredLynn said:

Romy Ks on a ball in the dirt. That’s a major reason why this offense has been sucking. No contact.

Your fav Rafaela did him one better.  Looked at 2 called strikes then swung at a pitch very low and very outside.   The first pitch was fat--right down the middle.  

Sox lineup scored 1 ER in 9 innings.  Pathetic.

Tolle looked terrific.  

[FredLynn]

1 minute ago, iortiz said:

Cora lost this one. 

The O lost this one. Cora failed again to properly manage the game. He didn’t lose it but he didn’t put his players in the best position to win. And that’s his job.

[FredLynn]

1 minute ago, Maxbialystock said:

Your fav Rafaela did him one better.  Looked at 2 called strikes then swung at a pitch very low and very outside.   The first pitch was fat--right down the middle.  

Sox lineup scored 1 ER in 9 innings.  Pathetic.

Tolle looked terrific.  

Yup

The O sucked. But they were facing the best pitcher in the game for six innings. 
They have sucked for a long time and better pick it up if they want to play ball in October 

[Maxbialystock]

1 minute ago, moonslav59 said:

The game looked so promising, early on.

Tough loss. Tougher when watching TOR losing big.

Tolle and the Sox defense looked good early on.  The hitting stunk yet again and so did the bullpen (which has been great).  

So, me, I'm grateful the Jays and Mariners are losing, but the Yankees are killing the White Sox and will pass us tonight.  

[notin]

Three of the Sox last 4 losses came when facing Skenes, Rodon and Trevor Rogers.  And the other one was in extra innings.  It does take a lot to beat this team, despite all the complaints…

[SPLENDIDSPLINTER]

22 minutes ago, Nineintime said:

Can’t lose at home to the Pirates in late August.  Can’t happen.  

With Skenes pitching it definitely can happen. And it did.

[notin]

3 minutes ago, Maxbialystock said:

Tolle and the Sox defense looked good early on.  The hitting stunk yet again and so did the bullpen (which has been great).  

So, me, I'm grateful the Jays and Mariners are losing, but the Yankees are killing the White Sox and will pass us tonight.  

Yankees have to pass Boston.  MLB now uses tie breakers and the Sox have already clinched their tie breaker with NY…

[illinoisredsox]

24 minutes ago, iortiz said:

So what? Does his arm fall apart if he pitches 100? 
 

Were you actually watching?  He was losing effectiveness in the 6th.  One could argue whether he should have come out for the 6th, but he was done when Cora pulled him.

And since he hadn’t even come close to 100 pitches in the minors, why would you think he could all of a sudden do it in the majors.

The Sox offense scored one earned run.  I said last night the pitching matchup did not favor the them.  Skenes is not a just a good pitcher, he’s a great one.

[SPLENDIDSPLINTER]

3 minutes ago, notin said:

Three of the Sox last 4 losses came when facing Skenes, Rodon and Trevor Rogers.  And the other one was in extra innings.  It does take a lot to beat this team, despite all the complaints…

Many Sox posters have been trained to never give credit to the opposing pitcher.

[Tedballgame]

10 minutes ago, Maxbialystock said:

Your fav Rafaela did him one better.  Looked at 2 called strikes then swung at a pitch very low and very outside.   The first pitch was fat--right down the middle.  

Sox lineup scored 1 ER in 9 innings.  Pathetic.

Tolle looked terrific.  

Wrong. Rafaela looked at one strike and a ball that was clearly a ball that the ump completely missed. Changed the whole at bat.

[Maxbialystock]

37 minutes ago, FredLynn said:

He makes a lot of mistakes 

This game was absolutely, positively on the hitting and the bullpen.  I like Wong, but tonight he was 0/4.  

The Sox had one stinking ER in 9 IP--rookie Anthony's dinger in the 5th off Skenes, no less.  Anthony and Bregman both had GIDP's.  Sox were 1/7 with RISP.  

[SPLENDIDSPLINTER]

Just now, SPLENDIDSPLINTER said:

Many Sox posters have been trained to never give credit to the opposing pitcher.

Also, many here believe the Sox offense is better than it actually is.

[Maxbialystock]

16 minutes ago, FredLynn said:

I don’t really care what you think about my credibility 

43 minutes ago, FredLynn said:

He makes a lot of mistakes 

This game was absolutely, positively on the hitting and the bullpen.  I like Wong, but tonight he was 0/4.  

The Sox had one stinking ER in 9 IP--rookie Anthony's dinger in the 5th off Skenes, no less.  Anthony and Bregman both had GIDP's.  Sox were 1/7 with RISP.  

[SPLENDIDSPLINTER]

Funny that the Sox looked like they filled a hole in the starting rotation and then the normally good BP decided to take a dump tonight.

[notin]

5 minutes ago, Maxbialystock said:

This game was absolutely, positively on the hitting and the bullpen.  I like Wong, but tonight he was 0/4.  

The Sox had one stinking ER in 9 IP--rookie Anthony's dinger in the 5th off Skenes, no less.  Anthony and Bregman both had GIDP's.  Sox were 1/7 with RISP.  

Skenes has a .553 OPSA this year.  He shuts down MLB teams…

[illinoisredsox]

10 minutes ago, SPLENDIDSPLINTER said:

Many Sox posters have been trained to never give credit to the opposing pitcher.

Or realize that other teams have major league players too, even poor teams.  The Pirates have been playing well the last couple weeks.  I think they came in having won 7 of their last 10.  They aren’t a real good team, but they aren’t close to White Sox/Rockies level.

[FredLynn]

17 minutes ago, Maxbialystock said:

This game was absolutely, positively on the hitting and the bullpen.  I like Wong, but tonight he was 0/4.  

The Sox had one stinking ER in 9 IP--rookie Anthony's dinger in the 5th off Skenes, no less.  Anthony and Bregman both had GIDP's.  Sox were 1/7 with RISP.  

I agree but Cora made some questionable decisions-like not sending Rafaela when he led off the inning with a hit (followed by Bregmans DP) and letting Tolle come out for the 7th

[FredLynn]

13 minutes ago, notin said:

Skenes has a .553 OPSA this year.  He shuts down MLB teams…

And yet we were up 2-0 before Cora let Tolle come out for the 7th followed by bringing in the Stiff Hicks who promptly surrendered two hits and a run in 1/3 inning. He should NEVER EVER be brought into a game that isn’t separated by at least four runs 

[notin]

8 minutes ago, FredLynn said:

And yet we were up 2-0 before Cora let Tolle come out for the 7th followed by bringing in the Stiff Hicks who promptly surrendered two hits and a run in 1/3 inning. He should NEVER EVER be brought into a game that isn’t separated by at least four runs 

Maybe he left Tolle in too long.  Hicks’ run turned out to be inconsequential.

But theres no shame in getting shut down by one of the best pitchers in the game…

[FredLynn]

3 minutes ago, notin said:

Maybe he left Tolle in too long.  Hicks’ run turned out to be inconsequential.

But theres no shame in getting shut down by one of the best pitchers in the game…

I agree. Yet we weren’t completely shut down. We managed to lead 2-0 at one point. You have to wonder if we could have won the game if the pen started the 6th. I think that was the way to go. Tolle had done his job.

[Maxbialystock]

1 hour ago, iortiz said:

So what? Does his arm fall apart if he pitches 100? 
 

He's there for the crucial experience of pitching in MLB, not to go to 100 pitches for the first time ever.  As it was, he went over his planned number of 72.  

The bullpen stunk.  So did the hitting.  

[Maxbialystock]

32 minutes ago, FredLynn said:

I agree. Yet we weren’t completely shut down. We managed to lead 2-0 at one point. You have to wonder if we could have won the game if the pen started the 6th. I think that was the way to go. Tolle had done his job.

Not unreasonable.  However, we do know the bullpen stunk tonight as did the hitting.  

[moonslav59]

1 hour ago, SPLENDIDSPLINTER said:

Also, many here believe the Sox offense is better than it actually is.

Name names.

Who here thinks it's top 4-5?

[iortiz]

Somebody has to tell to Weissert that we were having fun man. 

[iortiz]

44 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

Name names.

Who here thinks it's top 4-5?

The offense is top 3 inconsistent in baseball. They can score 20 runs one day and go hitless the next 3. 

The reason they are in the WC mix is because the pitching.