Yankees (Gil) vs Red Sox (Giolito): 9/12/25, 7:10pm

[5GoldGlovesOF,75]

4 hours ago, mvp 78 said:

 Bats just need to show up.

Bregman's from the Spring, Duran's from July, Lowe's from 2023, and Yoshida's from the WBC...

... and Abreu's, connected to Abreu.

[Maxbialystock]

11 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

You've stuck with this all year, and maybe you do end up being right, but all year we have bounced back from these 2-3 game losing streaks.

It does hurt to see Eaton, DHam and Yoshida sandwiched between slumping players.

I take issue with the Duran comment. While he's been worse than 2024, he's at .773, now.

He was at .774 8/30.

He was at .784 8/15.

He was at .767 7/28

 

He was at .756 7/9

He was between .708 and .753 all June.

He was between .715 and .762 from 5/18 to .5/31.

Before that the sample sizes were smaller and more volatile as he ranged from the .500's to mid .700's.

He's been one of our most steady hitters all year. He's at .550 in the last 7 games. He, as well as most hitters have streaks like that, several times a year. He's at .752 the last 16 games and .875 since June 29th.

The O has gone into a fink, since Anthony's injury. The loss of Abreu did not help. The line-up has lost 4 of their best batters, this year (Casas, Devers, Anthony and Abreu.) We also basically replaced out FT catcher from 2024, who was a decent bat, last year.

Call it a choke all you want, and keep predicting doom & gloom, as you have all year- game by game, week by week. It's been working real well, right?

The Sox have the 4th best record in the AL- just 4,5 GB the best AL record. While it's true that we are also 4.5 GA of being the 8th ranked team (bottom tier,) we have one of the best records in MLB since the end of June. Some choke!

June 30>

43-21 MIL

40-23 BOS (63 games is a significant sample size.)

40-24 TOR

39-25 PHI

37-27 TEX

37-28 SEA

36-29 CLE

Okay, looking at the worst stretches I can find, we are...

6-7 since AUG 29th... epic choke!!!

Or is it the 0-2 run we are on?

 

Duran, despite his weakness against lefty pitchers, leads the Sox in total bases and is 2d in runs scored and rbi's.  He and Story have been the best accumulators in the lineup.

Disagree Casas was one of our best hitters.  First, he stunk this season.  Second, you gotta play the games to count and he has played in 113, 51, and 29 games in 2023-25.  If you think I'm wrong, look at what a healthy Story has done for the Sox this season.  

Agree on Devers and Abreu but especially on Anthony.  With Anthony and without Devers, the Sox flourished until Anthony's last game Sep 2.  I say that because the Sox still did well without Devers and Abreu and with Bregman in a slump as long as Anthony was in the lineup.  

Many thanks for your hopeful commentary throughout this season. 

[moonslav59]

3 minutes ago, Maxbialystock said:

Disagree Casas was one of our best hitters.  First, he stunk this season.  Second, you gotta play the games to count and he has played in 113, 51, and 29 games in 2023-25.  If you think I'm wrong, look at what a healthy Story has done for the Sox this season.  

Casas had an OPS over .800 for a pretty large sample size, before the tiny sample size in 2024 you keep using to define him.

He was at .580 after 29 games.

Story, the guy you are praising and the poster boy for players missing time due to injury was at .581 after 54 games, THIS YEAR!

I think you need to cut Casas some slack or stop praising Story. (I's choose the former.)

The Casas injury also forced the whole Devers blow up. It was a major injury to this team. I'm not sure why you assume Casas would be at .580 after 500 PAs, had he stayed healthy. The same as not assuming Story would stay at .581 all year.

[moonslav59]

13 minutes ago, Maxbialystock said:

Duran, despite his weakness against lefty pitchers, leads the Sox in total bases and is 2d in runs scored and rbi's.  He and Story have been the best accumulators in the lineup. 

I have no issues with Duran. He's been one of our most consistent hitters, all year, despite getting worse vs LHPs over the last 2-3 years. (BTW, his OPS vs LHPs was the same overall OPS as Casas in 2025.)

2025: .865/.581

2024: .910/.665

2023: .841/.749

Duran has stayed healthy, all year, and for this team, that's a big plus. That is also part of the reason he leads the team in some cumulative stats.

Lets look at these stats per PA:

TB

.472 Romy

.465 Anthony (IL)

.446 Refsnyder

.433 Abreu (IL)

.415 Bregman

.410 Story & Devers (traded)

.392 Duran

.380 Rafaela (I'm surprised he's so close.)

This is not intended to slight Duran in any way. He plays everyday. We need that, as we can see, now.

[Maxbialystock]

4 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

Casas had an OPS over .800 for a pretty large sample size, before the tiny sample size in 2024 you keep using to define him.

He was at .580 after 29 games.

Story, the guy you are praising and the poster boy for players missing time due to injury was at .581 after 54 games, THIS YEAR!

I think you need to cut Casas some slack or stop praising Story. (I's choose the former.)

The Casas injury also forced the whole Devers blow up. It was a major injury to this team. I'm not sure why you assume Casas would be at .580 after 500 PAs, had he stayed healthy. The same as not assuming Story would stay at .581 all year.

Yes, Story stunk in April and May, but his OPS's in June, July, August, and Sep have all been over .800.  Plus he leads all MLB SS's in assists and PO's.  I do think Casas is a good hitter, but I also think he's soft on defense and not much good at keeping in shape.  

Completely disagree that the Casas injury was significant because the Sox have flourished without him.  Heck, his WAR for 28 games was -0.9!!!!!  Yes, we could probably use his lefty bat now, but we could use Devers as the DH even more.   The real problem is that Abreu and especially Anthony are on the IL.  Casas was nowhere near as valuable.  And I will be happy to eat those words if Casas actually has a good season next year.  

 

 

[moonslav59]

35 minutes ago, Maxbialystock said:

Yes, Story stunk in April and May, but his OPS's in June, July, August, and Sep have all been over .800.  Plus he leads all MLB SS's in assists and PO's.  I do think Casas is a good hitter, but I also think he's soft on defense and not much good at keeping in shape.  

Completely disagree that the Casas injury was significant because the Sox have flourished without him.  Heck, his WAR for 28 games was -0.9!!!!!  Yes, we could probably use his lefty bat now, but we could use Devers as the DH even more.   The real problem is that Abreu and especially Anthony are on the IL.  Casas was nowhere near as valuable.  And I will be happy to eat those words if Casas actually has a good season next year.  

Why do you assume an .830 batter over 840 PAs in his career was going to stay at .580, all year?

He has a s***** month, as did Story over almost 2 months.

All the times you cite how someone has been doing over a short and recent sample size, only to be surprised they did not continue as before should help you realize players have ups and downs.

Casas was coming back from an injury and played just 29 games, this year. Maybe the injury was career altering, but I still think the guy is an .800 hitter, and we could certainly use one.

We have 1 .800 batter with 400+ PAs.

We have 3 more between 300 and 399 PAs.

We have 2 between 180 and 290 PAs.

Our 1B OPS by PAs:

.647 in 2010 PAs Toro

.843 in 165 PAs Romy (mostly as a platoon)

.624 in 55 PAs Lowe

.563 in 37 PAs Sogard

The loss of Casas was very significant, unless you convince yourself he had morphed into a .580-.640 batter.

[FredLynn]

4 hours ago, moonslav59 said:

Why assume TEX is going to keep winning? They play the next 5 on the road at NYM and then HOU. If they sweep HOU, we'll stay ahead of HOU for the WC slot.

Don't look now, but the real "choke" is HOU, and we're already ahead of them. They are...

5-8 in their last 13 games (We are 6-7)

20-25 in their last 45 (We are 27-18)

28-34 since July 3rd (We are 38-22.)

SEA is 13-15 in their last 28 but have played better more recently.

It’s not so much that I expect Texas to keep winning. It’s that I expect US to keep LOSING. It’s who we are. It’s what this franchise is. 
Chokers

[Nineintime]

1 hour ago, FredLynn said:

It’s not so much that I expect Texas to keep winning. It’s that I expect US to keep LOSING. It’s who we are. It’s what this franchise is. 
Chokers

Enough of the talk with the Sox injuries.  EVERY team has significant injuries. EVERY team. We excuse away this teams struggles down the stretch as injury related.   This team will finish third again and miss the playoffs again and we will settle for they got better.  Breslow did nothing at the deadline and wasted the acquisitions they did get to start the year.  It’s about adjustments throughout the year and the teams that were aggressive and had additions will fare better than the Sox. 

[FredLynn]

7 minutes ago, Nineintime said:

Enough of the talk with the Sox injuries.  EVERY team has significant injuries. EVERY team. We excuse away this teams struggles down the stretch as injury related.   This team will finish third again and miss the playoffs again and we will settle for they got better.  Breslow did nothing at the deadline and wasted the acquisitions they did get to start the year.  It’s about adjustments throughout the year and the teams that were aggressive and had additions will fare better than the Sox. 

Excellent summary. Im

not going to let anyone use injuries as an excuse. All teams have them. The Yankmees lost their ace before the season began. Breslow failed. Cora is having a bad year. Too little talent. It’s not that there aren’t any players worth keeping-there are some. Not enough.

[FredLynn]

Couldn’t be a worse guy up right now 

KKKKKK

[FredLynn]

Unbelievable 

Rafaela Ks on a ball in the dirt

SIT THE BUM!

[FredLynn]

Bums