Tigers (Mize) vs Red Sox (Harrison): 9/26/25, 7:10pm

[bkzwhitestrican]

Congrats. See you guys on Tuesday (or next Saturday)

[SPLENDIDSPLINTER]

2 minutes ago, SPLENDIDSPLINTER said:

Apple+ booth keeps repeating that since 6/30 the Sox have the best record in the AL.

They also had the best record in the AL East. The toughest division in the AL.

[oldtimer]

My thought  was to look for a new manager if the Sox missed the playoffs. They are in and did it with virtually no thump in the lineup. Most of their offense is coming from unexpected sources. Hang with Cora.

The pitching has turned into a strength and if Duran, Bregman and Story can give us some offense, we could surprise the league. 

[FredLynn]

Unfortunately last I heard Anthony isn’t close to coming back 

[Maxbialystock]

10 hours ago, Brandon Glick said:

This series matters for playoff seeding; the Red Sox's magic number remains at one, with the Tigers currently occupying the No. 6 seed behind them.

Of course, Detroit is in absolute free fall over the last few weeks. Because the Tigers swept them earlier in the year, the Sox need to win two of three to lock in the No. 5 seed.

Why am I reading headlines that the Sox have clinched a playoff berth with the win tonight?  

[Maxbialystock]

2 minutes ago, FredLynn said:

Unfortunately last I heard Anthony isn’t close to coming back 

Yep.  

[moonslav59]

27 minutes ago, SPLENDIDSPLINTER said:

I blame Breslow for the Sox making the PO's. W/O Crochet and Chappy this ain't happening.

Brez should be fired for signing the old, washed up Chappy, and trading the catcher of the future for Crochet!

[Maxbialystock]

8 minutes ago, oldtimer said:

My thought  was to look for a new manager if the Sox missed the playoffs. They are in and did it with virtually no thump in the lineup. Most of their offense is coming from unexpected sources. Hang with Cora.

The pitching has turned into a strength and if Duran, Bregman and Story can give us some offense, we could surprise the league. 

I've been saying keep Cora all season long and I also saw the strength of Sox pitching way back in June in that 6 game winning streak.  Than we saw it again in the July 10 game winning streak.  Weren't you watching? 

None of the problems this season were managerial and there were a boatload of them.   

[moonslav59]

10 minutes ago, Maxbialystock said:

Why am I reading headlines that the Sox have clinched a playoff berth with the win tonight?  

Cause the magic # was one!

[FredLynn]

5 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

Brez should be fired for signing the old, washed up Chappy, and trading the catcher of the future for Crochet!

If we failed to make the playoffs I’d have fired him. His job is safe for another year now.

[moonslav59]

1 minute ago, Maxbialystock said:

I've been saying keep Cora all season long and I also saw the strength of Sox pitching way back in June in that 6 game winning streak.  Than we saw it again in the July 10 game winning streak.  Weren't you watching? 

None of the problems this season were managerial and there were a boatload of them.   

We've both been strong Cora and Brez supporters, Max.

Thanks for holding firm to your convictions.

[moonslav59]

5 minutes ago, FredLynn said:

If we failed to make the playoffs I’d have fired him. His job is safe for another year now.

Sorry, but that seems silly, to me. 

We get lucky, tonight, and that saves a guy's job.

[Maxbialystock]

6 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

Brez should be fired for signing the old, washed up Chappy, and trading the catcher of the future for Crochet!

We've known how good those 4 acquisitions--Crochet, Chapman, Bregman, and Narvaez--were since April.  Yes, he made some mistakes.  Who doesn't in that job?  But overall he has been good--and so have some of the guys CB brought into the fold.  Even Yoshida and Story, but also Abreu, Duran, Rafaela, Anthony, Mayer, Bello, Giolito, Early, et al.  

[Maxbialystock]

8 minutes ago, FredLynn said:

If we failed to make the playoffs I’d have fired him. His job is safe for another year now.

Thank goodness for saying that!.  Seriously.  Now that you've said it, we know Cora will remain manager forever unless/until he gets a better offer.  Now recite again your favorite mantra, "Rafaela stinks, Rafaela stinks . . "

[FredLynn]

5 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

Sorry, but that seems silly, to me. 

We get lucky, tonight, and that saves a guy's job.

If we had lost three in a row and the Astros swept their series I suspect Breslows job would not have been safe. I certainly would have fired him for whiffing at the TD, which he did. 
Yes, we are in the playoffs now. But we could have been a much better team if our GM went all in instead of dipping his feet in the water this year.

[FredLynn]

5 minutes ago, Maxbialystock said:

Thank goodness for saying that!.  Seriously.  Now that you've said it, we know Cora will remain manager forever unless/until he gets a better offer.  Now recite again your favorite mantra, "Rafaela stinks, Rafaela stinks . . "

Rafaela will never have any kind of plate discipline. But of late he has been getting hits so for now I’ll get off his case. If he starts sucking again I’ll call him on it.

As for Cora he gets a reprieve for this year. But he does make a lot of mistakes. Still, he’s the manager of a playoff team. That counts. 

[SPLENDIDSPLINTER]

6 minutes ago, FredLynn said:

Rafaela will never have any kind of plate discipline. But of late he has been getting hits so for now I’ll get off his case. If he starts sucking again I’ll call him on it.

Do you enjoy being insufferable?

[JoeBrady]

5 minutes ago, FredLynn said:

Rafaela will never have any kind of plate discipline. But of late he has been getting hits so for now I’ll get off his case. If he starts sucking again I’ll call him on it.

As for Cora he gets a reprieve for this year. But he does make a lot of mistakes. Still, he’s the manager of a playoff team. That counts. 

It's worth noting that Rafaela's K/W has improved from 10: to slightly worse than 4:1.  That's a huge improvement for a 2nd year player.

[JoeBrady]

Just now, SPLENDIDSPLINTER said:

Do you enjoy being insufferable?

Does that mean he enjoys suffering?  He won't be the only RS fan that does.

[Maxbialystock]

11 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

We've both been strong Cora and Brez supporters, Max.

Thanks for holding firm to your convictions.

Breslow won me over with Crochet, Chapman, Bregman, and Narvaez.  Cora continues to have my support because this season has been daunting, and no month more so than September with Anthony going on the IL, Bregman in a slump,. Abreu on the IL, Rafaela still in a slump (until recently), Bello in a slump, Crochet hit hard, etc.  

To me 2025 is kind of unique in that the pitching has been the key to winning--see especially the three winning streaks of 6 in June, 10 in July, and 7 in August.  When you think about it, pitching is where Cora and Breslow have had their biggest impacts.  Thus the huge win tonight thanks mostly to an absolutely brilliant bullpen shepherded by Cora.  

[moonslav59]

26 minutes ago, Maxbialystock said:

We've known how good those 4 acquisitions--Crochet, Chapman, Bregman, and Narvaez--were since April.  Yes, he made some mistakes.  Who doesn't in that job?  But overall he has been good--and so have some of the guys CB brought into the fold.  Even Yoshida and Story, but also Abreu, Duran, Rafaela, Anthony, Mayer, Bello, Giolito, Early, et al.  

It's like some were just too locked into a gloom closet that they refused to believe a big enough improvement had been made.

In some ways, I think the 2024 was actually better that their re cord indicated. The Devers injury was crippling, but then again, we dumped him, this year, so that kinda evens that up from 2024.

The other big plus was the 2024 Gio signing, which made Brez and the team look worse than it was, too. We didn't see that coming for '25. He pretty much just made up for the loss of Houck.

Wilson and Matz helped, as did some no name pen arms that held their ground, well.

Romy & Ref were huge!

Raflopperela was too.

[Tedballgame]

1 minute ago, moonslav59 said:

It's like some were just too locked into a gloom closet that they refused to believe a big enough improvement had been made.

In some ways, I think the 2024 was actually better that their re cord indicated. The Devers injury was crippling, but then again, we dumped him, this year, so that kinda evens that up from 2024.

The other big plus was the 2024 Gio signing, which made Brez and the team look worse than it was, too. We didn't see that coming for '25. He pretty much just made up for the loss of Houck.

Wilson and Matz helped, as did some no name pen arms that held their ground, well.

Romy & Ref were huge!

Raflopperela was too.

I am so glad that the Red Sox finally realized that Whitlock is electric in the bullpen but only mediocre and injury prone as a starter. It was a stupid decision to try to make him a starter, even if he was asking for it. They set him up to fail but at least they admitted the mistake and righted it. They would not be in the playoffs without him in his current 8th inning role.

[moonslav59]

5 minutes ago, Tedballgame said:

I am so glad that the Red Sox finally realized that Whitlock is electric in the bullpen but only mediocre and injury prone as a starter. It was a stupid decision to try to make him a starter, even if he was asking for it. They set him up to fail but at least they admitted the mistake and righted it. They would not be in the playoffs without him in his current 8th inning role.

It looked like a no brainer to many of us, but Brez saw the light that Bloom was shading.

[Maxbialystock]

37 minutes ago, FredLynn said:

Rafaela will never have any kind of plate discipline. But of late he has been getting hits so for now I’ll get off his case. If he starts sucking again I’ll call him on it.

As for Cora he gets a reprieve for this year. But he does make a lot of mistakes. Still, he’s the manager of a playoff team. That counts. 

I will believe Cora has made a mistake the moment you declare a bad move before anything happens--and explain why it's a bad move.  The simple fact is that you can't.  You need that ever-reliable 20-20 hindsight.  

JH has never hesitated to fire a manager.  He fired his first one A year after buying the Sox.  He fired Francona after the 20`11 season even though the Sox won WS in 2004 and 2007 under Francona.  He fired his replacement Bobby V after one year.   And he fired Farrell after he won the WS in 2013 and won the AL East title in 2016 and 2017.  Cora was booted out of MLB for one year, 2020, and JH rehired him in 2021 and kept him despite no postseason in 2022, 2023, or 2024.  

This is the first Sox season I can remember in which success has relied so much on the pitching, and pitching is where the manager has his biggest impact as we saw yet again tonight.  

He did another thing you've overlooked.  Despite your caterwauling about what a terrible hitter Rafaela is and always will be, Cora  recently moved Rafaela from batting 8th to batting 6th because he was once again making good contact with the ball.  That one little move made that dramatic game-winning hit possible.  Don't get me wrong.  Rafaela, not Cora, made that amazing drive of the CF wall,.  But, had he batted 8th, he wouldn't have had the chance.  

 

[Oscars]

Cora has done a great job with this roster 👏

[alsoason]

Congrats to the Red Sox, they overcame a bunch, some of it their own doing, but they hung in there with the injuries and passed my expectations. Been a Sox fan since 62 and I am hard pressed to find a year to compare this team to. I know some will want to say 2013, but that does not fly when power is considered. The playoffs look wide open in the American League, but the Sox are going to need all facets of their game to click to get to the W.S. my prediction is that they will have to beat Seattle to get there, Who would you rather play in the wild card set? Yanks or Jays? Game 1 will be huge against either.

[Maxbialystock]

18 minutes ago, Tedballgame said:

I am so glad that the Red Sox finally realized that Whitlock is electric in the bullpen but only mediocre and injury prone as a starter. It was a stupid decision to try to make him a starter, even if he was asking for it. They set him up to fail but at least they admitted the mistake and righted it. They would not be in the playoffs without him in his current 8th inning role.

Meh.  I agree it was a mistake, but the enduring reality of MLB is that starters pitch way, way more innings than relievers.  So of course managers are interested in converting relievers to starters.  On top of that Whitlock actually has the repertoire of a starter--which, I hasten to add, Tolle absolutely does not have.  

Also, since you didn't notice, may I point out that the key reliever tonight wasn't Whitlock or for that matter, Chapman.  It was little old and much maligned Slaten, who replaced Harrison in the 4th after Harrison had allowed 3 runs and had runners on 2d and 3d with nobody out,.  Slaten astounded all of us by retired the side without giving up another run.  That probably won the game for the Sox.  

[iortiz]

29 minutes ago, Tedballgame said:

I am so glad that the Red Sox finally realized that Whitlock is electric in the bullpen but only mediocre and injury prone as a starter. It was a stupid decision to try to make him a starter, even if he was asking for it. They set him up to fail but at least they admitted the mistake and righted it. They would not be in the playoffs without him in his current 8th inning role.

They must do the same with Houck for once and for all. 

[FredLynn]

47 minutes ago, SPLENDIDSPLINTER said:

Do you enjoy being insufferable?

You seem to suffer far more than I do from reading my posts. All I have to do is write them.

[Maxbialystock]

7 minutes ago, alsoason said:

Congrats to the Red Sox, they overcame a bunch, some of it their own doing, but they hung in there with the injuries and passed my expectations. Been a Sox fan since 62 and I am hard pressed to find a year to compare this team to. I know some will want to say 2013, but that does not fly when power is considered. The playoffs look wide open in the American League, but the Sox are going to need all facets of their game to click to get to the W.S. my prediction is that they will have to beat Seattle to get there, Who would you rather play in the wild card set? Yanks or Jays? Game 1 will be huge against either.

Not sure about "of their own doing," but completely agree this team is different.  Also agree the playoffs are wide open.  Heckuva point about which team to face and the importance of the first game.  Based on that, I'd prefer the Jays in the wild card.