Red Sox (Suarez) vs Cardinals (Leahy): 4/11/26, 7:15pm

[jdc69]

It was singles night at Busch Stadium. Love it.

[moonslav59]

Sox have 9 losses.

8 AL teams have 8 or more losses.

13 of 15 teams have 7 plus losses, so this is still very much wide-open.

The two best AL teams have just 3 losses less than the Sox.

Only the Yankees have a run differential of more than +4.

[Old Red]

5 hours ago, moonslav59 said:

Sox have 9 losses.

8 AL teams have 8 or more losses.

13 of 15 teams have 7 plus losses, so this is still very much wide-open.

The two best AL teams have just 3 losses less than the Sox.

Only the Yankees have a run differential of more than +4.

So things are bad pretty much all throughout baseball, which makes the Red SOX lifeless start look even worse, so we agree.👏

[5GoldGlovesOF,75]

That 9th was the best inning of the season and must have felt even better for Red Sox batters than fans watching it. Are the Sox capable of stringing together six straight singles on a regular basis? Yes -- when facing mediocre relievers like in St. Louis.

However, a few singles and an extra-base hit is more reasonable for most clubs that feature some semblance of power. Hopefully, Abreu will be consistent all year, and streaky veterans will contribute again: Story, Rafaela and Duran. We know Contreras is always a threat (in many ways). Other than that...

... and don't count on Anthony to blast 30 to 40 HRs, because trying to do that will just mess him up more. Roman is best when he's driving liners over the shortstop; that's the approach for his return to a .290-.300 batting average.

Right now only the White Sox have less extra-base hits than Boston in the AL. The thing is, about half the teams in the league have around the same totals as the Soxes. Hitting is just down in baseball so far, and being a few games out of 1st or a wild card maybe isn't such an illusion.

[Yaz Fan Since 67]

Was there a rain delay?  My recording didn't start until hours later and ran out in the 1st inning as I missed the best inning of the year and a good performance from Suarez.  That was good to see but this team still sucks.

 

After the WBC and the first game who had Anthony sucking for 2 weeks on their Bingo card?  Just such a frustrating start.  

[notin]

2 hours ago, 5GoldGlovesOF,75 said:

That 9th was the best inning of the season and must have felt even better for Red Sox batters than fans watching it. Are the Sox capable of stringing together six straight singles on a regular basis? Yes -- when facing mediocre relievers like in St. Louis.

However, a few singles and an extra-base hit is more reasonable for most clubs that feature some semblance of power. Hopefully, Abreu will be consistent all year, and streaky veterans will contribute again: Story, Rafaela and Duran. We know Contreras is always a threat (in many ways). Other than that...

... and don't count on Anthony to blast 30 to 40 HRs, because trying to do that will just mess him up more. Roman is best when he's driving liners over the shortstop; that's the approach for his return to a .290-.300 batting average.

Right now only the White Sox have less extra-base hits than Boston in the AL. The thing is, about half the teams in the league have around the same totals as the Soxes. Hitting is just down in baseball so far, and being a few games out of 1st or a wild card maybe isn't such an illusion.

It’s certainly down in the AL.  Boston does have the worst team OPS in the AL East, but not by much.

Baltimore .708

Tampa .702 

Toronto .684 

New York .653

Boston .652

That could be just as influenced by schedule is by lineup.  It might have a bad luck component to it when you realize Boston leads the AL East in Hard Hit %.  It could also be their high strikeouts dragging down OPS in the face of hard hit balls, but surprisingly , they’re only third in the AL East in K%.

They don’t walk enough.  They probably should re-discover the Stolen Base.  And they need bullpen help.  If Suarez is coming around, maybe Bello can too…

 

[moonslav59]

11 hours ago, Old Red said:

So things are bad pretty much all throughout baseball, which makes the Red SOX lifeless start look even worse, so we agree.👏

How does other teams sucking, too make us look worse?

We agree on just about nothing.

[notin]

11 hours ago, Old Red said:

So things are bad pretty much all throughout baseball, which makes the Red SOX lifeless start look even worse, so we agree.👏

That doesn’t even make sense.  

It sounds like something people say when the only other option is to admit they were wrong…

[notin]

17 hours ago, jdc69 said:

It was singles night at Busch Stadium. Love it.

 The Sox generated more singles than a Cold Play kiss cam…

[moonslav59]

18 minutes ago, notin said:

It sounds like something people say when the only other option is to admit they were wrong…

Don't hold your breath for an Ole Red apology. 

[JoeBrady]

2 hours ago, moonslav59 said:

How does other teams sucking, too make us look worse?

We agree on just about nothing.

So would that mean that other teams being better than us means that we're better?  I only ask because the other 29 teams will combine for a .495-.505 winning % at year-end, no matter what we do.

[jdc69]

7 hours ago, notin said:

 The Sox generated more singles than a Cold Play kiss cam…

Yes and without the cheating.