Phillies (Luzardo) vs Red Sox (Suarez): 5/14/26, 6:45pm

[FredLynn]

17 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

This game was difficult to watch. 

The horse has been beaten over and over, but it just seems like the offense keeps needing further beatings.

The pen wasn't very helpful either, but it's hard to be too critical of Samaniego for giving up his first run of the season, and to a guy like Schwarber.

The D made some nice plays and then Story botches another play.

Another wasted gem by our rotation. Suarez must be thinking, WTF! 2.44 ERA and the team is 3-5 in his starts.

 

It’s not like we didn’t know this was coming. I was bitching all winter that we needed a couple of very good RHH -so were you. No one should be surprised that we are one of the worst teams in all of baseball. 
And absolutely NO ONE should be at the park or support the bums in any way. 
What a disgusting franchise.

[SPLENDIDSPLINTER]

28 minutes ago, SPLENDIDSPLINTER said:

From 1903-1918 the Sox won 5 championships. From 2004-2018 the Sox won 4 championships. 

So, using my fingers and toes, the next Sox championship will be in the year 2104. And they will still be playing at Fenway.

We just have to be patient, Moon.

[SPLENDIDSPLINTER]

Having a very good starting staff and a very good defense, and being 7 games under .500 is ridiculous.

No question that the Sox have the worst offense in the AL and arguably the worst in MLB.

 

[illinoisredsox]

1 hour ago, Tedballgame said:

Once again, the offense was pathethic. Against a guy with a +5.0 ERA. 

Luzardo has been wildly inconsistent this year. Tonight was his 9th start. In the previous 8:

In 4 games totaling 24 2/3 innings, he’s allowed 4 runs (all earned) and 20 hits for a 1.46 ERA

In the other 4 games totaling 19 innings, he’s allowed 26 runs (24 earned) and 26 hits for a 12.32 ERA.

He had no average games this year; he’s either been great or he’s been terrible.  I’m not saying he was great tonight, but the Sox needed terrible guy to show up to have a chance and he didn’t.

[mvp 78]

9 hours ago, vegasbob said:

How does Jim Rice keep a straight face on NESN postgame shows.

Papelbon is more generous with trashing them.

How about a broadcast where the Analytics department explains the reasons for deviations from the mean

Talk about a snooze fest. I like Speier, but whenever Stats Masterson is on the tv, it's not good. 

[mvp 78]

9 hours ago, alsoason said:

By the way Harrison pitched a gem today for the Brewers

Even if he was in the rotation, the Sox still wouldn't score runs for him. 

[Old Red]

6 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

Even if he was in the rotation, the Sox still wouldn't score runs for him. 

The Red Sox are wasting some great pitching.

[Old Red]

8 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

Talk about a snooze fest. I like Speier, but whenever Stats Masterson is on the tv, it's not good. 

Rice is bad as are most of the YUCKERS on NESN.

[mvp 78]

7 minutes ago, Old Red said:

The Red Sox are wasting some great pitching.

That's what happens when you have rally killers like Durbin, Story, IKF and Duran in the lineup. Even Rafaela likes to swing at pitches above his head early in the game. You can only trust him when it's late and close.

The starting lineup tonight was absolutely disgusting. You can't start that many guys under 600 OPS. Just throw Mayer out there. Send IKF to the moon. Nate Eaton and Nick Sogard aren't as bad as some of the guys we are throwing out there every damn day.  

[mvp 78]

10 minutes ago, Old Red said:

Rice is bad as are most of the YUCKERS on NESN.

I feel bad for him. He was basically iced out from talking with the current group of players. He knows how to hit. The current hitting structure isn't working. He sees the offense completely failing. He had a HOF career. He's checked out because the org has shown they don't really care about his true opinions anymore. He's just there to cash a check. A lot of us have had a job like that before. 

[mvp 78]

Also, Story's defense is atrocious. Get him out of here. 

[notin]

5 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

Also, Story's defense is atrocious. Get him out of here. 

Story and Duran could be benched.  I’d want them to demote Durbin, but he was actually this horrible at the plate at this time last year, too (.501 OPS as late as May 20), so it’s looking like he is a very slow starter.

I’m standing by bringing up Braiden Ward at least until Anthony returns.  Sure it probably won’t work, but how much more confident am I in Duran at this point?

[mvp 78]

1 minute ago, notin said:

Story and Duran could be benched.  I’d want them to demote Durbin, but he was actually this horrible at the plate at this time last year, too (.501 OPS as late as May 20), so it’s looking like he is a very slow starter.

I’m standing by bringing up Braiden Ward at least until Anthony returns.  Sure it probably won’t work, but how much more confident am I in Duran at this point?

What's the DFA move to add Ward? 

[notin]

3 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

What's the DFA move to add Ward? 

Watson or Gamboa.  Or Crawford to 60 day if he’s not going to be ready within 3 weeks anyway….

[Old Red]

18 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

I feel bad for him. He was basically iced out from talking with the current group of players. He knows how to hit. The current hitting structure isn't working. He sees the offense completely failing. He had a HOF career. He's checked out because the org has shown they don't really care about his true opinions anymore. He's just there to cash a check. A lot of us have had a job like that before. 

Yes the famous that’s not the way we do things lecture to Rice.🙈

[Yaz Fan Since 67]

10 hours ago, FredLynn said:

It’s not like we didn’t know this was coming. I was bitching all winter that we needed a couple of very good RHH -so were you. No one should be surprised that we are one of the worst teams in all of baseball. 
And absolutely NO ONE should be at the park or support the bums in any way. 
What a disgusting franchise.

Yeah we all knew this all winter, this is not a surprise although I didn't see last place  They were counting on much more from players like Anthony and of course Duran.  Both have given them nothing and that was not expected.  But it was a poor plan from the start, what a shame we are wasting such a good starting staff. 

And now with the Bello thing looking more promising, as weird as it is, the staff just got stronger. 

[Old Red]

27 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

That's what happens when you have rally killers like Durbin, Story, IKF and Duran in the lineup. Even Rafaela likes to swing at pitches above his head early in the game. You can only trust him when it's late and close.

The starting lineup tonight was absolutely disgusting. You can't start that many guys under 600 OPS. Just throw Mayer out there. Send IKF to the moon. Nate Eaton and Nick Sogard aren't as bad as some of the guys we are throwing out there every damn day.  

I can’t believe the Red Sox aren’t last batting with runners in scoring position, but they are actually only 22nd. Agree on taking the training wheels off Mayer’s, and Sogard would be better than DUBin with the bat, and Ward over Duran certainly couldn’t  hurt either.

[mvp 78]

9 minutes ago, notin said:

Watson or Gamboa.  Or Crawford to 60 day if he’s not going to be ready within 3 weeks anyway….

They need all the bullpen help they can get. I wouldn't DFA Gamboa TBH. 

Not sure what the ceiling is on guys like Capra, Ward, Seigler, etc. They might be able to OPS 600 though. 

[mvp 78]

7 minutes ago, Yaz Fan Since 67 said:

Yeah we all knew this all winter, this is not a surprise although I didn't see last place  They were counting on much more from players like Anthony and of course Duran.  Both have given them nothing and that was not expected.  But it was a poor plan from the start, what a shame we are wasting such a good starting staff. 

And now with the Bello thing looking more promising, as weird as it is, the staff just got stronger. 

They needed and wanted to trade Duran, but overvalued him. Weird way to do business. 

[Yaz Fan Since 67]

10 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

They needed and wanted to trade Duran, but overvalued him. Weird way to do business. 

I guess I did too because I didn't want him traded. When he gets on base he can change games, I didn't want to give up on a player like that.  

[Bellhorn04]

10 hours ago, moonslav59 said:

Ruth was worse than Devers.

Had you said the Betts fiasco, I'm listening.

To me, living through the period where we dismantled the 1975-1978 teams was the worst, and how they did it, too.

The manager hates Bill Lee- gone.

Cecil Cooper "can't hit" they said- gone for an over-the-hill George Scott.

Tiant plays for the Yanks.

They fail to offer Fisk a contract on the due date, making him a FA- gone and for nothing.

Trading away Fred Lynn, Burleson and the rest.

The list goes on and on. Those were just the high (low) lights.

The JH era is not worse than the late 70's to early '80's. It's not close, despite these last 5-6 years.

 

He was definitely talking about the Ruth-Betts parallels, he brought up Devers after that.

[moonslav59]

10 hours ago, FredLynn said:

It’s not like we didn’t know this was coming. I was bitching all winter that we needed a couple of very good RHH -so were you. No one should be surprised that we are one of the worst teams in all of baseball. 
And absolutely NO ONE should be at the park or support the bums in any way. 
What a disgusting franchise.

Why  not switch to another team and spare us?

[drewski6]

42 minutes ago, notin said:

Story and Duran could be benched.  I’d want them to demote Durbin, but he was actually this horrible at the plate at this time last year, too (.501 OPS as late as May 20), so it’s looking like he is a very slow starter.

I’m standing by bringing up Braiden Ward at least until Anthony returns.  Sure it probably won’t work, but how much more confident am I in Duran at this point?

I might watch a game for the first time in weeks if they brought up Ward.  Good job seeing the big picture.

My best friend was at the game last night, he's a plastic surgeon from VT. WEll hes from Cranston, but he currently practices (is that the right word for performing surgery?) in VT.  I assume he was in Boston on a conference.  I was annoyed cuz I was trying to ask him how long I should bake this flounder for, and he wasnt responding fast enough, but thats neither here nor there (its 15-20 mins btw, TY alexa).  He was like 8 rows behind first base.  I was getting pictures.  THere was nobody between row 2 and row 8.  Great seats in front of him, empty.   I know the weather wasnt great but it seemed pretty bad.  Then he was texting me that there were a lot of Phillies fans making a lot of noise.  So you have a lot of empty seats and a large visitor contingent.  This is probably not new news to you, Ive seen MVP talk about the visitors helping sell seats.   I dont mind it.  If Im like from Philly and I work in boston and I get a chance to see my team rarely, Im glad that the sox are so bad that mr philly has a good selection of seats.

Anyways, my buddy ends up catching literally 4 foul balls. They werent all foul balls, some of them were like contreras tossing the ball into the stands.  But he picked up 4 balls, and I have to think its a reflection of how empty it was.  He kept one for his kids and gave the other 3 away to random kids.

My gal asked if he was on TV scooping all those foul balls, I said I dont know, Im not watching this team! King of Providence doesnt waste time on losers!  Baby, you know that.

[moonslav59]

18 minutes ago, Bellhorn04 said:

He was definitely talking about the Ruth-Betts parallels, he brought up Devers after that.

My reply was aimed at this:

This is the worst management the Sox have had in over a century, and it is not close.

To me, it's not even close that previous management groups were way worse than under JH and even worse (maybe not way worse than the last 5 years) than the past 10 years.

[drewski6]

Just now, moonslav59 said:

Why  not switch to another team and spare us?

I like him.  Sure hes not the most optimistic guy here, but the toxic optimists who come in here and complain about fans complaining are far far worse.

 

[Bellhorn04]

3 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

My reply was aimed at this:

This is the worst management the Sox have had in over a century, and it is not close.

To me, it's not even close that previous management groups were way worse than under JH and even worse (maybe not way worse than the last 5 years) than the past 10 years.

JH was a fantastic owner until he lost his way in 2019.  I would still shake his hand and thank him if I ever met him, but his legacy is really suffering.

[Bellhorn04]

6 minutes ago, drewski6 said:

I like him.  Sure hes not the most optimistic guy here, but the toxic optimists who come in here and complain about fans complaining are far far worse.

 

I had to put Fred on ignore.  It's not just the negativity but his posts tend to be extraordinarily repetitive.  You are negative but in a way that's not boring.  😄

[drewski6]

3 minutes ago, Bellhorn04 said:

JH was a fantastic owner until he lost his way in 2019.  I would still shake his hand and thank him if I ever met him, but his legacy is really suffering.

Fire Breslow and hes cool with me.

[drewski6]

Especially if its a loud and embarrassing hammer of justice (to Breslow).

[moonslav59]

10 hours ago, SPLENDIDSPLINTER said:

We just have to be patient, Moon.

Patience is not one of my strong suits. I expected a drop off and was part of the "cliff dweller" club during the DD era.

I think 2021 gave JH a false sense of security that we could win without major expenditures, and to some extent, many fans were fooled into thinking the rebuild need not be 5-6 years long.

The higher farm rankings also added encouragement, and when some of the prospects from DD's so-called "depleteled farm" came through (Devers, Houck and a few others to lesser extents) the drop off in 2022 and beyond were couched as bad luck or blips on an upward trajectory.

It took Bloom longer than many felt it should have to build up the roster depth and farm system, and the lack of top pitchers hurt like hell. Brez has shifted the focus to pitching, and now the offense is the major weakness. It's no suprise.

My hopes t start the year were based on two things:

1. The rest of the AL sucks. (I even felt the Yanks were over-rated.)

2. The additions of Suarez, Contreras & Gray were better than what we lost. (This has been true, so far, but the returning player's drop off has been astoundingly extreme.)

I might be one of the few that has yet to give up on 2026, but I'm certainly void of any optimism, right now.