Red Sox (Suarez) vs Royals (Falter): 5/19/26, 7:40pm

[SPLENDIDSPLINTER]

Duran's homer gave Chapman the night off.

[illinoisredsox]

52 minutes ago, SPLENDIDSPLINTER said:

The Sox starters so far are reliving what Bob Gibson went through in 1968.

Gibson had no excuses for losing 9 times.  He went to the plate; he could have done something about lack of run support.

(tongue firmly in cheek in this reply).

[illinoisredsox]

Not that it really matters, but Whitlock got the win.  Usually in those situations, the scorer will give it to the first reliever in when the starter is lifted early.  

[Larry Cook]

Is Suarez ok? I was watching evayson at Portland and missed Suarez’s early exit! 

[moonslav59]

Fred missed a good one.

(He also got another call wrong.)

[moonslav59]

Wow, two in a row!

We've only won more than 1 in a row once since APR 27th... until now.

(3 in a row vs DET)

_____________________________

Gotta sweep it up, tomorrow- day off- and go home for 3 vs MIN.

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How bad is the AL, when a 21-27 team is just 0.5 from 8th ...

1.5 from 7th

2.0 from being tied for 5th & 6th and a WC berth!?!?!?

[Old Red]

8 hours ago, moonslav59 said:

Wow, two in a row!

We've only won more than 1 in a row once since APR 27th... until now.

(3 in a row vs DET)

_____________________________

Gotta sweep it up, tomorrow- day off- and go home for 3 vs MIN.

_____________________________

How bad is the AL, when a 21-27 team is just 0.5 from 8th ...

1.5 from 7th

2.0 from being tied for 5th & 6th and a WC berth!?!?!?

The AL sucks, which makes the Red Sox play, and record worse than it really is, so I guess we agree. Still 6 games under 500, and 500 is a low bar especially this year.

[mvp 78]

10 hours ago, Tedballgame said:

Durbin gets a soft hit the first time up then reverts to his usual self with a strike out looking and a DP. The worst hitting third baseman the Sox have ever had.

Tim Naehring was really bad early on in his career. Will Middlebrooks after 2013. Aaron Hill stunk. Wilton Veras in 2000. I'd probably pinch hit those guys for Durbin.

Caleb Durbin makes Pablo Sandoval look like Eddie Matthews. 

[moonslav59]

It's hard to think Durbin is just in a slump. I guess it's possible, but I can't see a .700 hitter no matter how hard I squint my eyes. He's been really bad.

Because our 3B options are limited, he's comfortably holding the 6th slot in most team PAs at 158. With Mayer (142) still platooning, and Narvaez (102) sharing catching duties with Wong, Caleb may stay in the 6 slot for a while.

If .650 is the "new .700," then .500 is the new .550. Durbin can't even stay over .500!

We saw IKF jump over 100 points in one game (to .615), but he just reached to 50 PA sample size.

It's bad enough having the worst hitter in MLB play almost everyday, but when we see/saw guys like Story (.547 and 4th in PAs) Duran (.593 and 3rd in PAs) Mayer (.596 and 7th in PAs) Narvaez (.624 and 9th in PAs) plus IKF with 50 PAs, you can easily see why our offense has sucked and sucked badly.

Granted some better batters have very small sample sizes, but here are the PA total rankings of our best OPS guys:

.839 Contreras 2nd

.808 Abreu 1st

.794 Gasper 14th out of 15

.793 Rafaela 5th

.709 Yoshida 10th

.697 Sogard 15th

.692 Wong 12th

.682 Monasterio 11th

I'm not trying to argue we'd have more wins, if these "better batters" played more, but 5 of out top 8 most played players are outhitting many players with way more PAs.

Wee are starting to see Monasterio and Sogard play more, due to Story's IL stint, and Durbin has sat a couple games, recently, but Duran (who might be starting to heat up) Durbin & Mayer are still playing a lot.

In many ways, they sorta have to.

[5GoldGlovesOF,75]

58 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

It's hard to think Durbin is just in a slump. I guess it's possible, but I can't see a .700 hitter no matter how hard I squint my eyes. He's been really bad.

Yep, but I saw him rip a line drive RBI-single up the middle last night, head right down on the swing like a good baseball hitter.

Maybe it's because he didn't pull his head, drop his shoulder and uppercut, trying to pull the ball in the air!

[JoeBrady]

16 minutes ago, 5GoldGlovesOF,75 said:

Yep, but I saw him rip a line drive RBI-single up the middle last night, head right down on the swing like a good baseball hitter.

Maybe it's because he didn't pull his head, drop his shoulder and uppercut, trying to pull the ball in the air!

It's such a beautiful and fundamental thing to see when they watch the ball hit the bat.

[mvp 78]

2 hours ago, moonslav59 said:

It's hard to think Durbin is just in a slump. I guess it's possible, but I can't see a .700 hitter no matter how hard I squint my eyes. He's been really bad.

Durbin 2025

1st 30 games: 501 OPS

Final 106 games: 776 OPS

[moonslav59]

29 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

Durbin

1st 30 games: 501 OPS

Final 106 games: 776 OPS

Maybe I should unsquint my eyes.

[5GoldGlovesOF,75]

37 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

Durbin

1st 30 games: 501 OPS

Final 106 games: 776 OPS

When the Sox played Milwaukee, Pat Murphy had nothing but good things to say about Durbin. 

That manager must know a little about baseball, since the Brewers are always in first place.

[mvp 78]

21 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

Maybe I should unsquint my eyes.

Who knows if he can replicate last season's numbers? He didn't go on a crazy tear, he was just consistent day in and day out. If we start seeing his numbers go up, he'll earn his spot. 

It took 10 games to get from 500 to 600 OPS.

It took another 30 games to get from 600 to 700 OPS. This pacing would be the weekend of July 4th.

He actually peaked at 744 on 9/18. 

[notin]

3 hours ago, mvp 78 said:

Tim Naehring was really bad early on in his career. Will Middlebrooks after 2013. Aaron Hill stunk. Wilton Veras in 2000. I'd probably pinch hit those guys for Durbin.

Caleb Durbin makes Pablo Sandoval look like Eddie Matthews. 

They have a lot in common already.  Matthew’s home run total was 512, which is Sandoval’s BMI

[mvp 78]

11 minutes ago, notin said:

They have a lot in common already.  Matthew’s home run total was 512, which is Sandoval’s BMI

Eddie Matthews was nicknamed the Santa Barbara Bomber. Pablo exploded his belt. They are basically the same player.