Mariners (Miller) vs Red Sox (Sandoval): 09/02/26, 4:10 PM

[Brock Beauchamp]

Sandoval takes the ball for the Red Sox this afternoon at Fenway Park as Boston hosts Miller and the Mariners.

[Brock Beauchamp]

	FRI	SAT	SUN	MON	TUE	TOT
Wyatt Olds	0	0	0	0	53	53
Jovani Morán	0	12	40	0	0	52
Greg Weissert	5	0	15	0	19	39
Garrett Whitlock	0	13	0	0	0	13
Erik Miller	0	0	0	16	0	16
Aroldis Chapman	0	0	0	15	0	15
Alec Gamboa	0	18	0	23	27	68

[Duran Is The Man]

the Mariners have lost the last 8 games Miller has started. he has been awful. so....he'll probably throw a complete game 2 hit shutout tonite.

[moonslav59]

Big game for Sandoval, who has been back long enough to start showing he can move towards the type of pitcher he was a few years back.

Take away his first two season with LAA (both under 40 IP) and his last one in 2024, when he may have been pitching injured, he was a more-than-decent SP'er from 2021-2023. Yes, I know that was a very long time ago, but from 2024 to today, he has been recovering from a major injury and surgery. Let's hope the "rehab" is over, and he starts to become more like this....

2021-2023 Patrick Sandoval:

122 ERA+ (3.53 ERA was 38th out of 147 pitchers with 250+ IP)

84 ERA- (placed 27 in MLB among pitchers with 350+ IP) 32 out of 104 with 300+ IP and 35 out of 147 with 250+. That's a solid #2 pitcher by just ERA- and FIP. 

3.72 FIP (45th/107)

7.5 FWAR in 380 IP (5.7 bWAR)

I'm not predicting today or any day will be his revival day, but I do think there is hope he can regain what he once had.

[mvp 78]

6 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

Big game for Sandoval, who has been back long enough to start showing he can move towards the type of pitcher he was a few years back.

I'm not predicting today or any day will be his revival day, but I do think there is hope he can regain what he once had.

It's always a rollercoaster for guys coming off TJS. The first year is typically the worst. IMO, his last good season was '22. Unfortunately, his current pitching isn't that far off from how he performed in '24. He's not a guy I'd look into bring back next season unless he's even cheaper than he is now. 

[moonslav59]

2 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

It's always a rollercoaster for guys coming off TJS. The first year is typically the worst. IMO, his last good season was '22. Unfortunately, his current pitching isn't that far off from how he performed in '24. He's not a guy I'd look into bring back next season unless he's even cheaper than he is now. 

I agree that he hasn't shown he has near the same stuff as 2021-2023, and while this is his first real season back from the surgery, his surgery was in June of 2024, I believe. That's over 2 years ago. 

He did pitch some in 2025 in practice, but kept having setbacks and never pitched an inning of rehab work. I know that doesn't count as the "first year back," but I think the setbacks were not TJS related. Correct me if I'm wrong, and maybe that doesn't matter anyway.

I'm probably more wishful thinking than trying to present a case he's ready to bust out, but this staff is running out of options to hope on.

Gray is missing a start.

Suarez is struggling and cant go over 5 IP.

Tolle and Bennett are already over their projected IP limits.

Bello cannot be trusted to start a game, and after his last game, might not be trusted to do well after the next "opener" game.

We are down to 5. I get the point that Brez is ultimately to blame for this. He shoulda have added a starter at the deadline. I agree. He put all his in-season eggs into the Mead/Rutschman basket, and that has backfired almost as much as the Sale-Grissom trade.

To me, I felt he did a very good job upgrading the quality of our rotation and depth. We had 11-12 pitchers that were expected to be pitch in 2026. Those 11-12 were better than the 11-12 from 2024 and 2025, and IMO, the 6-11 pitchers might have looked stronger than any other Sox team I have seen (since 1972.) I find it hard to say he dropped the ball in this context, except he knew we needed someone at the deadline and had very few trading chips left over after the Mead & Rut deals.

[iortiz]

Sandoval has improved but not at the pace I would have liked though. Said that he's the definition of a No. 4 starter in my book. A guy who will sport an ERA around 4.5 and give you 5 IP most of the times. No, I wouldn't bring him back and IMO his contract was a mistake since day one. We overpaid him for his time/quality of service.

[moonslav59]

40 minutes ago, iortiz said:

Sandoval has improved but not at the pace I would have liked though. Said that he's the definition of a No. 4 starter in my book. A guy who will sport an ERA around 4.5 and give you 5 IP most of the times. No, I wouldn't bring him back and IMO his contract was a mistake since day one. We overpaid him for his time/quality of service.

I hope they end this type of signings. They did not make one, last winter.

Had Sandoval returned and pitched last Aug and or Sept, maybe he'd be in better shape now, but this speculative type deals never seem to work for us.

Richards, Kluber, Paxton, Hendrik & Sandoval Add all this money up, and we coulda got one decent pitcher on a 2-4 year deal.

[Nick]

Moon, can you give us the starting rotation for September? I'm not convinced we have the playoff spot locked. One injury to our starter (pitcher) will sink us.

Is it time to bring back Bello to pitch the 1st inning?

[mvp 78]

Adley?

[iortiz]

Adley is turning into injury-prone kind of player. This elbow thing is a new one, isn't, it?

[mvp 78]

3 minutes ago, iortiz said:

Adley is turning into injury-prone kind of player. This elbow thing is a new one, isn't, it?

Turning into? Has been! Has-been?

[iortiz]

1 minute ago, mvp 78 said:

Turning into? Has been! Has-been?

Correct me if I'm wrong, he began with all these injuries this year or since when?

[moonslav59]

22 minutes ago, Nick said:

Moon, can you give us the starting rotation for September? I'm not convinced we have the playoff spot locked. One injury to our starter (pitcher) will sink us.

Is it time to bring back Bello to pitch the 1st inning?

I don't see the reason to try Bello starting again, this season. Using an opener does not tax the pen anymore than using the RP'er after a Bello start. The way Bello has started, we'd need more RP'ers than going the opener route.

Our depth options are near nil for the September rotation.

If we could set up the playoff rotation as we wish, I'd go....

1. Tolle (IP total is worrisome)

2. Bennett (IP total is worrisome)

3. Gray (but going with the vet Gray first makes sense, too. That's assuming he looks good after this missed start.)

My ranked Sept rotation would look like this:

1. Tolle

2. Bennett

3. Gray

4. Opener> Bello

5. Sandoval/ Suarez (looking scary questionable)

7>>>. Draw straws among Burgos, Paez and non 40 guys Wehunt, Ziehl & Holobetz

[iortiz]

3 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

I don't see the reason to try Bello starting again, this season. Using an opener does not tax the pen anymore than using the RP'er after a Bello start. The way Bello has started, we'd need more RP'ers than going the opener route.

Our depth options are near nil for the September rotation.

If we could set up the playoff rotation as we wish, I'd go....

1. Tolle (IP total is worrisome)

2. Bennett (IP total is worrisome)

3. Gray (but going with the vet Gray first makes sense, too. That's assuming he looks good after this missed start.)

My ranked Sept rotation would look like this:

1. Tolle

2. Bennett

3. Gray

4. Opener> Bello

5. Sandoval/ Suarez (looking scary questionable)

7>>>. Draw straws among Burgos, Paez and non 40 guys Wehunt, Ziehl & Holobetz

I think Gamboa could be a better depth than the 7s you are suggesting. 

[moonslav59]

2 minutes ago, iortiz said:

Correct me if I'm wrong, he began with all these injuries this year or since when?

Granted that catchers rarely play 150-155+ games, but here is his GS totals:

146 2023 is career high (110 C/ 46 DH)

141 2024 (103 C/45 DH)

84 2025 (73 C/ 18 DH)

61 2026 (49 C/12 DH)

 

[mvp 78]

8 minutes ago, iortiz said:

Correct me if I'm wrong, he began with all these injuries this year or since when?

Injuries have steamrolled on him since the start of last season. His mediocre play has been since the start of 24. 

[moonslav59]

2 minutes ago, iortiz said:

I think Gamboa could be a better depth than the 7s you are suggesting. 

He'd need to be stretched out, and it's September.

He's been used in relief and as an opener, this year, but he does have a career as a starter.

In 2025, he started 19 of 19 games in Korea (3.58) and 2 of 8 games at AAA(4.19)

In 2024, he started 12 of 22 games (3.30)

In 2023, he started just 3 of 37 games at AA/AAA (3.66)

[moonslav59]

6 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

Injuries have steamrolled on him since the start of last season. His mediocre play has been since the start of 24. 

.709 in 2024 is mediocre, but a 3.4 bWAR is pretty good. fangraphs agrees (1.8 fWAR in '24 is 18th to 20th best) 

It was a big gamble by Brez.

Mead was too.

Brez is certainly no paralyzed with indecisiveness Bloom.

[mvp 78]

13 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

.709 in 2024 is mediocre, but a 3.4 bWAR is pretty good. fangraphs agrees (1.8 fWAR in '24 is 18th to 20th best) 

It was a big gamble by Brez.

Mead was too.

Brez is certainly no paralyzed with indecisiveness Bloom.

IMO, bref really overstates defense in their calculation of WAR. 

Connor Wong 2023: 2.2 bWAR, 0.3 fWAR

[moonslav59]

25 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

IMO, bref really overstates defense in their calculation of WAR. 

Connor Wong 2023: 2.2 bWAR, 0.3 fWAR

I'm big on catcher defense value, so I think it's somewhere in between on fWAR and BWAR with catchers.

[iortiz]

Nice inning by Sandoval. Looking good, let's see if it's sustainable. 

[SPLENDIDSPLINTER]

Gasper. Looks like the Sox found themselves a #1 catcher.

[iortiz]

If this is close, say through the 7th, we have a good chance against their BP. Not sure whether Muñoz is available. 

[Bailey_Fox]

Terrible send by 3rd base coach.  Wasted an inning.

[jad]

Ah yes, red sox baserunning.  I'd almost forgotten.

[iortiz]

This 3B coach is a clown. Sending Gasper in a weak and shallow hit? Really?

[Bailey_Fox]

Wong. Jesus Christ. Just DFA yourself already.

[iortiz]

Wong is useless. He can't hit, field, catch, block and throw. It's unbelieveble we passed on Rodgers.