Beaneater

Well, good night all. It's 1 AM here and I have to hit the hay. I'll be hoping for good results in the morning.

So basically our team was just hypnotized into becoming the Bad News Bears. Nice.

I think this is pretty likely. This one is far, far, far from over.

Can someone explain the defensive blunders to poor me who is not watching the game?

Welcome back, Jed.

Ellsbury was on first. That's scoring position for him. He's actually in scoring position even when he's on deck.

I really hate fielder's indifference when the other team gets a base runner in the 9th inning. Throw the dang guy out at second! I don't get the point of offering teams a RISP for free, plus losing a force out at second. What's the worst that could happen if you try to throw him out? The catcher chucks the ball into CF and the runner goes to third. Pretty unlikely (unless Cervelli is behind the dish), and really, who cares? You're giving him second anyway. You're saying that you don't care if that run scores or not, so what's the difference between a runner at 2B and a runner at 3B? Just for once I want to see the final out made on a CS when some lumbering DH takes off for second just assuming that the catcher will be "indifferent". That would be like sweet sweet honey. On a personal note, I leave for Africa in a week and will probably be pretty inactive for the next three years (not that I've been setting posting records in the year I've been back in the States). It's been fun to lurk and occasionally post. Blessings on you all, and go Sox!

I love that we burned a good chunk of their bullpen in the first game of the series. Yeah, some of them were probably garbage-timers, but it's still good. Their 7th inning bullpen implosion was so powerful that it caused a small black hole near second base. Miller still needs to work on the control (he could have put himself in line for the win if he hadn't walked someone right before the homer), but not bad, really. Reddick > Cameron. Gonzalez > most teams total value combined.

By the way, did any one else notice that Jacoby is an unstoppable force of nature? Just checking.

Toronto was 0-for-7 with RISP. Buchholz rules.

Turned out OK despite the bad precedents. Whew!

I totally agree. I'd rather see Stolmy Pimentel here than Paps.

Put it out of reach, Lowrie.

Which puts him on track for what? 150 odd? Crunch crunch crunch (the sound of crunching numbers)... 147. That's still pretty nasty.

That's pretty much how it's supposed to work. I like it!

And now we will bludgeon you with our mighty infield singles!

Buchholz says, "Ah, three outs, four outs, it doesn't matter to me. There will be no scoring on my watch." I like this guy.

Didn't A-Rod end last night's game, too? That's a trend I could grow to love.

OK, now I'm shaking hands with first place.

Hello, first place.

Absolutely true. They deserve to get Bucknered here.

If we had 8 more Ellsburys our team would be unbeatable.