Beaneater

Rafi is an assassin.

No, the "13-year old Dominican boy" is the best part about this!

Bogaerts' shot was hammered. Devers' was fired from a frickin' cannon. That ball went directly from the bat to the stands without passing through any of the points of space in between!

Devers first. Then Holt, who got a lot of practice hugging JD last year.

I've got to go with Rich Garces.

It's Pomeranz vs. Buchholz tonight in the Jays/Giants game. I find that interesting!

YEEEEEEESSSSSS!!! 4:21 AM here but this was worth staying up for!

You will be in a couple of minutes... I hope.

So glad it's not a one run lead right now...

I'm thinking Pearce, Price, and Kinsler as co-MVPs.

3 good hits was enough for JBJ to get MVP!

If all holds, Prce will be MVP. Either Pearce or Price, either one will do.

9th in fWAR this year. He's good – not "easily top 5" good. Anyway, I don't think he'd do well in Boston (understatement alert).

Here's a random thought re: possibly facing the Brewers in the WS. The Brewers are very shift-happy – the shiftiest team in the NL. The Red Sox hit it everywhere. Just look at our big inning in ALCS Game 5 for one example: Moreland oppo 2B, Kinsler oppo 1B, Devers oppo HR. It's been obvious from day 1 that you can't shift JD, but really at this point you can hardly shift anyone in our lineup. Mookie will beat you the other way, as will Bogie, JBJ, Moreland, Devers... So if we face the Brewers, we're either going to see them continue to play shifts even though we'll probably make them pay for it, or they'll have to (partially/mostly) abandon one of their commonest defensive strategies. I like both of those options!

As cp said, unless the video I saw was a fake, it was pretty clearly off the wall. How clearly? 85+%, I'd say. His glove lightly hitting the wall at almost zero velocity (since he was at the top of his leap) can't make the whole panel shimmy violently like that. Plus the ball apparently changes direction before settling into the glove, although that is less clear. . That said, I couldn't be happier that this is an entirely moot point. Thanks, Steve Pearce, JBJ, and the Sox pitching staff! With a special shout-out to Robert "Insert Joke About Hitting People Here" Osuna! EDIT: Obviously this is one of those Yanni/Laurel things.

Me too, Moon. Well, not always, but for some years now. When I was younger, my favorite was Jim Ed, as you might infer from my avatar. JBJ checks the South Carolina box (the state where I was born) by having attended college in SC, which is not quite as good as Jim Ed actually being from SC, but still. And defense trumps offense for me personally, so watching JBJ gliding around CF and making the impossible look routine is about as good as it gets. Love to see him doing well. May he have many more ABs with the sacks packed this postseason!

How did I miss the Brasier vs. Sanchez kerfuffle in ALDS Game 2? That was pretty epic. I think Sanchez understood pretty well what Brasier was saying to him – did you see his swing on strike 3? He swung so hard that he stumbled and almost lost his balance. Of course, that giant swing also meant that he was about a half-hour late on the 97-mph fastball. But he was clearly trying to hit it to the mid-Atlantic region. Fun moment.

Shin-Soo Choo!

Good point. There might still be some really specific game situations where an AL manager would crunch the numbers and decide that it's still better to chuck the pitcher into (say) RF for one batter. But he'd have to be a real iconoclast to try it, especially if, as you say, Girardi has already done it and had it blow up in his face.

Couldn't agree more, notin. EDIT: And while we're at it, wasn't there going to be some sort of emphasis on getting and keeping batters in the box this year? All this hoo-hah of calling time, stepping out, adjusting the gloves, ordering a pizza, stepping back in, receiving the pizza, etc. – it gets pretty old.

Hi Bellhorn. In what way do you see limiting pitching changes as being unfair? I'd like to hear you unpack that a bit. I have always liked the idea of stashing a pitcher in RF (or wherever) for one or two batters. I find that elegant somehow. The idea of pitchers learning to play a little bit of outfield isn't all bad either!

I've been thinking about pitching changes. Frankly, there are too many of them. It may be good strategy to change pitchers so often, but it's not good entertainment, and that's what baseball is in the end. Having numerous commercial breaks in the tense late innings ruins the flow of the game and could reasonably be imagined to annoy people who might otherwise be fans. And baseball needs fans. So, while I know that MLB will never make any major rule changes regarding the way pitchers are used, I thought it'd be fun to spitball an idea intended to improve the game. That's what a baseball talk site is for, right? The strong form of the proposed change: No voluntary mid-inning pitching changes. None. The only exception would be for injury, and in that case the removed pitcher would be required to go on the DL. The medium-strength version: Managers get one mid-inning pitching change per game. They have to choose wisely when to use it. The weak version: Mid-inning pitching changes get no warm-up pitches, no commercial break, no major interruption to the flow of the game. When the manager takes the ball from his pitcher's hand, the reliever has (say) 75 seconds to get on the mound and throw a pitch. Again, I know that MLB is realistically not going to make any major changes to its rules here. But do you think these would be improvements? Deteriorations? Do you have other propositions?

The Braves are sitting back with a very satisfied smile on their face right now.

For example, the Rockies were on a hellacious roll in 2007. Then they weren't.

Interleague at NL stadium = Porcello batting = game over.