SoxFanForsyth

By my count, that's 19 different players hitting the DL. In 2012, the Red Sox had 24. Next.

The favor will be returned. On September 29th, 2013. Precisely 2 years and 1 day after they did it to us. How do I remember the exact day? Well of course, September 28th is my birthday.

These games still have a ton of meaning. The Sox need to win the best record so they don't have to face the Tigers in a short series. Last night the A's lost, so the Sox could have built their lead to 3.5 games with 9 to play. This series seems like a "let down" series after the NYY - TB - NYY series. Kind of like a college football or basketball team, when they play a huge game against a big opponent, they get all hyped up for it, get a huge win, and then they play some garbage team the next week and lose. That's exactly how this feels.

Yeah.....see they haven't lost 2 in a row since August 15-16. They're 10-6 in extra innings. They're 21-19 in 1-run games. So basically everything you just said is wrong.

On a side note, I'm going to the game on Friday, so I fully expect the Sox to clinch the division that day. Win today, win Friday, Rays lose one of those. Done and done.

Yes, pls.

Man. Peavy's new 3-quarter arm slot is making his fastball run like crazy.

A win tonight eliminates Baltimore from the AL East.

Fine, if nobody else wants to take it, I'll make the gamethread that starts the streak of wins leading to the AL East title. Thank you very much. Peavy vs Chen. Middlebrooks and Napoli both go deep tonight. Win. Also, BEARD NIGHT AT FENWAY!

So who is your game one starter? It's clearly either Lester or Buchholz. Argument for Lester: He's been outrageously good in the 2nd half, posting a 2.38 ERA and limiting his walks to 2.14 per 9 in the 2nd half. On top of that, he's only gotten better of late, posting a 1.86 ERA over his last 8 starts, albeit with a 2.48 BB.9. Also, he's going deep into games, averaging over 7.1 IP per start, so he's getting at least 1-2 outs in the 8th inning on average. He's also been healthy all season, and isn't needing to ramp up his innings like Buchholz is. In terms of potential playoff matchups: - Lester vs the Rays has 3 great outings (totaling 20.1 IP, 5 ER) and 1 very bad outing (4.2 IP, 7 ER). The poor outing came in June when he was really scuffling. -Against Cleveland, 14 IP, 6 ER. -Against TEX, 12 IP, 6 ER. Arguments for Buchholz As good as Lester has been, if Buchholz was healthy all season, this wouldn't even be an argument. It's Buchholz, and it's not close. Buchholz has to show that he's both healthy and can pitch to the same effectiveness as he did early on. He has had excellent results so far, but his mechanics certainly seemed off against the Yankees. Still, though, he absolutely dominated the Rays in his first start back, and showed that even without his best stuff he can still keep runs off the board. On top of that, he's made 14 starts, and has allowed more than 2 ER in just 1 (!!!!!) of those starts. Think about that for a second. In terms of potential playoff match ups: -Vs TB, Buch has been dominant, 13 IP, 0 ER, 5 Hits allowed. Goodness. -Has not faced Cleveland. -Has not faced Texas. I also think it's useful to get the opponents splits to see how well they fare against LHP as opposed to RHP. Vs Lefties, the Guardians (#1 in both), the Rays (#4 in wRC+, #5 in OPS), and the Rangers (#10 in wRC+, #6 in OPS) all rank as the best, or at the very least in the top 10 in wRC+ and top 6 in OPS. Vs Righties, the Rays (#5 in wRC+, #8 in OPS) are the best of the 3, while the Guardians (12th in wRC+, 17th in OPS), and the Rangers (12th in OPS, 16th in wRC+) both struggle pretty badly against RHP. So, it appears all 3 teams hit lefties pretty well, and the only team of the 3 that hits RHP well (the Rays) gets shut down against Buchholz every time. It's a no brainer to me. Buchholz should get game 1, provided he continues to progress like he has in his first 2 games back.

Gotta keep playing hard. Absolutely need to have the best record in the AL, and the A's are only 2 back in the L column. Do NOT want to have a short series against the Tigers

Seem to turn a corner = Playing the Orioles, Twins, etc. Followed by pathetic performance = Playing the Red Sox.

SFF at the game mojo. I was also at yesterday's game, so the mojo is positive

It's extremely rare that players come up and hit their straps immediately. Usually you have guys like Pedroia, Trout, Kemp, etc. Just about every single guy you look up, he had around 50 games his first year and struggled.

The only way for him to get 'ready' is to take his lumps against MLB pitching.

He's a rookie. To expect him to not have a learning curve is just ignorant.

This is kind of ridiculous.

Wow, that's the 3rd grand slam the Sox have hit against the Yanks

Wow Jacko. Best call of the year

Yep. 50% GIDP, 50% K

This is inexcusable.

Like I said. We have nobody who can put out fires Nobody.

Add Breslow to the goat list

This is on Carp and Middlebrooks.

Runs pls.