jung

Neither pitcher has been that good because neither one thinks he has to throw a strike. Why should they. That is one of the things so frustrating about this brand of baseball. The pitchers don't pitch and the hitters don't hit. I don't care what the HR numbers say. The pitchers don't pitch and the hitters don't hit.

Pitchers throwing way off the plate and hitters swinging out of their shoelaces at that s*** and that is Manfred-ball.

Thank you Erod...good inning

Well OK...that was a good effort by Paxton v Rafi. I suppose I have to admit that. But even a blind pig finds a turnip once and awhile. Lets see if Erod wakes up and discovers he is actually on the mound in Yankee Stadium.

Hysterical....just hysterical. Don Drysdale is spinning in his grave.

Paxton for his part has serious gas and he parses it out like its little slivers of spun gold that he has to hold onto as long as he can and only let out under extreme duress.

Its not even the time between pitches...its what they are throwing and how they are throwing it. The earth worms in my garden have more challenge in them. For God sake these guys are awful.

Somebody please drive one of these two pitchers out of the game. I am not even sure I care which one any more.

I swear to God watching a matchup between ERod and Paxton is like watching paint dry. How does Manfred convince himself that this is exciting baseball....How....what is he watching...the ball girls when they bend over. What...somebody tell me what he is watching.

A bit surprised at that from Paxton although at some point pitchers had to figure out that Travis was hanging out over the plate and taking pitches outside to RF.

This could work out. Paxton may not be able to get Travis out in this spot.

Sad Sack won't pitch to JD

Maybe four 4's with a 5 for a kicker? DD is STILL THRILLED. "What a hand"

Angry Lou went off on the whole "at Fenway" fanbase today. It was pretty funny I must admit.

DD is thrilled! He will tell us tomorrow that he is holding a full house, 5's and 3's.

Earlier this year a number of Red Sox were playing tight but they were playing tight because of their own little whaaaaaa fests: - Mookie was "suffering" over the burden of all his hardware from last year and angst over how he could possibly get by on $20M per - JD was worried about his option - Beni had his own little issue because....."everybody is hitting but me, whaaaaaaaaaaa" - fat f*** Pearce could not even manage to show up, his series MVP weighed on him so - then later in the year Price simply could not resist rising to the bait, had to get back into it with Eck , "whaaaaaa my twitter feed....whaaaaaaa" These are as always, the 25 players, 25 limos Red Sox. The only guys that have shown any ability to play together have ironically enough been the two stars of this particular edition of the Sox, X and Rafi. Anybody that thinks that is some accident (playing TOGETHER and being the stars) needs to think again. Right now, they are so loose, so done I am surprised they can remember what game time is

Oh how I long for the days when I used to growl at a single Porcello in the first inning.

ERod has a well earned reputation for getting a bad case of sphincter-itus when he gets men on base and in scoring position. He becomes desperate to get the 0-0 pitch over to get ahead in the count grips it too hard and tries to nurse it over and most of the league if not the world knows it by now. Nothing unusual in his case. We just have not seen much of it this year because he has been pretty stout and has not faced much of that before the Sox have already given him a cushion of run support.

Not only is LeMa back but I see chrome dome is back in his spot at the bottom of the order.

I hate Paxton. Of course the fact that he is wearing pinstripes puts him at an immediate disadvantage in that category.

This is when Paxton CAN be tough....when he has that Slider working. When its just FB, he's meat.

No its not. The system is now designed to prevent teams like ours from simply steamrolling over the rest of baseball swinging a big monetary wrecking ball. Thats all. In fact, you can still print money to a Series win but now you are gonna' have a heck of a hangover from the celebratory party if you used money as a wrecking ball to get there. But Henry knew that when he hired DD and he knew what DD would do and how he would do it. So OK....now what? Its dynasties and even repeat champions that will be hard to come up with and that are hard to come up with now. Best you probably get is something like SF did a few years ago and what Houston is likely to do in 2017 and possibly this year. As for the players I don't want to see the kind of nonsense I am seeing in these last few games from the players. They are showing signs of caving, crumbling, playing like a bunch of stiffs. Then I want to see the entire organization do a reset for 2020 and come back with an entirely different attitude than they had this year and lets see if we can pull off two wins in alternate years. Beyond 2020, IMO Henry will need somebody other than DD to run Baseball Ops.

1. Mookie Betts ® RF 2. Rafael Devers (L) 3B 3. Xander Bogaerts ® SS 4. J.D. Martinez ® DH 5. Andrew Benintendi (L) LF 6. Sam Travis ® 1B 7. Michael Chavis ® 2B 8. Christian Vazquez ® C 9. Jackie Bradley Jr. (L) CF 1. DJ LeMahieu ® 2B 2. Aaron Judge ® RF 3. Edwin Encarnacion ® 1B 4. Aaron Hicks (S) DH 5. Gleyber Torres ® SS 6. Gio Urshela ® 3B 7. Cameron Maybin ® LF 8. Austin Romine ® C 9. Brett Gardner (L) CF DJ LeM obviously back for the Yankmees and in his usual spot at the top of the order. Be interesting to see if he is gimping around or moving freely. Vaz back for us.

DD's blind spot is relief pitchers v Starters. He might be able to retool for 2020 but he will do it the only way he knows how to do it and that blind spot of his has grown so large that he is standing in the middle of the road and the road grader is about to come along and make him part of the pavement.

This is how old, decrepit and stuck in the mud DD is: - On average, innings from starters is going in the tank. Has been for years. There are a few starters that can go 7 on occasion and thats it. Never mind the starters I grew up with went 7 regularly and completed 1/3rd to half their games. That appears to be done and will STAY DONE for at least 10 years even if approaches to pitching spins on its heels this very minute - Now I don't like how this is going with starters and innings and I particularly don't like the reasons behind it. But if I were a Pres of Baseball Ops my business is not about what I like or don't like. Its about how to build a team that can succeed in the game as it is played in this period. - What does DD do? Relies on his tried and true formula, spending big money on starters right in the face of a watershed shift in ML pitching approach. Worse than that, he had a stay of execution in that you could say that when he first took the job here, there was still time to work it out HIS way. But now that time is waaaaaayyyyy gone. What does he do? He extends struggling Sale to 2024. Leaves us with both Price and Sale in transition and even if their transition efforts succeed, will they be able to go 7 per start. Doesn't look like it. So IMO, if I wanted to buy the argument that DD is learning from his 40 years of experience I would have to see DD enhancing his ability to build pens, something he has never done well and still can't do well and I would have to see him recognizing that he is standing right now in the middle of the road and the road grader is headed straight for him in the way he views starting pitchers as assets and relievers as assets. The road grader is about to make him part of the pavement but DD just keeps on keepin' on as if its 1991 and he is still in Florida with the Marlins.