jung

Not sure how much of the Fox Ball Washing of the Astros I can take. If this gets out of control I am likely going to find some old movie to watch.

Well this is going well.

But Betts let balls drop in front of him in CF and JD threw the ball into the ground from RF costing us a run. JD DOES NOT belong in RF in this park. Worse, the Astros challenged JD out there. They knew there was a good chance they could beat him in that situation. Betts is not a good CFer and Beni is worse. So they are sort of stuck unless you want a team that depends on its rotation giving up runs from having guys that stumble around in the OF. As bad as Beni is in CF, IMO, in this park Beni is a better CFer than JD is a RFer and Mookie is the GG RFer who is very very good in one of the most difficult RF's in baseball. So, if you have to play JD in the field he should go to LF, Beni to CF and Mookie stays in RF. Still my preference is Beni in LF, JBJ in CF and Mookie in RF. We win games based on the strength of our Rotation and you cannot just give up runs on goofy s*** in the OF when you win games based on the strength of your Rotation. Heck Cora gave up about 18 games at the start of the season for this Rotation. Sort of tells you what he thinks is the most important component of this team. Cole controlled our best hitters tonight. Not that much of a surprise. A guy that good can and will do that to you sometimes. So name for me the guys that were in the lineup because JBJ was out that helped us score runs....Nunez??.....My butt end. Good luck making that argument.

Might be time to bring some guys up for the pen at this point. Cora is simply doing too much trying to play to Barnes and Brasier late and I am not even convinced he should have that much confidence in Brasier. Cora is stretching his starters all too often now and in truth, with having to give Hembree and Work clean innings for the most part, as many guys as there are out there in the pen, he really has two "dependable arms", Walden and Barnes. Now that I think about it, not sure Cora has built much confidence in Walden yet late in games with ducks on the pond.

Well, if you don't expect low scoring games when facing a team that can pitch as you can, you will be disappointed. If we get to the post season we will face teams like this one. Teams in fact like us. Teams that can pitch like the dickens that can control the opponents hitting for most of the game, just as Cole did and just as Rick did. Good pitching beats good hitting.

Its possible that Cora and staff are giving JBJ some time to try to work things out as a hitter. This time at least to my eye, his issues are not so much a crap swing as much as he is swinging at everything. If he hits something its because he has run into it. Plus JBJ is so darned stubborn, if you sit him to "work on his hitting" I don't think he does any more than what he wants to do. I don't see him ever breaking out of the doesn't hit, doesn't hit, doesn't hit, hits for a week or two pattern.

Except this team is STILL built around its rotation. As long as that is the case, they need a superior defensive CFer, a superior defensive catcher and a superior defensive Shortstop. With Vaz and X in the lineup, two out of three of them would be hitting. You just have to carry JBJ's bat, like it or not.

Yup, your best CFer (GG there) is on the bench and your best RFer (GG there) who does not play a good CF is......well.....in CF and your DH who sometimes looks like a young buck trying to grow into his legs out there looks like it again. JD should be in LF if in the field in this park.

I almost think Correa wanted to stay in the AB and swung at ball 4 on purpose. Did not swing at ball 5.

Looks like a puddle out on the mound AGAIN.

I honestly don't know. These guys hit even minor pitching mistakes, never mind major pitching mistakes.

Up to 94 when he left. The Astros are very very tough and the top of their order is just ridiculous even without Altuve. It is what it is.

Won't be long before Sandy is back though and I would still like to see Vaz with ERod, Rick and Price and Sandy with Chris and Nate once Nate is back.

If it were me choosing, I would have Vaz catch Price as well. Erod and Rick have to sort through a few options early in starts and Vaz seems better suited to that. Chris does not feel his way into anything. He is doing what he is doing PERIOD. While Nate is not the pitcher that Chris is that is really the way Nate pitches also. He is going to do what he does and in his case, he can either find the plate with it or he can't. But he is doing what he is doing. Sandy just seems to be better at handling pitchers that have that approach as opposed to pitchers that have to feel their way along early or pitchers that have to be coaxed to have confidence in this pitch or that pitch early in their starts.

I posted at the end of a recent game thread that I thought when Nate comes back, Cora should try Vaz with Rick and use Sandy with Chris and Nate. Price would maybe be a toss up. Still think that would make sense.

At some point teams are going to put 7 guys in RF on Vaz. But until then....whoopee!!!!!!!!

Stepping to the ball always pays off in the end. Not stepping to the ball usually ends in grief. You are not even in a good position to throw the damned thing if you don't step to it. But Rafi has at least cut his mistakes down to a couple noticeable categories, the lazy or the stupid. I think he will cure those.

When you are in LF or RF the ball is often "carving" off the bat and there is seldom an issue figuring out where its going. Balls to CF are more often just flat pounded out there, sometimes right at the CFer and it is an order of magnitude harder getting an actual read on where its going. Kiermaier on that ball Chavis hit a couple weeks ago comes to mind. I one time had a ball hit on a line absolutely right at my nose in CF and it never moved off line and never was more than 8'-10' off the ground but had not even hit the top of its arc all the way out to where I was. It was a bad sun day and I could not pick up the seams either. it never carved either way. I was already deep for the hitter as he was a hitting machine and big. Thought I had it because I was deep to begin with and the thing went maybe two feet over my head like a rocket ship. I mean that thing was moving! The pitcher near s*** as it was only a bit over and to the side of his head at the mound. It was about as embarrassing for me as Canseco having the ball bounce off his noggin into the seats for a HR because it was a play I should have made. Asked the pitcher when we got back if he needed to change his drawers. He asked me if i had my eyes checked lately....good natured of course and we both deserved the ribbing. Heck to that point it was the hardest hit ball I had ever had hit at me...even harder than some HR's. So I had to let him know that his pitch had been absolutely CRUSHED!

Mookie does not read balls hit to CF as well as JBJ does. in fact that is one of the things that distinguishes a CF. The balls the CFer has to make plays on are harder to read than the balls hit to LF or RF. Mookie goes back to CF OK. Not great, but OK. Coming in is an issue for him.

Well Cole decided not to mess around with Beni.

Interesting start for Rick who usually has a "probing" first inning. That would not be a great plan here. 1. George Springer ® DH 2. Alex Bregman ® 3B 3. Michael Brantley (L) LF 4. Carlos Correa ® SS 5. Josh Reddick (L) RF 6. Yuli Gurriel ® 1B 7. Aledmys Diaz ® 2B 8. Robinson Chirinos ® C 9. Jake Marisnick ® CF 1. Andrew Benintendi (L) LF 2. Mookie Betts ® CF 3. J.D. Martinez ® RF 4. Mitch Moreland (L) 1B 5. Xander Bogaerts ® SS 6. Rafael Devers (L) 3B 7. Michael Chavis ® 2B 8. Christian Vazquez ® C 9. Eduardo Nunez ® DH

Had it all the way.

Rockies really struggling with the Fenway OF

In defense of the Rockies on that, the ball has a tendency to come back to the field against that LF foul wall even when the breeze is neutral. No telling where that ball looked like it was headed to guys not used to playing in what is truly a dangerous piece of OF in Fenway.

Is there a large enough ambulance to take care of that disaster in LF?