jung

a miracle.....Hembree comes on with ducks on the pond and gets an out before the bad guys get a run.

I am willing to bet that part of Rafi's problem is that he swings at so many lousy pitches to hit. The bad ball hitter that can drive the ball (I mean really drive it) is rare. We have had them in MLB. But they are really a rare breed. Vlad Guerrero might be the best I ever say along with Yogi Berra. There is a heck of a gap between those two guys.

Funny how X has turned into the guy that can really hurt a pitcher in a situation like this.

The 1st base ump might have had the best look at that.

Heck, Beane would not even take 3/4 of the infield and all their backups for Chapman. Neither would I.

Erod does not give himself a reason to talk himself out of a good inning and has one. The guy is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma because you can't really figure out why he has no confidence in his stuff. The only thing you can count on is that once he works himself into a jam he will choke up some nothing ball that is lucky not to be hit to Mars.

I don't see that hitch anymore and have not seen it since that bloop single to LF he got a few games ago. I think he has resigned himself to the power either coming or not and is back to something that resembles his normal swing instead of trying to find some added juice hitting the ball.

Good question! I would say its JBJ. He is stubborn as a mule and even tells you if you ask. To me Erod just has no confidence in anything and then when he gets in a jam squeezes the ball too hard and just throws a nothing pitch. Does not even matter which pitch he chooses. Can throw a nothing FB, nothing Slider, nothing Change. I can't really verify that from anything other than experience. But I would bet anything he tenses up and squeezes it too hard resulting in a nothing pitch.

God have we seen this story before. Nibbles, nibbles, nibbles not trusting his stuff. Could have started every pitch in his repertoire right at the middle of the plate and they would have broken off enough to be tough pitches. Then chocks up a nothing Slider with two ducks on the pond.

Erod back to not trusting his stuff. 0-2 to BB's twice in a row and he is shaking Vaz off something fierce.

Chavis to 1st base. Lin to 2nd. JD back as DH.

1. Marcus Semien ® SS 2. Matt Chapman ® 3B 3. Stephen Piscotty ® RF 4. Khris Davis ® DH 5. Chad Pinder ® LF 6. Kendrys Morales (S) 1B 7. Ramon Laureano ® CF 8. Jurickson Profar (S) 2B 9. Josh Phegley ® C 1. Andrew Benintendi (L) LF 2. Mookie Betts ® RF 3. J.D. Martinez ® DH 4. Xander Bogaerts ® SS 5. Rafael Devers (L) 3B 6. Michael Chavis ® 1B 7. Jackie Bradley Jr. (L) CF 8. Christian Vazquez ® C 9. Tzu-Wei Lin (L) 2B

Man have you got that right......lol

Is there a peek season for getting their heads screwed on straight? In fact there is and its called Spring Training. Is Devers suddenly going to turn into a decent fielder this year? Doubt it....why should he. Is Chavis going to turn into a decent 2nd baseman. Doubt it....he has too much development time ahead of him at that position even if they want him to play 2nd. Yet with Devers not even threatening the fences can they take Chavis bat out of the lineup? But I cannot put all this on the players individually or in total. The entire organization has set itself up for this. Funny how this Pedey thing is working out. They went from having 3 guys to cover the position (Pedey, Nunez and Holt) to no guys covering the position forcing them to bring up a AA player that really is not a capable or even schooled 2nd baseman. Bad enough that the obvious defensive liabilities are mucking things up but the guys we are depending on are simply not doing any better. Giving away bases turns into giving away runs and the offense has not really shown that it is coming around as yet. All these other teams are playing in the same cold we are playing in. Do we somehow think their bats won't heat up with warmer weather? They have a chance to crawl back into contention, get to the final 5 and win out to the ALCS. I seriously doubt they are capable of winning this division this year with the Yanks and Rays in it. Realistically, they have to get past one of them just to get to the final 5.

They would have to go on a couple of long winning streaks to get back in this thing combined with a few collapses. I can see teams collapsing. I just don't see this team going on long winning streaks. They are still playing poorly fully 28 games into the regular season. Bad enough they were playing poorly at 10% of the season completed. We are soon to be playing poorly at 20% of the season completed. If you told me before the season started that I saw a way for this team to be kept from the final 5 teams vying for an ALCS i would have told you that was crazy. Now....not so much.

Well he doesn't belong at 2nd base....Message to Devers....Message to Devers.

This is why Hembree needs to come into clean innings like this. I will bet the mortgage that if he had com in with ducks on the pond it would have gone about like that....if anything WORSE!

Well here I have a bright spot for us. These Sox games go by in what for them is a flash these days. What are they, 2:08 going into the top of the 9th! Since when??

JBJ asks for a compass so he can find 2nd base.

Sale has shown this year that he does have better FB's in him than he shows start to start. I will say it again. IMO where Cora missed is that he thought his everyday players would carry his rotation through this "save the staff" idea. NOT!!!!!! He needed the Rotation to carry the everyday players through their period of adjusting to all the 2018 hardware they are carrying around. Now the whole thing looks like Titanic - Iceberg as fat dumb and happy everyday players are now down in the mouth. So they went from fat dumb and happy to down in the mouth except for Rafi who still has no earthly idea what is going on. Its all just too much fun to Rafi.

Honestly I did not want them to sign Pearce. Was OK with Nat...No on Pearce. Now we could say I was out to lunch on Nat. But I did not see any sense to giving Pearce money.

I wonder if the Pedey situation has gotten to this team a bit also. They carried him all last year doing nothing. This year they basically clear the decks for him as if Nunez (who can't play 2nd to save his life) and Holt (who doesn't play anywhere for very long) behind Pedey was a good plan. How much did that plan look a little like carrying Pedey just too far to the team in general. The whole organization has looked a bit fat dumb and happy so far this year.

Get outta' Garin's way kid. Nobody wants to look at you.

Struck the whole team last time. That Coyle giveaway was unconscionable. Nobody but nobody makes a blind pass from the corner across in front of his goalie. My God it would have been better if the puck went straight across the goal crease. As it was every guy in a white sweater had a shot at that puck.

Boy this is looking like a serious weekend face plant. We lose to the Rays. The Bruins treat the puck like it had the measles last night..."geez I don't want to touch that thing" and we suck again today.