jung

OF has not been much better.

So I did end up taking my daughter to work listening to the game while in the car. Went in to a store near her work. Came out and the game had turned into double digits time.

There are plenty of good reasons not to drink. However if you are going to: - DO NOT drink gut rot. Its called gut rot for a reason. It rots your gut. Wait till you can afford good liquor if you want to try social drinking - learn how to drink liquor if liquor turns out to be your fancy....and I don't mean just how to tip a glass to your lips although there is actually even a learning curve to that - if you do have the kinds of career demands that were put on me, learn how to drink all day while keeping your head and not losing your senses (doubt that will happen to you at your age) - Don't and I do mean don't mix wine, beer and liquor in a given night....I mean DO NOT....EVER!

At my age, been "poisoning" myself longer than most citizens are going to live. That said I don't recommend it nor do I recommend careers that just about compel it...Glad to say that the expectations for executive drinking are not what they used to be when I had the job. It was on the wain as my retirement was coming into view.

Geezus....these guys are hard to watch right now. Looks like another triple bourbon on the rocks day for me. But I have to take my daughter to work. Gonna' have to tough it out until I get back.

Sox are piling up a bunch of "hope it pays dividends later in the season" chits so far. Lets see....we have: - no work for the starters in ST I guess hoping to extend them through season and post season - Betts having to get used to hitting behind Beni and Beni having to get used to leading off Are there any more of these you have up your sleeve Alex?

Earth to Red Sox....you are down two runs, not one with no outs and the league MVP at the plate. What the frigg are you doing?

Porcello off-speed leaves him...no command. Has to give Davis the only pitch he can hit. Unreal!!

Porcello suckage

That was a s*** pitch on the 0-0

Well at least Rick is to this point in this game extending toward home plate again.

1. Jonathan Villar (S) SS 2. Trey Mancini ® RF 3. Dwight Smith Jr. (L) LF 4. Renato Nunez ® DH 5. Rio Ruiz (L) 3B 6. Chris Davis (L) 1B 7. Hanser Alberto ® 2B 8. Pedro Severino ® C 9. Cedric Mullins (S) CF 1. Andrew Benintendi (L) LF 2. Mookie Betts ® CF 3. Mitch Moreland (L) DH 4. J.D. Martinez ® RF 5. Xander Bogaerts ® SS 6. Steve Pearce ® 1B 7. Rafael Devers (L) 3B 8. Dustin Pedroia ® 2B 9. Christian Vazquez ® C Gametime Temp: 65°F Chance of Precip: 0%

None of the starters came into 2019 ready to pitch. Two will be making their 4th starts of the season coming up. If they can all recover and stop this rotation slide right here they should be fine. The only times I have ever seen ERod pitch with confidence it has been contrived confidence...much like what happened tonight. We would be naive to think Vaz and ERod came up with that 1st inning plan that got ERod launched into his stint tonight. ERod and Vaz got told what they WOULD do tonight, as opposed what the coaching staff wanted them to do. That is what I think they will have to do with ERod for his entire career. One interesting note, the HR that drove ERod from the game is a good example of why for decades they never allowed LH pitchers to throw Changes to LH batters. The Change in that location is meat to the LH hitter. LH pitchers are supposed to get LH batters out. Bad enough when they throw meat to the off handed hitter. You throw meat to the same handed hitter and see it leave like that, its a real painful lesson. Honestly, I think LH pitchers STILL should not throw Changes to LH batters. But what I think won't count for much.

The Sox obviously made ERod pitch to a plan in the 1st inning and that set him up for the rest of his stint. I suspect they are really going to have to do that with him all season...probably going to have to do it for a career. He did throw the most consistent Changeups of any Sox LH Starter thus far this season and that pitch is a must for getting the contemporary RH hitter out as a LH pitcher.

Maybe that 1st inning tells us something about the "plan" ERod and Swi did not follow last time out. Maybe the message to this battery tonight was: "look you two knuckleheads, Vaz, you are not going to put down anything more than 1 finger for the whole 1st inning and you ERod will just establish your four seam for the whole inning. Do I make myself clear!"

Stunning...an old time first inning of pitching.

1. Jonathan Villar (S) 2B 2. Joey Rickard ® RF 3. Trey Mancini ® 1B 4. Renato Nunez ® DH 5. Dwight Smith Jr. (L) LF 6. Hanser Alberto ® 3B 7. Jesus Sucre ® C 8. Richie Martin ® SS 9. Cedric Mullins (S) CF 1. Andrew Benintendi (L) LF 2. Mookie Betts ® RF 3. Mitch Moreland (L) 1B 4. J.D. Martinez ® DH 5. Xander Bogaerts ® SS 6. Rafael Devers (L) 3B 7. Eduardo Nunez ® 2B 8. Jackie Bradley Jr. (L) CF 9. Christian Vazquez ® C

Well Nat was throwing to Swi last night. Whichever one of them (nat or swi) came up with FB in the LH hitter honey hole to Smoak needs his head examined. The second HR that inning was a hideously missed location. That one was all Nat. In between the two Nat apparently shook by the first HR gave up a BB making the 2nd a 2 run dinger. So the first HR could have been on Swi or Nat. The second was all Nat with a BB in between. So how much do we want to blame that on Swi? The Sox might well get something out of Leon that they are not getting out of Vaz or Swi. But these guys simply were not ready to pitch MLB regular season baseball at the start and we should not try to lay that off on the catchers. Tonight's victim is ERod. Will he be able to throw Changes to RH hitters? We have not seen even decent Changes from our 3 LH starters to RH hitters once this year. LHers cannot really get good RH hitters out consistently without a good Change the way the game is played today. Here might be another benchmark for us. Chris Davis has always had that rocking chair swing which is a timing swing. There is no such thing as Chris Davis being able to keep his hands back when he is fooled by offspeed and turning a good pitch by a pitcher into a base hit for himself. When he hits it with that timed rocking chair swing, it goes a long way. Everything else is failure and as more pitchers have developed more offspeed, things have gotten worse for Davis. If Davis finally gets his first hit of the season off of ERod, pack ERod away for another month of the season before he can be relied on. Current season Chris Davis SHOULD NOT break out of his slump against a LH pitcher unless said LH pitcher is utter crap.

Agreed...the starters did not come into the regular season ready to pitch MLB and it shows. That is on them, not the catchers. The starters cannot keep digging these monster holes. The pen has been stout. But when you are down 5-0 the pen has to be perfect and that ain't gonna happen too often. The everyday players are the same everyday players from last year and whether we want to admit it or not they came from behind lots last year or won going into the late innings when tied. That is what they do. They feast on pens. But if your Starters can't keep you close, that is not much of a formula for winning games. Right now, not a single one of the Starters has kept them close. Price has come the closest and that one gutsy start from Sale where we lost 1-0. The rest of the starts they have gotten shelled and some of them are onto their 3rd-4th times getting shelled. That has to stop.

I can't argue with you there. Devers is never ever in an athletic position to field the baseball. He is never even on the balls of his feet unless X comes over and tells him to stop looking like he is waiting for a bus.

Did Devers forget how to play baseball....all of it???? On 3rd with the possibility to tag up you have to be looking at the OFer to see when he catches the ball. You leave instantly at the point of the catch and then pick up the 3rd base coach who will tell you either to keep coming or go back. You don't stand on the bag looking at the 3rd base coach. I don't know what has happened to this kid. I have not seen that much of a tag up f*** up even in HS.

One issue would appear to be that he has not been aggressive enough. Letting good pitches go early in counts and then stuck swinging at pitchers pitches.

Would like to see the play by Moreland again. That looked like it was headed to RF without the play by Mitch.

Just throwing nothing to LH hitters and here comes Smoak again.

In the main we are just getting out-pitched so badly in these games. Opponent pitchers are pitching much tougher to our hitters. Of course Sisters of the Poor would likely out-pitch us so far this season.