jung

I don't even know that I want to mention this but here goes: I don't believe in throwing at somebodies head either. There have been particular nut case pitchers over the entire long history of baseball that have thrown at the head but they are so rare its not even worth talking about. Usually pitchers that hit somebody in the head are throwing up and in and a pitch gets away from them. Its not intentional, virtually never intentional especially in the modern era. Having been drilled in this particular spot before, if a pitcher wants to send a message and stay completely away from the head forget hitting the player in the butt. If you get drilled in the side under the heart or around the liver (depending on what side you bat from) it takes your breadth away. Been hit there more than once and and even if you are not hit just right, if you are drilled it really hurts. The boring two seam inside tends to get under the arm and into your rib cage and you can't get out of the way of it because it keeps boring in on you. If you are drilled just right and it does take your breadth away, you think you are going to die for about a second. But, you will be OK which sort of is the idea right. You will however know you have been drilled for a couple days afterward. The pitcher is truly "sending a message" with that pitch. You are for the most crawling not walking to first base to take your base. But as I have said before, Manny is a different case. If the team he plays for keeps playing him at Short given Manny's antics around the bags and with the bat, some player might be just crazy enough (as crazy as Manny is) to get him that way. Somebody is going to careen not into the blocking leg at 2nd base but into that locked knee he hangs out there that he is no longer agile enough to get out of the way. Completely legal slide based on today's rules.

If you want to have some fun, Chris Russo's High Heat show on MLB Network has a WS Sunday edition that just started (3:00 ET). The top of Russo's head just came off. He is so mad at Roberts for his managing. He is screaming his lungs out, even beyond Russo standard. He is not claiming it as a Red Sox thing. He has been picking the Sox from the start. Russo just wants to see more WS and he thinks Roberts is cheating him out of it. "I don't want to go back to Connecticut. I WANT TO GO TO BOSTON." The production crew tried to break him for commercial and he would have none of it. Just went on screaming. The whole show might be just like this.

If the teams he plays for keep posting him up at Shortstop he is going to get more than drilled. He should hope for a drilling if they keep playing him at Short.

I have seen this posted a good deal and in fact, we don't really know that. We don't know how Hill and Roberts communicate with each other. We don't know one single thing about the professional relationship between them. Just because the way they communicate with each other might not conform to what we have grown used to "seeing" but not experiencing between manager and pitcher does not mean that Hill tagged himself out. Frankly, I am more surprised that Roberts said anything about it to the media. I grow less impressed with him by the minute.

Cora had to hold the fort until the Sox got Hill out of the game. It was as simple as that. If Hill had a bionic arm he would still be blowing the Sox away this morning, tonight, whenever. We have no shot at hitting Hill...no shot...never had a shot. Hill's only real failing in this series is that his stuff is curvaceous but weak which would encourage fly balls to Fenway LF here in Boston. So that is the answer to somebody's question from last night. Why not Hill for more starts in this series? Can't really use him in Fenway or if you do you are asking for it. So that is why IMO Cora erred in leaving Erod to pitch to Puig with something like 85 pitches on Erod's arm. Since when does Erod have more pitches than that in his arm. His velocity was already down at that point to just over 90. Just hold the fort Alex until you can get Hill out of the game. Fortunately the Sox came all the way back against their pen. That said, that brings us back to one of the other hero's of this series, Eo. Eo saved our pen in game 3 while Roberts had to use his and the goons Roberts used in Game 3 were if anything less capable in game 4. Madson has come in to 7 inherited runners and all of them have scored just as an example! Imagine his bar conversations over a drink after this series. "Hey, how many inherited runners scored off you in the 2018 WS?" "All of them" Eo has been a monster...just a monster.

I am wondering if Kimbrel's issues are not with his pitches themselves or if opponents have picked something up about his Slider. I am remembering the Ryu game against the Brewers in Milwaukee where they were just picking apart his early count Sliders like they were just nothing, drilling them all over the lot and completely comfortable and doubt free in the batters box. Last night, the Dodgers were either spitting on Kimbrel's Slider or conversely crushing it ala' the Hernandez bomb that was just blasted out of Dodger Stadium. At any rate whether they were spitting on it or blasting it they were doing it looking like they knew it was coming...just completely comfortable that they were going to take it or blast it. That looks like tipping to me just as much as Ryu's looked like he was tipping his in Milwaukee.

Slightly off topic but I gave up on Buck/Smoltz between Games 3 and 4. Watched 4 muted last night and will do the same for 5.

Don't forget six outs from Kelly

Wonderful win...and THAT ladies and Gentlemen is a baseball game!

Devers can go arm side. Thank God.

I hate runs before we even record one stinking f***ING OUT

Told ya...Maeta is vulnerable first hitter out of the pen.

Well we only need one guy to get to Maeta. He can be had first batter he faces and that is all we need.

Did you guys see that. Dodger fan with a blank stare off into space. Sox fan chewing on his hat. Priceless shot.

Have no complaints with Nunez on that one. That was a good pitch for him to hit and he just missed it.

I am really surprised Kelly is still throwing good secondaries at 20+ pitches.

Where they usually fall on the warning track. Going oppo is the best thing Beni could have done. Now he has to generate a bit more power oppo as he continues to develop and he will be fine. People have to stop expecting this diaper dandies to come up as anything like complete ballplayers. Thats once a decade!

Madson.....Roberts probably has a stomach ulcer with his name on it just from the last couple weeks.

Hitters actually frown on guess hitting. It really is a practice for guys with no talent as far as real hitters are concerned. Thats why Catchers tend to be good guess hitters. Because generally they.....have no talent at the plate. But Hill forces you to be a guess hitter. You really have no choice and if you reject that MO, he will kill you...just kill you.

Getting erod out ahead of Turner is a valid complaint as well. Turner is a monster. But keeping erod in for Puig is criminal.

What do you think the 28th best curveball hitting team in baseball would be doing with Hill tonight...beating him up? Hill only has the best Curve in baseball. I am more irritated with how we handled Buehler last night...not at all. Heck the way Hill is going he could pitch out the series and not break a sweat.

Hill CAN flip his Cu/FB %'s. Kershaw can't

Hill was always going to be problematic. You don't go from 29th against LH curveball hurlers to suddenly potent in the WS. We let Buehler mesmerize us last night and walked right into a true buzzsaw of spinning curves tonight. Cora had to keep this one close until he could get Hill out of the game and he didn't do it.

Now Cora really has me confused. Went balls to the walls with one arm tied behind his back last night only to likely have given this game away tonight.

That is on Cora, not erod. He gave us all he had. No business pitching to Puig there.