jung

An 8 pitch inning from a guy with 31 walks in 71 innings. Nicely done fellas. Real nice lead off AB Beni.

JD should be batting 3rd.... I can't judge why Cora is doing this other than favoring LRLR at the top of the order and I honestly don't think it matters in this lineup today. Rafi Devers does nothing to help JD see pitches he can drive out. Moreland does. THE END. Then again Cora could be counting on the incredible stupidity of batteries these days. How or why JD got a nothing Change, a clear mistake that he could drive out to RCer field is a total mystery. Never should have gotten a change that was anywhere near a strike much less one that was a mistake Change. They should have just shown JD the Change in order to speed up the FB if anything and even with that, it was dumb as dirt. I can understand hitting in the contemporary MLB. I might not agree with some of it. But I can understand it. I don't understand a single thing about how batteries pitch to hitters any longer in MLB. It is an absurdity and we are no better at it. Sale who seems to pitch his own game is the exception. Price is something of an exception. The rest of them do the same stupid s***.

1. Andrew Benintendi (L) LF 2. Xander Bogaerts ® SS 3. Mitch Moreland (L) 1B 4. J.D. Martinez ® DH 5. Rafael Devers (L) 3B 6. Brock Holt (L) 2B 7. Jackie Bradley Jr. (L) CF 8. Blake Swihart (S) RF 9. Sandy Leon (S) C

It is just hard to adjust to how God-awful most of the these teams, particularly how bad AL teams are this year. Even knowing to some extent this was coming few of us including me were prepared for this much awfulness at the same time. Though we might not realize it, we already see the business side of baseball trying to retract from the spend-free days of the past. They are ending up with too much money tied up in either players that simply can't stay on the field or when on the field simply cannot perform at anything like the standard predicted for them at this stage of their careers (see Blue Jays, the absolute poster child for this facet of current MLB). MLB has simply become too much a mix of aging stars unable to perform and young guys too young and underdeveloped to perform at a high level over the length of a 162 game schedule. Pitching has adapted by throwing more pitchers into a game each recording on average fewer outs than before. Not sure there is a remedy of any sort for the everyday ballplayer. I predict that the lack of financial support for free agents thought to demand much more money in the 2017-2018 off season is not a one off but the beginning of a trend away from these massive contracts. Baseball can't support them. The product itself does not support them. MLB franchisees have finally I think found the means to once again leverage their positions as owners in their player contract dealings without being successfully charged with collusion.

I think of the pen guys Barnes is the happy surprise. Kelly has been pitching with confidence for a while now. Barnes, not so much until recently. In an odd way the Carson Smith injury might really have helped Barnes as he has been pitching like he feels more settled in his role since Smith went down.

"Geez what are you mad at me for. I didn't hit the darned thing into the bullpen!"

I am forever stunned with the way batteries process AB's these days. Why would you throw JD any change up in that spot and risk throwing one that bad.

JBJ is so caught in the middle of some of his worst swing habits. Homer's with the more definitive step in his swing and K's going back to the double toe tap. Not convinced he really knows when he is doing one or the other.

Funny that did not get down into that corner for Vaz. WS must not be playing that now popular pinched OF we often see now.

Good God nunny

JBJ is much better off with the more pronounced leg kick stepping into his swing. Good that he is back to that. At least it keeps that corkscrew under some control.

1. Andrew Benintendi (L) LF 2. Xander Bogaerts ® SS 3. J.D. Martinez ® DH 4. Eduardo Nunez ® 2B 5. Sam Travis ® 1B 6. Rafael Devers (L) 3B 7. Christian Vazquez ® C 8. Blake Swihart (S) RF 9. Jackie Bradley Jr. (L) CF That just got posted. JD is DH today. Swi in RF with JBJ then Beni in left. Devers still in. Somehow they have to get him off his feet I think.

That was the deal with the devil this organization made.

They are going to play swihart where? THEY don't have any confidence in him. Hanley had to go for a variety of team and financial reasons. Swihart is not still on this team because anybody in management has any confidence in him. So it does not really matter what we might think of him. He is just taking up space and not more than that and when he does play he doesn't do anything. Pedey comes back and gets 2nd base. We want to compel Nunez to 3rd everyday? I don't think we are going to like the looks of that.

At least the Sox were forced (I hope) to prove to themselves that they can't afford to keep swi on this team. You are in trouble when the 25th guy is so useless that it ripples through the rest of the team. They can't get devers out of the lineup and he clearly needs a couple of days. He can't even catch up to FB's anymore. Yet they are forced to play him.

It is truly amazing that JBJ apparently can't even get back to JBJ awful at this point. There does not look like there is an end in sight this time. Pretty sure that the only way he will hit anything at this point is if he runs into it...maybe with his nose!

JBJ can't even get back to usual JBJ awful which is pretty amazing when you think about it.

Devers needs a couple days off and they just can't get him out of the lineup at the moment.

Glad to see Covey out. Don't care who is coming in. Heavy heavy two seam like Lowe used to throw a zillion years ago.

Well that hurt.

Colby is pitching a great game. But he is getting a lot of help from behind home plate too. He is getting pitches called strikes that have taken the chance of hitting him from possible to improbable at best.

Almost back to the top of the order anyway.

Best slider of the night so far. If Sale gets that back foot slider going and continues to mix a two seam I am not sure the WS can score off him at all.

Grrrrrrrrrrr

Anderson tagged out by the LFer.