jung

Geez as tough as Fenway is on LH pitchers this place looks like it could be a graveyard for them.

I do wish we had one more RH starter. Price is not making terrible pitches to their RH hitters. But they not that good pitches, LH pitcher to RH hitter.

lol.......

Yup and I am sure the only reason we are getting it here in New England on Fox is because if Fox continued to broadcast the LPGA in the Sox home market, NESN immediately picks up its broadcast rights and here in NE we would be watching the game on NESN. Fox does not want that to happen. Hence, we are getting the game on Fox in NE. Still pretty much means the same thing with regard to national broadcast rights. LPGA'a contract with Fox gives them the preference. A bit surprised MLB went for that. A little surprised Fox went for that....but only a little.

Man oh man. So that means the LPGA out negotiated MLB for national broadcast rights with Fox???? We are only getting the game here because we are a Red Sox market?? Holy jumpin' Jesus!

And 58 games is called less than half a season. I don't think there was any chance of XB maintaining .358 for a season. But I don't think we will be talking about a disappointing year for XB leading to the demise of the 2018 Red Sox. If the rotation does not step up now that will have us wondering.

.280/.331/.844...not good enough I guess. There are maybe 3-4 guys in the league any year that can compete for MVP, maybe 7-8 that can compete for one of the batting titles, not 7-8 per team.

Speak of the devil. The Astros plunk one off the shallower other end of that stupid thing. MLB will accept anything these days. Any park, any rule, any stupid uni, any stupid promo day, a rocket ship baseball. I used to think I would at least make it to the grave before MLB promoed itself to irrelevance. Not so sure any more.

I suppose its better than the flagpole and the hill they used to have in CF, but that sharp angle going back in the LCF wall is flat stupid. All they had to do was make a more obtuse angle out there and it would be fine. Even just having dead space behind it would be fine. What they have is ridiculous.

I do think the Lester story at least as far as the fans go is a classic example of just not understanding how hard it is for a LH pitcher to survive pitching half his games in Fenway Park. It is a horrible place for LH pitchers. At least as fans we should have valued Lester much more than we did when we had him. As to why Management seemed not to value him enough???? There is likely a lesson there for other players as it relates to Sox Management at least if in fact Sox Management has the same perspective now. NEVER and I do mean never offer that you as a player are going to be willing to entertain a Home Town Discount even if in fact you are willing to entertain one. Let that all come out in the wash between your agents and Sox Management. Do not open your big mouth unless in fact your intention is to get outta' town. Sox Management at least of that era simply did not have the means to process such a statement or such a position made through the media from a player. That set in motion a set of wheels that ultimately resulted in a cluster of a negotiation with both sides ultimately surrendering to their inability to get a deal done.

The only thing I have noticed about Sale since he has been here is that if he is not blowing hitters away, his confidence in himself seems to diminish so much so that it effects his game. He does not appear to let a bad call effect him, an error by a teammate, any of that sort of stuff. But so much of his makeup is built around complete dominance that just plain dominance seems to bug him. For example, I always thought this whole thing of not shaking off anything was BS. "Doesn't matter what pitch is called, I am going to dominate with it". My ass. Anyway its his own confidence in himself that seems too easily shaken to me. He is a great pitcher and he does not have to dominate every hitter completely to prove that...not to me anyway. He does seem to need it to prove it to himself. You can see the confidence leaking out of him just because he is not blowing hitters completely away. Its between his ears, which is not unusual for the modern day pitcher anyway.

Get a clue NESN. Sale pitched like crap AGAIN and you are going to show me 4 of his K's? He pitched like crap with 8 K's in 4 innings in his last start and I was not interested in his K's that night either.

These two games have been real hard to watch. The Astros have been winning the way they win and we have been losing the way we win. No Mookie has hurt. But we have not even been competitive in these games so far.

One idea on the batting order that the Sabre guys have been pushing that has not really caught on yet is your best hitter goes in the 2 hole. Your best OBP guy goes in the 1 with your best hitter behind him in the 2. Some teams have done it. Not sure enough data is available as yet to make a judgement.

Well this game is not out of reach. It will be interesting to see if the Astros throw down on us again tonight. They have a one run lead. Will they try to make it two and then simply determine that we just can't catch them with the innings that remain?

What is going on with this guy. Just pitching with nothing like any confidence.

Hate to say it but that lower body action that eventually turned into JBJ corkscrewing himself into the batters box in 2014 is growing in his swing every day now. His swing is just so noisy that he must have to really concentrate to keep from being all over the place. Once he has to focus on taming one part of his swing another part starts to get out of control AGAIN which is really why he is so streaky as a hitter. If he has any sense at all, he will never stop trying to go opposite field as a hitter ever again as it might be the only way he has to keep the noise and business in his swing down to a dull roar.

Sale does not appear to be pitching with much confidence lately and Sale without confidence is not a pretty sight. Not real sure what is happening with him.

10 day DL announced as a left abdominal strain for Mookie

Not sure we should expect the truth regarding Mookie. However at some point missing this many games in a row becomes an issue because at some point this is going to be more than Mookie just busting back into the lineup like he never left it. So his injury must be sufficient to allow the Sox to rationalize that keeping him out and the resultant time it will take for him to come back makes more sense than playing him with the injury. And....as I am keying this post, just got the news, Mookie goes to the DL. Not sure how long but he is going to the DL.

Mookie not in the lineup tonight either.

True, but that would not have been the first time that the closest ump to the play was actually too close to it to see what happened. The right call was made and that is really all I care about. I don't care which ump made it. The closest ump might have been focused on the ball at that point and the ball was not where Devers and the runner were. If your point is that the closest ump did not know that was an infraction, I actually don't think that is what happened. I think the closest ump's attention was just focused elsewhere.

And the rules don't like Devers impeding the runner. You want the ump to make a judgement call about where Bergman would or would not have been relative to his arguing the call when the ump can see with his own eyes that Devers has impeded him. You start making rules based on that logic and won't have a game anymore....You will have an endless series of judgement calls of which there are already too many.

Grab the runner around the shoulders at 1st base and see where that gets you and if the runner turns for 2nd instead of legging it out down the line and you block him off, see where that gets you, even if the runner can't likely make 2nd base.

You can't impede the runner...does not matter if he was wiping his ass....can't impede the runner.