jung

That probably looked pretty juicy to XB.

This should be interesting

Don't know why Ross went after that with the backhand.

Stig is driving me nuts on the radio feed. He even made that fly ball to Vic sound like it had a chance

John does not have the kind of FB he can throw up there in the hitters eyes if he is looking FB

Wacha has different speeds on the Change....That looked like the one that is almost backing up. Tough for Naps to time it...looked like he was looking for it though or he would have been farther out ahead of it.

Well lets see Pedey crushes one just foul...Ortiz walks...time for a Nap bomb

Wow what an unbelievable AB by Ortiz.

Wow what a play by Pedey....imagine how hard that is for normal human beings....Heck I was not a terrible fielder and they are are probably taking me to the hospital right now with a ball permanently imbedded in my eye socket.

Nothing...Fenway pop fly

Saw a shot of Chris Carpenter standing next to McGuire recently. Holy Cats...Carpenter is a big dude.

Well Pedey and Ortiz are good enough, experienced enough hitters that it is very tough to shut them down completely when they are as focused as they are...obviously even more so with Ortiz. Some of the other hitters are going to have to figure Wacha out though. While I absolutely love what Lackey has done this year and this post season I am just not convinced that he can exert the kind of pressure on Wacha that Lester put on Wainwright in Game 5. So, I would think putting a couple runs in the bank early would be really helpful to the cause tonight. The Sox will not fold their tent if they don't get early runs but since they are the team that is up 3-2 early runs will stick the Cards in the same kind of vice we had them in for game 5.

Really don't know...pretty convinced this is idiot Methany that has continued to have his pitchers attack Ortiz...He mumbled some gibberish after game 5 that surely sounds like he wanted his pitchers attacking Ortiz. He probably is one of these managers that believes in the law of averages which I for one do not believe makes sense in a short series. Ortiz may never stop hitting before it is all over and Drew may never start hitting before it is over.

He won't be here in a month. Troll behavior is so f***ing predictable.

Get the hell outta' here. You want to come talk about the game fine...keep your "you know it" s*** for whatever s***** Cards board you frequent. Unf***ing-believable. Never fails. Trolls always turn trollish eventually. Don't spew that s*** here. Nobody here goes to the enemy boards to spew this kinda' s***.

I completely agree having said the same thing. What really pained me about game 2 was that Wacha left that change in some pretty bad locations from the pitcher's perspective and the Sox still could not hit it. I think that likely means that the only way to hit that thing even if thrown in a bad location is to be laying for it. It is a dangerous way to hit but some of them are swinging the bats so badly that it might make sense for some of them to look for the change with two strikes. He really does like to throw it with two strikes and it is possible to make mince meat of the change if you are both laying for it and it is thrown in a bad location from the pitchers perspective. Would not suggest it if not for the fact that some of them could hardly be doing worse at that plate at this point. So, the downside might not be that big a deal when you consider what a professional hitter can often do when he is expecting the change and gets it in a good place for him to do something with it.

I guess the only thing in the piece that I did not agree with to some extent was the comment about Lackey and how fans reacted to his 2011 season. A good deal went wrong for John and Boston. In truth I think it all started because nobody on the outside knew his arm was hanging by a thread. I think that had the real baseball fans of the Sox known that, they would in fact have reacted differently to Lackey. That is where I disagree with the piece which suggests that it would not have mattered to us as fans. We still would have heaped it on him according to the piece. I guess it would not matter if not for the comments people make about Lackey basically hating it here while loving his teammates. For one thing I think it took us all awhile to understand that his teammates were not just tolerating his tirades on the mound when they made some sort of mistake or error behind him. They genuinely understood what he was going through both from a physical pain management perspective on the mound and from a personal perspective. I think we just all thought they were tolerating him but just barely. Clearly we had no idea what he was going through just to pitch at all. In fact that is what turned me around finally. I finally realized that his teammates wanted him around, liked him around even while not playing and did not hold onto any animosity toward him for any of that stuff. Ultimately I just trusted that not only did they know him better than I did but that there had to be some genuine closeness between John and his teammates. Ultimately that was good enough for me. I hope that John has a great night tonight. I hope that the fans in the park are smart enough to recognize what he has done and what he has meant to his teammates...never mind us. I hope they have the opportunity to acknowledge that tonight and I hope they do acknowledge that. Further and maybe more importantly for him, I hope he acknowledges them back and at least begins some sort of healing process between himself and the fans of the Red Sox assuming things are as some suggest as far as John is concerned.

Plus as we have discussed here before, somebody is going to put a premium on Ells because he can become the face of the franchise for some team. We already have that guy.....Pedey. The Sox will end up looking at the dif between what Ells is worth at most in today's market just as a ballplayer and will likely have difficulty even with that with JBJ as close as he is to playing for us. Add the "face of the franchise" premium and that will just be too high a price for the Sox to be willing to pay. IMO, they will pass and will be justified in doing so.

Not within the context of the OP and his thread starter.

I was just thinking that this is one time when it would be warranted. Lester has been the most dominant pitcher in a series dominated by pitching and defense. Ortiz is doing things that are unheard of from an offensive perspective. Just saw some of those Ortiz AB's replayed again. I still don't know what the hell Wainwright is thinking but he was not only pitching to Ortiz but leaving pitches in laughably bad locations to a guy that is a monster at the plate. Ortiz is likely at the height of his hitting powers from the perspective of his experience and how he uses it at the plate. I would prefer to be one of the two best guess hitters on the planet than have the reflexes of a younger man any day. It is probably one of the key reasons why Ortiz does not appear to have aged at the plate but has in fact gotten better if anything.....that and still being slimmer than he was at his worst. Ortiz looked like he had gained a bit of the weight back at the start of the year. I think he lost that again over the coarse of the season and is probably still about a half-elephant down from his heaviest.

And frankly this is the way Salty has thrown all season long. This is no surprise, especially when Salty is throwing in the general direction of 3rd. The surprise if any is that he continues to throw on very short odds that he is going to get the runner even with a perfect throw. At this point he must know full well that this is not his strong suit but he is by God throwin' it come hell or high water. Seems to me that the only way to stop him from throwing it is to sit his rear end on the pine. What is Salty doing that is so terrific anyway at this point? He could not hit his way out of a paper bag at present.

Even the very same group of guys is not likely to produce the same result and bringing back everybody just never happens anymore anyway. Fans have got to get used to things being as they are in MLB. You get the team you get for a season and that is about it. That is one reason why I think fans should just enjoy what they have for the time they have it. There are a couple of guys on this team that will likely get offers that the Sox would be insane to match.

Because there has not been one, at least not in our lifetimes if ever. What is remarkable though is that the Cards thanks to Methany have insisted on pitching to him. How or why does a manager insist on sticking his finger in the light socket time and time again. On top of that you have Wainwright thinking he is hitting good spots.....not to a LH power hitter.....another guy continually sticking his finger in the light socket. He is not going to beat Ortiz with that stuff even if off the plate. Ortiz is simply too good at this point but some of those locations are not good locations for pitches to a LH power hitter. I think one thing we simply do not credit Ortiz with enough that has had a big impact on his success this post season is that he is the best guess hitter left playing at this point. He and Cabrera are the best guess hitters on the planet and in a class by themselves in a very exclusive club. So you have Ortiz guessing right to type and Wainwright and the other Cards pitchers making pitches in some pretty bad locations. That is a recipe for disaster. Ells has gotten some good pitches to hit and has done nothing with them. Got the bloop last night and salvaged himself as a result. Nava has gotten fewer good pitches while seeing a fair number of pitches. Drew is totally lost at the plate. He can't even keep two hands on the bat at this point (not to be construed as any effort to suggest he should not be starting at SS). Salty will need an off season and a hitting coach I think as his swing has gotten so lengthened out that it likely will take him some time to work his way back. Who else is there? Carp...Carp has not allowed himself to see enough pitches even when he gets up. IMO you can't ride the pine for days on end and then get up to the plate cold against a guy you have not seen ever, never mind this year and just hack at the first pitch. Go sit down and we will see you next year.

Amazing s*** people are spouting today. Lets see...during the course of the day I have heard: - "ah gee isn't time now to finally give up in Drew" (I am beginning to doubt whether some of these folks actually dress themselves in the morning) This one is even better - "me and my buddies think we should hold Lackey out of game 6 so that he won't be matched against Wacha cause he is so good that we are bound to lose that game. Then we could run Lackey out there for game 7". (now this group would probably starve if you moved the plate a foot away from right under their noses)

I will probably never really understand how easily Sox fans dismiss what dominant pitching does and means especially in a seven game series. No wonder Lucchino and his buddies have always felt so compelled to go out and get some big bat somewhere.