jung

What a f***ing joke....

Well I guess neither pitcher is going to get that pitch at the knees

f*** f*** f*** how I wanted that to drop in fair Drew is really hanging tough considering Cobb's command tonight

Salty had that wavin' a flagpole swing on that one.

You can't mean those double knit things....they were f***in' terrible

Wow I would be pissed if Buch hit that spot and didn't get the call

Think Molina went out there cause he believes Naps was sitting on that curve. Very unusual for a hitter to be sitting curve. Clear sign that the pitcher is overusing it.

The LH hitters are getting some good cuts at Buch so far

Buch's location getting much better

Curve is the one pitch the Sox probably don't see much of, at least from a guy that can throw it for strikes...plus the curve would have been the pitch that would have driven Vic to become a switch hitter more than just about any other pitch. Looked a little silly swinging at that one for sure. Not many guys throw the curve any longer....it is not yet a forgotten pitch but there are way fewer guys throwing it as anything more than a show it pitch these days.

f***ing Looney has been good damn him....Buch is still catching too much plate so far

See ya rook

This is the guy you can't let hurt you. Without him, the Rays don't have a whole lot goin' on. Can see why Maddon has put Myers behind him though. Nothing to lose at this point.

Buch is the only guy that throws over at all and he seems to try to make up for the whole rest of the Sox rotation.

Was kind of a so-so pitch..too much plate....kind of a so-so hit as well.

You have to be so comfortable batting with two strikes to do things the way Nava does them

Where is a f***ing catwalk when you need one!

Different park...same Rays so far

Molina still has the hockey mask version going. They have been disappearing pretty quickly around the majors of late.

No.... Martinez went after Belfours who was doing his usual thing out on the mound. Belfours aways talks alot out there but this time he seemed to be walking right toward Martinez as he was waiting to get a new ball to throw and was jawing directly at him at the same time. Martinez took exception to that and the whole thing exploded into shall we say a non-FCC acceptable exchange with Martinez heading out toward the mound. The benches cleared very quickly as I think Balfours was jawing through the whole at bat. So, the benches seemed kinda' ready. The coaches actually saw it coming as did the entire ump crew and they got enough bodies in between everybody to get it toned down. Then Balfours got a stern talking to about jawing directly at the batter that way. It was a tense game as are a lotta' these so they were right on the brink. Balfours just lit the fuse.

Benches cleared in Detroit Cooler heads prevail

Dodgers pitching Kershaw tonight on "short" rest. Knew we would see some of this during this post season. Did not expect to see it in the division rounds as much as I was expecting it later. Kind of an interesting move given where the Dodgers are in their series.

Can't dismiss the Rays going into that dungeon they play in. Nobody plays good baseball in that place but the Rays and I am sure that is just familiarity doing its thing. Even with that, I don't think the Rays can win more than one game down there...tonight's game is probably a prime candidate. Honestly, the home park thing is not about the usual things like dimensions or LF vs RF or stuff like that. I have said for awhile now that the Sox may be a better Comerica team than the Tigers and may be a better OC.com team than the A's. The Trop s*** is all about not being able to get comfortable in that place. Everything sounds weird...looks weird, lighting is off plus the catwalks plus the idiotic bullpens, plus the surface....it is just terrible...Go down to your basement if you have one and think about playing a ML baseball game down there. You will get the idea. Frankly glad they did not bring JBJ for this series. I would expect some huge rodent to pop out from behind the CF wall and cart him off someplace to feast on him.

I am not even going to comment on Price's remarks. We have seen entitled athletes time and again refuse to look in the mirror to assess blame when things don't go as they would like them to go. As much as I hate Maddon, I cannot even blame him for likely being an enabler here. This is just too much of the same thing we see more and more from supposed star players with million dollar talent and nickel brains. I am just not even surprised any longer. But I really don't think luck played a big role in this game. If you are looking at the Ells bloop hits, both came on poor pitches from Price. Granted Ells did not get much wood on either. But those hits have their genesis in lousy pitches from Price. Much of the Sox offense came out of modifying their norm at the plate and being a bit more aggressive than usual. Price was really making an effort to get ahead in the count. The Sox took advantage of that by being more aggressive, taking earlier hacks than we usually see from them this year. Frankly, Price pitched like s*** from innings 1 through 5 leaving too many pitches in bad locations. The Sox took advantage. If looking at the plays made or not made in the field, DeJesus was lousy in LF. Not only was DeJesus lousy but nobody backed him up out there on either of those plays leaving him to track both balls down himself. Both balls were well hit and poorly played by DeJesus. So, I don't see luck coming into play there either. I don't have any idea why not a single Ray could be seen coming to his rescue, backing him up out there. If anything, the Rays 1st run was a gift courtesy of the idiot ump behind home plate. In fact, Lackey was trying to sequence around those outer edge pitches that he could not get called for strikes. That really forced Lackey to throw plan A right out the window. If you want to talk about a bad break...now that is a bad break costing both a run and forcing Lackey to change off what he clearly thought was his best plan first time through the Rays lineup. As for the 8th inning Ortiz HR, that was a terrible location for that pitch...just right were Ortiz and most LH power hitters want it. Ortiz did not just homer...he crushed that. You could say that Price was finally tiring if you want to. However I simply don't think Maddon had much of a choice at that point in the game choosing to stick with his ace instead of trusting his on again / way off again bullpen. As for the starting pitching generally, while Lackey struggled and fought all day without his best stuff and at a bit of a disadvantage because of the home plate ump, Price just got flat beat early and often. Then Price got flat beat again by Ortiz in the 8th, ending his day on the mound and very likely taking the Rays season with him. The Rays were soundly beaten in this game. In fact, they were beaten as badly in game 2 as they were in game 1 regardless of the relative scores. The Rays had their very best pitcher going, one of the best in the game and were still soundly beaten. So what have ya' got left Joe. You have tried penguins and salsa musicians in the locker room this year. Whats' next.....penguin salsa musicians?

Ells is baseball's version of the pocket battleship..so named because it had much much more speed than the typical battleship of its day and much much more power than the typical cruiser. Ells is an incredible athletic talent.