jung

David's real issue is what he is swinging at.....I don't think I have ever seen him swing at so many good breaking balls before. Swinging at a hung slider is one thing. Swinging at pitchers pitches...good breaking stuff..... is entirely another thing. He just is not getting good pitches to hit and it has at least for now really gotten to him. That is also why it looks like he is swinging under the ball so much. By the time he does get a decent pitch to swing at, he has set himself up so badly that he can't hit that either.

Ortiz did himself in with that swing at Strike 2. He is too good at pitch recognition for me to believe he thought that was a FB. Thought he would like the location and ended up setting himself up for strike 3. He is really frustrated right now.

Fenway is such a tough place for LH pitchers to pitch. We might end up having to look at something other than whether Lester is a dominating force tonight if we are looking for fluke vs no fluke. I will want to see Lester attack again tonight. If he attacks again, then I am convinced that unless he has nothing to offer tonight, he will pitch well. He may not dominate. He may not even win. But if he attacks, he will pitch well and for me, that will be enough. Somehow when he does not attack he ends up not even distinguishing between hitters and he ends up picking at the corners pitching to some 125 lb soaking wet, 2nd baseman that simply does not pose a threat in the classic sense.

The team really under the gun in today's games are the O's. If they lose three games to the all important -column to the Sox they are about done. That is exactly what will happen if they go down tonight. Buck was funny last night....just about emptied the pen. He does not seem to realize that he is just playing into the Sox hands as eventually he is left with nobody to go to while the guy on the mound slowly turns into a meat popsicle.

The end of the game is different in the sense that post season is not the same as regular season. Even regular season crunch time is not the same as early season when teams are really sort of feeling each out and learning what they will need to do to beat a particular opponent regularly. End of games, the hitters are more focused and the adrenaline is really flowing. It is really all chemistry. The pitcher has to either have the talent to overwhelm those hitters who are so focused and/or he has to match their intensity. That is it...not really more complicated than that. Ins't it interesting that our very successful closer brings so much intensity to the mound and succeeds. You can groom a guy to do the job. You can have a bunch of relief guys and pick somebody. Just about the worst thing you could do IMO, is develop this idea that Mariano sits at the top of the pyramid and if you just pay the right guy some scale based on what Mariano gets, you will get performance equivalent to that pay scale. Good luck with that one! You will almost surely overpay and it just boils down to a matter of degrees. Glad Ueh is doing as good as he is doing. Happier still that the Sox may well have finally learned their lesson about closers. Totally ecstatic that the starting pitching has been as good as it has been even without Buch.

The starters and Ueh himself seem to have provided a solution to the problem of overuse. He whips through innings so quickly that he probably tosses more in the pen preparing to come in than he tosses on the mound. The starters are pushing so deep into games that with the exception of that stint just before the last west coast swing, Farrell is left deciding who takes the 8th or just part of the 8th and Ueh gets the 9th. A day without a game combined with the occasional blow out should allow Ueh to get through the year without confronting the overuse issue.

Like clockwork

Don't jinx us Eck!

Come on Buck...time for another pitching change

3-2, Nava might should have swung at that. But 3-1 he should have just taken his walk and headed down to 1st.

Little surprised at how anxious they have been tonight. All Nava had to do was take his walk...something he usually does no problem. We need one run....and it does not have to be a bomb over the Monster.

Tough to go 7.1 and go no decision. I am sure Lackey thought he could go two more outs and get one more shot to record a win tonight. As is usual though Sox starting pitching has out-dueled the opponent starting pitching.

That was not even a good pitch to swing at 3-0. David is just really frustrated by the lack of good pitches to hit and the fact that he is not doing much with what he is getting. He just needs to settle down and deal with it before his head explodes.

Jeez Ortiz is just killing himself trying to get back on track. I expect he is going to start gnawing on his bat if this keeps up.

Keep tellin' you guys that this is not a comfortable offense. It is a tense offense that will give you ulcers if you let it but you just have to be patient with it. Heck they are the guys that have to keep from busting a shoe lace to keep from hackin' at everything they see.

Well either the Sox will lose and learn a lesson or win. They have had very few bad AB's tonight but the ones that have been bad have been really bad and every one of them has hurt so far.

If you are going to have the nerve to swing at the first pitch you see from a pitcher you have not seen all night at least hit the damn thing. A DP dribbler is just lame.

Didn't even take a walk or a hit.....dinner bell time!

A walk or a hit and Norris is gone

Second to last Ortiz AB really frustrating. Had he banged that off the wall, the Davis HR would still leave the O's short a run or tied at best with their starter on the ropes. That Ortiz AB might be the thing that comes back to haunt us unless we do our usual feasting after an early Norris exit.

Its an uglier problem than that though. The evidence is pointing to the bulk of the damage being done long before a football player becomes a pro. So the whole thing is ass backwards. NFL players are professionals and it is far easier to make the case that they know the risks and are willing to take them. While the evidence points to the bulk of the damage being done before a player becomes a pro, the influence pro football has on all the other organized tiers is great. So the NFL is forced to lead the way in pursuit of solutions as a means of protecting its future talent pool. While the sport is incredibly healthy financially, it is a nasty problem.

Norris has had his share of strikes called balls. Just cannot stand there and take a pitch that close with two strikes. Drew was not fooled by the pitch as much as he refused to protect the plate.

Thank you Eck. Drew can't let that go by with two strikes. Foul it off if you have to but don't just stand there and expect the ump to bail you out. Norris is up close to 80 pitches in four innings....he will soon be gone and Farrell will be ringing the dinner bell for the Sox hitters.

I don't have a problem with it in T-ball. Heck it is a win if they can just hit the damned thing at that age. Past T-ball I think they should have to WIN games to be considered trophy worthy. That said, if you watch these young kids play they could win city championships if you just have a catcher that can actually catch thrown baseballs. I see whole games where runners get on by advancing to 1st on a missed 3rd strike and then proceed around the bases as balls continue to get past the catcher.

That was a pretty bad AB by Ortiz. He keeps expecting to be challenged and pitchers are less and less willing to challenge him even with the bases loaded. That is to be expected late in the season like this. Pitchers are not going to give in and challenge him. Should have just taken what Norris was willing to give him.