jung

Wells and Hafner both bailed Demps out there.

The only issue with Demps is that in the recent starts once he has been up in the zone or even up out of the zone, he has not been able to work out of it. Based on that history if he is up across a half inning sit and gets guys on base I gotta' go get him while it is still a ballgame. Farrell knows more about what he has in the pen than I do and maybe he feels like he has to at least get to the 4th inning or something like that. Surely since this is the anemic Yanks he might feel like he can go longer with Demps. However in truth Demps can't get anybody out when he is up like this. The longer he stays out there, the more runs the opponent will score.

Take him out now....please

Imagine if this was Detroit's lineup against this s*** Demps is throwing?

I guess I am forced to explain once again...earlier in the year he had bouts with the ups which he COULD work out of. Last few starts, once he was up in the zone he stayed there until Farrell finally came out and got him. Farrell probably has no choice but to hope it is the earlier Demps and not the more recent version. It if were me, if he is up again the 2nd inning and gets two guys on in a perfect world ....he would be out of the game. Farrell may not feel like he can do that. I would....once Demps goes past a sit and still cannot keep it down....forget it...it is not going to happen. Get him out while it is still a ballgame.

Well we historically do well against CC. But if Vic goes out again....we won't score enough against him IMO

Well at this rate the Yanks will have 6 by the third inning. We can score 6 that quickly as long as Vic does not hobble off the first time he runs down the line.

Oh my God...a pitch below the belt line....I know I'm encouraged!

Well lets see if this is the Demps from earlier in the year that would have bouts of the ups or the more recent version that can't keep the ball down to save his skin.

Nice start. Demps up again.

There is nothing that the Sox can do out there on the market to resolve what issues they might ultimately have with the offense either. As I said earlier, IMO Vic has to stay upright. So who do they go get to protect against Vic staying upright? Naps ultimately IMO does not do enough to protect Ortiz. What....5 hole RH bats are just dropping off the trees like low hanging fruit? Trying to do something to improve the offense at this point would be a waste of time IMO. The offense is fine....s*** happens...nobody can protect against everything and it is all about the pitching.

What is the evidence. Buch had 7 weeks to get a second opinion and finally heads to one 7 days before the deadline....PLEASE As it was, the first report was that Buch was only "considering" a second opinion. After 7 weeks just considering it. Ya' know when it walks like a duck and talks like a duck....most of the time, its a duck!

The long overdue second opinion...finally....what is still somewhat disturbing is that it does not seem to be motivated by Buch's desire to get back on the field as much as the Sox running out of patience heading into the deadline.

We need Vic to stay upright. Another bat really does not solve that. It is an entirely different offense when Vic is not batting behind Ells and in front of Pedey, not to mention a different defense with Nava in RF. That said, if the Sox really do get serious about playing in October, they will have to do a better job protecting Ortiz. In a short series nobody is going to let Ortiz just go out there and beat them.

I knew they would sweep once the Jays lost that first game. We need to win tonight against the Yanks. I am not sure at all sure how prepared this Sox team is for taking single games as seriously as they are going to have to start taking them. Sox are a gritty team that does not give up...they come back. But we tend to make some boneheaded plays along the way. I would like to see them play a smart, tough game tonight. The kind of game that says "we are post ASB...still in first...no time for dicking around".

I wonder how these last performances leading into the deadline, bullpen and maybe even starters figure into BC's thinking. I would think that the bullpen needs are so obvious that performances good or bad at this point are not going to sway or deter BC at all. Maybe performances by the starters going into the deadline might have an impact. Having pushed Lester to Tuesday, I guess means what at this point...Workman to start the Rays series on Monday?

I just remembered something about the study I referred to earlier. I have got to find the damned thing again. As I remember it, since they did not want to simply end up with a discussion of the value of protecting the plate, they only included swings in counts at pitches that were actually in the strike zone. By eliminating swings in counts at pitches outside the strike zone they also got rid of differences in all hitters ability to judge pitches to be in the strike zone. That does skew the data. So for example, as you might imagine, the hitter's results when swinging 0-2 were worse in an absolute sense than their results when swinging 0-0. However swinging 0-2, hitters ends up swinging at a considerable number of pitches that are outside the strike zone even if by a little bit. As with everything baseball it is complicated. I can see their point. If they included swings in counts at pitches outside the strike zone then they would have simply ended up with a study that said "hitters protect the plate with two strikes" and their average generally sucks when they are forced into that predicament. I suspect they did not think taking four years of data to come up with that hypothesis was worthwhile to them. They were really trying to come up with data specific to pitches in counts that were in the strike zone...in other words pitches that would have been called strikes had they not swung. They were trying to validate with data points that the more pitches a hitter sees from a pitcher, and the deeper into the count he goes, the better his chances of getting a good result swinging at a pitch in the strike zone. That does make some sense. The hitter sees more and more of the pitchers release point. He gets a better feeling about the sequence the pitcher is using to get him out and if he gets the pitcher all the way to a 3 ball count, the better his chances of getting a FB....maybe even a FB right down Main St. I remembered at the time thinking that one of the things they were really trying to get at was the value of guess hitting, whether it really worked or not and whether the hitter generally makes a better guess the more pitches he sees and the deeper into the count he goes. I seem to remember that they did something with swings and misses with two strikes (K's) so that you could see K's separate from balls put in play. But. for the life of me I can't remember what it was or why they did it that way. So to qualify my earlier comment about this study, swings at 0-0 pitches that were in the strike zone yielded worse results for the hitter than any other swing/count at a pitch in the strike zone

Somehow the Sox have got to find a way to either get Vic back into the lineup or find a way to get something similar out of somebody else. Vic out of the lineup has consequences for both the offense and the defense. The offense is simply not the same when Vic is not in there batting behind Ells and in front of Pedey. It really seems to have an impact on Pedey. When Vic is there, Pedey often comes up with a runner already in scoring position and he just tries to dump the ball into RF or CF. Without Vic, Pedey tries to do too much and he starts grounding out AGAIN. Defensively, Nava is just too slow for RF. He just is. He is a stop gap for a couple days at most but he really cannot play RF regularly. I really don't know what the Sox do about that.

Damn it I really wanted to win this game! I know it is just one game and no sense in trying to convince people why I am frustrated and worried but....I just really wanted to win this damned game.

Cano looked really spry on that one. This is without doubt one of the most bizarre Sox games I have seen this year.

Some bad base running plays today. We do have some guys that are just plain slow. That is a reality that I don't think the Sox have come to grips with realistically. What are the Yanks...3rd in the AL in defense or something like that. Probably suggests testing them with some of the slowest guys on your team has some risk factors associated with it.

I could be wrong but I think the last out of the top of the 7th was the first RH batter Thornton has gotten out since coming over. So far Farrell has tried to use him like Miller who had grown to be able to get RF and LH batters out. I just don't think Thornton can get RH batters out. Farrell is likely going to have to use him as a lefty specialist only. I can see trying it though. The pen is so weakened that Farrell has got to try just about everything at this point and see if anything he throws against the wall sticks.

Carp using the hand brake...literally

Need to get Karoda out of this game though as we would be doing just as well to be taking toothpicks to the plate with few exceptions.

Kuroda is pitching lights out so far. He is just fooling the Sox hitters something fierce. We are missing pitches with less than two strikes by a foot. So the Sox hitters think they have a pitch to swing at and then start looking for the hole in their bats.