jung

Rowdy will have the green light

I get the feeling we are really going to be thankful for the deep deep RF here in Fenway

This is going well. 27 pitches, 1 out, 1 run a BB and hard hits everywhere.

I think umps consider who is making the play for the defense and how high in the air the ball was popped. If it creates a circumstance where the fielder is positioned right under the ball (Most likely an infielder would be in that position) I just don't think how far off the dirt is much of a factor in the decision. How easily the fielder is going to be able to simply have it drop at his feet, pick it up and make a throw to a base are the key elements. Umps are pretty bad...but they are not freak conjurers that can see a gust of wind is going to move Correa's feet and make it a harder play than the ump saw when he put his hand in the air to indicate infield fly.

Which is what the infield fly rule is designed do prevent. So I think it was properly applied here. If Correa had just let that drop at his feet, Xander was a goner at 2nd.

So Nate....starting a pitch below the knees and THEN seeing it bounce at the plate ain't exactly the idea here.

Strike 1 to Tucker should have been last seen orbiting Mars

Nate's ball just never moves very much. Triple digits but flat might get a bunch of minor leaguers out. Not up here. He only gets so far with that stuff.

f***ing Altuve. I wonder how he stats up on barreled up baseballs. He seems to get a lotta' meat to the ball.

Still think they have raised the seams on the baseball. Never seen breaking balls like we are seeing this year and it has been right from day 1 of the season from all the pitchers. So I am less inclined to think that they all have been using substance on the baseballs and more inclined to think that as the news has been claiming, they changed the baseball AGAIN, this time back the other way from the 2018-2020 rocket ships.

Notice the Valdez FB lands right where he starts that late breaking curve. Its just about unfair! I always thought pitchers were unfair. They should have just teed it up for me every pitch.

That curve is starting at about a couple inches above the waist and breaks sharply at the end. Man I doubt at my best I would even foul that pitch off and probably would not be able to lay off of it either.....Does not break the way most curves break.

A merciful ending to that half inning.

Somebody is going to run into something with runners on if Perez stays out there much longer.

This is a dangerous spot to see Bregman batting So much for that

Ump gave up on that pitch at the top of the zone. You could literally see him turn away from the pitch giving up on it. Where did they get him from...little league?

Perez is wild in the strike zone and he is getting creamed.

Agreed. But I don't see a guy out there that would be traded back to us for JD that would significantly change the profile of our starting pitching. The rotation has reached a level of competence that is pretty competitive for the way the contemporary game is played. I really worry that Richards is a time bomb waiting to go off. But who cares really. When he explodes on the mound I guess I can say I told ya' so if I want to but other than that, I don't know what to do about it. The Sox are for this year committed to Richards. Erod is clearly not all the way back yet but pitchers now pitch their way back to health. If they can crawl to the mound and their arm is not falling off, they pitch. The other three guys need to have what amounts to career years for consistent performance for this rotation to maintain its current lofty position as a contributor to the team effort. I would rather bet on that than bet the Sox could find a way to take one of the big 3 out of the batting order every night and fill the hole he would leave. I think the Sox will make the playoffs with this team as constructed even surviving SANTANA at lead off though that one really gets under my skin. Now once they get there, THAT IMO is when this team is likely to run into trouble.

I have never been the biggest JD fan. But I am not sure I would want to see this batting order, night in and night without JD in it. I don't think the Sox have a way to fill that hole.

See now if I was a Yankee fan that last at bat would have driven me nuts. You can't get totally locked up like that on a 3-2 count. What the hell are you up there for you waste of oxygen? I would take an ugly swing and miss before taking that ridiculous purported plate appearance. That was a plate disappearance.

God Santana is awful. My daughter is a better hitter.

Did you have somebody in mind? Front line is not much a distinction any longer. I am pretty sure you are not talking about an Ace.

The only time it bothers me is if the hitter should have been looking for the exact pitch he got in the exact location and MISSES IT. If the hitter is looking for something else, a pitch might look juicy but he will be lucky to hit it at all, never mind hit it well. A poorly located Change (meat on a meat hook) or a totally hung completely awful breaking pitch are about the only exceptions to that rule.

Richards barking at the ump about a pitch that was at least two inches high. My fear with Richards is that he will be just short of cracked dome behavior all the way up to a very big game and then explode right out there on the mound.

IMO, he is still not fully recovered. His FB still has no perceivable movement and he lost the arm speed on his Change, the one pitch that he depended on all night in his last inning of work.