jung

Yea, for a period of time there, it was Iggy with Sox system prospects climbing up his butt, forcing him to figure out his issues at the plate sooner rather than later. Now it is WMB that is in much the same boat. Iggy has forced Farrells hand and Farrell has no choice but to play him.

No argument from me. I would not be displeased to see some miracle move that brought us a proven starter but I do not want to see the Sox moving prospects what have you to get a closer. Somebody has to do the job...no question but spending prospects and money for a closer is just a bad idea. Injuries and the issues that have plagued some of these players even going into this season are rearing their ugly head and there is still plenty of season left to go. The 162 is truly a death march. Weather the hip or something else, the 162 was always going to be the big question mark for Napoli. Love Nava but that damn wrist of his appears back again to haunt him. I said earlier this year that his improvement in bat speed has been the biggest dif for him and I think that goes out the window with the wrist. Ross is just a bad break and it somewhat offsets Salty's contribution. If he has to catch almost every game, he is going to be worn to s***. Hopefully the Sox can get something out of Lavs. The Sox need to make an effort to get WMB back on track and at least get him to the point where he can contribute something. Now that the regular season is taking its toll, they need more guys to contribute and that means they have to get something out of WMB. If XB can give us something this year, the way things are going for Naps, it would not be a complete surprise to see WMB playing some 1st base if they can get him going with XB and Iggy and Drew sharing 3rd and SS. Carp can play some 1st and will likely see some outfield time as well. I don't think Naps or Nava are going to make it through the season. Nava may make it but not contributing at the level he has so far. Naps may not make it at all. Ross may be done now and Bailey is all but done. Vic will likely be nursing that tender back and the hammy for the rest of the season. Still got my fingers crossed but it is looking more and more like Ortiz can get through the season as long as he does not take a misstep on those ankles. So with the pieces the Sox can bring up and what they have it seems to me that they have to: Get Buch back on the field Get something out of WMB Nurse the pen along shuffling pitchers in and out along the way Maybe pull some miracle picking up one more proven starter from somewhere Pray for the September call ups I do think the Sox will end up leaning heavily on the everyday players and pitchers that are already somewhere in the system before it is all over.

Carp for me. Once I saw Iggy's more compact swing I really thought he would at least hit good enough to be here. I don't think he will continue to string together such an eclectic combination of hits and he still needs to be a bit more selective but the compact swing has made all the dif in the world. I really did not expect anything from Carp.

Messed up! I am not sure I have ever seen a ML outfielder backing up on a ball that was already bounding around in the outfield to the point where the ball played him....that one is a first for me.

Drew is something of a mystery. He will go 3-3 and then toss in about three Ofers in a row. Nice knock again by Iggy. He still gets his infield hits but he also drives the ball to the outfield much more often than we have ever seen before.

Nice inning Bres....he has really pitched in during some tough spots so far this year.

Oh Crap....not really happy about seeing extra tape on Nava's wrist. the grind of the 162 seemingly catching up to the Sox a bit here.

Pitchers are not used to making that play. Notice how an infielder gets his glove and ball down ASAP. Albuquerque tried to follow Drew down and Drew just beat him to the plate.

Time to rock Papi...put it outta' reach

Our pitching looks like trouble unless Buch can get back out on the mound and perform up to snuff. Of the four guys that are regular starters still pitching I would put Lackey over the other three. That is scary just thinking about it. If Buch comes back OK and Lackey continues as he has, that might be OK. Without Buch our pitching suddenly looks like it has too many holes in the dike.

Cabrera's on base....best place for him from our perspective. Rather him there right now than AB with a runner or two on.

Man Naps is swinging a tired looking bat

What is going on with Hunter these days...our idioit announcers sound shocked every time but Hunter is just trotting out there.

You saw what happened after the Cabrera HR. Back to playing on the corners and here comes the walks again. Sox really have a bunch of guys now that are struggling to find ways to get batters out. Bailey could no longer get batters out and frankly while he is a starter, not a closer he has not been able to get batters out either. Too many pitches for Lester coming into the zone with nothing really...flat...headed out faster than they came in.

What kills me about Lester is that you cannot just play on the corners all night long as his pitch count goes through the ceiling. But as soon as he starts coming into the strike zone more aggressively....Pow....HR city. Sox have a lotta' strange stuff going on in their pitching staff all at the same time. Buch out...Lester lousy....Bailey gone.......

Cabrera is just ridiculous. Has two guys on....place where he can do the most damage and actually turn this back into a ballgame....HR.....I don't think there is another player in baseball that does that as often as he does.

No question...Lester was more aggressive that inning. Would not surprise me to find that Farrell had prodded him leaving the dugout.

Be interesting to see if Lester pounds the strike zone now that he has this much of a lead

Fister is leaving a bunch of pitches in the middle of the plate tonight and he just cannot pitch that way.

I love it when the Sox little guys go nuts like this. all we need now is another Nava bomb when he comes up to make it perfect

Sox are getting more aggressive with Fister's strike 1....way to adapt...Sox

Wow that Tiiger outfield looks like a bunch of lumbering oxen without Jackson out there.

While Farrell made a big deal out of it....this does not look like "attacking the strike zone" to me. This is a tough line up though. Lester doing OK so far. This could be much worse though if Jackson was out there wrecking havoc on the base paths. Jackson makes a big dif in the Tigers offense.

Starting to worry much more about Naps. The argument that his K rate was acceptable with his production was a good argument. But now his production has fallen off and his swing does not look good at all.

Naps may have been planning on Fister grooving strike 1 there. If not I have no idea what Naps was swinging at.