jung

By the way, did Gomes double before the Ortiz HR? Got back from trying to sneak the dogs out for a quick wiz and did not see what happened?

thought he was at 1st. Thanks MVP.

Wash deserved that. I might be able to see walking Pedey if there were two outs and you had some idea that you knew how to get Ortiz out to end the inning. But nobody out...you walk Pedey and put the winning run that much closer to home plate! What the f*** was that? Was Wash planning on a triple play?

Last year it seems pitchers did not know what to do with Ciriaco. He got good pitches to hit early in counts and he is not bashful about swinging...especially since he does NOT want to see any breaking balls if he can avoid them. Now they have his number....realize he is going to be up there hackin' early in counts and Ciriaco's performance is more true to form.

Not sure I would ever feel compelled to throw Ciriaco a strike. Don't have to.

Scary when West is an improvement!

Man how did end up putting up a goose egg here?

Looked like Wash was not happy with Holland there

Hopefully Lester can stay out of the middle of the plate this half inning. Need to shut them down here and then get more runs.

Eck...use your eyes please. Terrific hit Pedey.

That HR pitch provides a good example for why people complain that Lester is cutter crazy. Count is 3-2. So OK maybe you don't want to walk him. But why not challenge the hitter if you don't want to walk him. Try to beat him upstairs with the FB maybe. But don't throw that lollypop cutter up there. There is not enough speed dif on that thing to fool the hitter and if you put it in the middle of the plate like that, especially to that kind of hitter, he just clocks it. At least if you try to beat the hitter you have a chance.

Nice pitch Jon

Ells looks like a different hitter now that he is no longer trying to jerk the ball over the fence only to roll over time and time again. I wonder how much of that was Boras whispering in his ear that the road to the long green starts on the other side of the right field wall.

Oh God..can we survive a game with Joe West umping balls and strikes...maybe

But the premise for this discussion so far is not " the Sox are out of players at some point later this year". Correct me if I am wrong but the premise for this discussion at this point has been, "XB makes enough progress at SS at AA and AAA to make Drew expendable" as we get closer and closer to the 2013 deadline. Maybe WMB does not come back but that is a completely different discussion than the discussion that has been going on for two pages now.

I don't want to put words in anyone's mouth but I for one would be "surprised" if XB was the starting SS in August. Maybe that is part of the argument you are facing from others SFF. Regardless of what XB does in AAA, a place he will surely be this year, why would you risk turning what is currently a team asset, skill and resources at the SS position into a potential weakness? The Sox will want to bring XB to MLB under circumstances other than having to depend on him to succeed when he has never spent any real time in an MLB uni before. If the Sox season falls apart and there is no longer any consideration for making the post season, then I would think it more of a possibility. If that does not happen though, and the Sox are competing, the FO will be absolutely run out of town on a rail if they take a situation that does not appear to require any manipulation and start manipulating it only to find that XB struggles at the MLB level with practical consequences for him and for the team's 2013 run and no good answers to that sort of situation. Look I am not going to forget the things I posted earlier this year. I am surprised for one thing that so many of the pitching question marks ended up with a check mark in the plus column. So I am surprised that they are here mainly on that score. However now that they are here, and certainly if they are still here by the time frame you are discussing, I expect them to act like it.

Tremendous game. Pens may well have expended themselves tonight and they really did outplay the Bruins for a major part of this game....but then there was Rask. Amazed that as the overtime periods took shape, it was 41 year old Jagr who slowly but surely surfaced as the guy on the ice capable of taking that one more step forward, taking the puck away on the boards and generating offense off of that effort....that is just amazing to me. If I am not mistaken Jagr was right in the middle of the last four Bruin scoring chances, one being a shot two others leading directly to shots taken, and finally one resulting in the winning goal by Bergeron.

Kings up on the ChiTown Hawks 2-0 in the 2nd Period

Jeez Mort can actually make you feel edgy with 17 runs!

Wow...Iggy moves to 2nd. Ciriaco looks across the diamond and sees the handwriting on the wall.

All done with the Rangers after this series. I know some people really like inter-league but I would prefer fewer games within the division...not many fewer but fewer and more games within the league. To be honest, I can do without inter-league.

Other than a very early tweak to get his mechanics straight, Demps has been smooth smooth tonight. Big time run support has got to be worth something.

The biggest problem for the players involved might be how the PA positions itself. In the past, the PA would have been all over MLB regardless of any element of right or wrong. At least that is what I think. However the outcry from players that don't use and have not used has gotten pretty loud around PA headquarters from what I have read. I don't think the PA will turn out to be any kind of ally to the involved players this time around. If anything the PA might end up on the other side of the fence entirely.

Somehow it will end up being Bill Belichick's fault and Uncle Bud will end up calling Goodell for a little help.....that nitwit will of course be only to happy to oblige. :D

Earth to Eck...Earth to Eck...come in Eck