jung

I completely agree that the Sox lost to Felix. He was terrific. The fact that Morales matched him for as long as he did was staggering. WMB is a young ball player. He is going to make mistakes. No sense pounding him for them but he did make one tonight. Does not change anything really. Hope he recognizes it and learns from it. The ninth inning creates a pressure all its own. Atch has been lights out when he gets to start clean innings but I think in the main because they are not high pressure situations. I think that is why I would not have gone to Atch in that case. In this case I saw the ninth inning as just another high pressure situation more than just another clean inning for Atch to start. Salty has been better defensively in this most recent stretch than at any time that I can remember. He does still have a tendency to pull almost rabbit out of a hat bad defensive plays. Would have been really interested to see how the rest of that game would have gone if we did take it to extras. All of those plays and decisions combined paled in comparison to what Felix did. Last night's game was the best example we could have of how much pitching controls the game of baseball. What might be valuable to look at here is these two games being played back to back. Because in tonight's game we should not see anything like the kinds of pitching performances we saw from either Felix or Frank. We should see more hitting because the pitchers will make more mistakes. Both teams should hit better because they will see more mistake pitches to hit and the difference in tonight's game should be that the Sox will do more with the mistake pitches they hit. They will hit them harder and farther, more often for extra bases than the Mariners will and that should be the difference in the game. The lesson should be that hitting matters to the degree that pitching allows it to matter. Particularly in the regular season, good hitters don't do more with good pitching than poor hitters. Good hitters do more with mistake pitches than poor hitters. You are lucky to see a hitter do something with a well pitched baseball once a game.

There are no sure things in baseball but I think chances are real good that we can take the next three from the Mariners. These are good games for us to watch though because we have seen two really good pitchers go tonight and seen how they completely controlled the game. We are not likely to see anything like that kind of performance tomorrow night. If Cook makes enough mistakes to the Mariners, watch how they suddenly look like they know a little about hitting. Tomorrow should be a game where the pitchers are not sufficiently talented to control the game as they did tonight and while the M's should hit some, the Sox should do more damage with the mistake pitches they get and that should be the difference in the teams and in the game.

Atch should not have been in the game in that spot. He has not proven to be dependable in high pressure situations all season. He does terrific in the right spots and I thought V had figured this out already. Oh well. As for Salty...take your f***in' mask off for crying out loud. I hate catchers trying to make that play with their mask on...if you take an elbow in the face...to f***in' bad...that is the job. As for Felix and even Morales....this game was a great example of pitching and how it completely controls the game of baseball. If we really want to play for the division...get another arm.

Why the hell didn't Salty get rid of his mask there. He had all day to get rid of the thing. He may not think so but that play is much harder to make with the mask on than off.

I thought a Papi HR would have been our best shot at this game tonight. Felix was not giving AGons or Salty anything that they could hit out. Agons was not going to get a ball out to left and that is exactly how Felix pitched him all night. Felix did the same thing with Salty. Papi had a couple pitches that he could have driven out.

Very poor at bat by WMB there. Felix is struggling to find the zone....we have a guy in scoring position and he swings at the first pitch....not to bright that time.

Lillibridge must have took off at the crack of the bat and had to go all the way back to second to tag. He might have erred in having gone to far and may have even been past third by the time he turned to go back to second.

Have to pull in this park to get the ball out

I don't think Felix is going to give Salty a chance here

C'mon Salty go deep

Good outing...incredible outing...he is standing up to King Felix here. I think at this site we put to much stock in offense. Pitchers control the game of baseball. It is just that simple. Weak hitters will not crush mistake pitches but believe me, you make mistake pitches to professional ML baseball players, they will hit you, even if they are weak hitters. The really good hitters will hit you hard and the not so good hitters will hit you less hard. However mistake pitches generally get hit. Morales has done a fantastic job tonight as he has made very few mistakes to the Mariners. I even think he has made fewer mistakes to the Mariners than Felix has made to the Sox....but not by much. But the difference between a team of good hitters and a team of weak hitters against a pitcher that is not making mistakes is very little. The good hitters will hit the mistakes harder than the weak hitters but they will have no more success when the pitcher is making his pitches than the weak hitters will have.

Ells and Crawford won't provide a tremendous difference when the opposing pitcher is this dominant. You have to be able to rally to score runs and Felix has really only given them one opportunity to rally tonight when he gave up two hits and then Pedey's liner did not drop in. I agree with the comment somebody just made. For as long as Felix is in there, the Sox stand a better chance putting one over the fence even in this big park than they stand a chance of rallying and that would be true I think with Ells and CC there as well.

David what are you lookin at...not going to see many of those from this guy...and then just got beaten by the belt high FB

Don't have a real good feeling here. If I had to guess, Morales will crack before the King does.

While there does not seem to be a bid difference between Morales motion from the stretch and full delivery, he seems to be much more consistent when in his full delivery. He seems to have much more success slotting his arm angle consistently and that also seems to have a major impact on his control.

Frankly I would like to see all of the Sox starters pay attention to the runners at first but throw over less. You can keep and eye on the guy without throwing over so damned often. The more you show your move the more the runner gets to figure it out.

Notice that Morales does have more difficulty maintaining his arm angle pitching from the stretch...more erratic and not as consistent, may in part account for him possibly having more success as a starter than as a reliever.

Franky finally went outside after buzzing Ryan inside.

Damn really wanted to get something outta' that inning. Felix up in the zone to three hitters in a row and all three hit those mistake pitches. Just could not get Pedey's to drop into the gap

Morales is getting the same calls though and that is all that really counts. The only problem I have so far with this ump is that he has started out calling balls strikes that are so far outside that he is going to end up with strikes in the dugouts before the night is done.

Same spot again if not even farther outside for a strike from Morales...again I just think we have a pitcher friendly ump here.

I think we just have a pitcher friendly ump here tonight. Have seen a few of these lately especially as relates to the outside edge.

Same spot...called it a strike for Morales also

Can't just look at that pitch Danny with two strikes from a guy with Hernandez reputation.

More staggering than Theo having pegged Morales as a situational lefty, the Sox still had him there for the most part looking like they were going to try him in middle relief until injuries forced the Sox to give him a shot in the rotation. It looked to me that the Sox would have been happy to see him go from situational lefty to middle reliever (meaning he would have gotten more innings). Don't you sorta' wonder what we would be seeing from Morales right now if the Sox had planned around a Morales experiment at the start of the season instead of Bard? The other neat part about this story if it works out for Morales is that the guy made no demands, just pitched when they asked him to pitch.....never making any noise about anything. He had that rough stretch in relief where he just totally lost where the ball was going but instead of that turning into a trend it really ended up being very short lived. Another kid that just keeps his mouth shut and plays....another kid that fits the recent profile of young guys coming up.