jung

Nava put a nice swing on that...can't believe it went right through the RF like that.

Or at least you would not throw Dmac a FB for a strike.

Home plate ump has got the pitchers AND the hitters equally pissed off...kind of a rarity.

Agons has creamed this guy this season. I would not pitch Agons this way. Although he has likely paid for pitching Agons the way most LH pitchers have pitched to him. You cannot start AGons trying to pound him inside from the start of each AB. That is not going to work. He must not be able to find the outer third of the plate with any consistency although tonight he has not found the plate, never mind the outer third of it.

61 in P/PA is something to brag about? Agons was 38th last year and that is a reasonable ranking for someone that is supposed to be the calibre of hitter of an Agons. But as you said, we are all free to enjoy our bias.

What do you think Agons...taking a first pitch and seeing what ya' got commin' at ya' might make some sense once and awhile.

Damn that was a great pitch to Ortiz. Had him set up for it and hit his spot. David can not hit balls thrown in that location worth a darn

That looked like a pretty darned good FB there from Buch for the K

We need to turn this abysmal record against the O's around. We are 0-5 in our own ballpark against these guys. I continue to think they are not going to disappear at least not to our satisfaction because the pitching is not bad.

Agons has not cleaned anything on the inner third of the plate out in over a month. I don't care if he is standing on Mars he still has not cleaned out anything low on the inner third, the classic green light go deep location for the LH hitter. His opposite field shots are no longer getting to the wall with the kind of depth and power needed to drive them out either. There are reasons why his HR numbers are what they are. Now he has gotten so predictable that he is no longer even generating simple base hits at a reasonable rate for the calibre of hitter that he is or that the Red Sox are paying for. There are just to many easy ways to get AGons out right now. Either you can tease him going farther and farther outside with sliders if you are a LH pitcher much like you can with Youk if you are a RH pitcher or you can get him looking outside which is where he wants to look anyway and bust him inside where he can't get out of his own way since he is looking outside so hard. The former usually yields a K and the latter usually yields some sort of weakly hit ball somewhere.

I don't think he is likely to go on a tear if he just stays in the lineup and maintains what appears to be a pretty stubborn attitude about his approach to his plate appearances. He appears to have grown stubborn about taking a day in an effort to press the reset button as well and that as much as anything makes me think a day off especially against another LH pitcher would do him some good. It appears that he has been absolutely stubborn and insistent about what he is doing. I would be fine with that if it were not for the result is the aforementioned stupid baseball. Swinging at first pitches is not smart...swinging at them as much as he does is doubly not smart. Looking to go the other way so much that every tom dick and harry on the planet knows it and can pitch him so that he can be set up is not smart either. Although, you hardly have to set him up if he is going to continue to be hackin' from the on deck circle. Now although you have to take what comes to us from the media with a grain of salt, there are reports that he has also grown stubborn about the idea of just taking a day against a LH hitter to press the reset button. He is a team member and Adrian doing everything Adrian's way is A) not work and not what you would expect from a team member. I would sit him for a day for a number of reasons not the least of which would relate to this stubbornness that appears to be rearing its ugly head. Adrian is not the Manager.....

Who is saying Agons will make a night of and "suddenly feel better". His feeling better has nothing to do with it.

I think it is Pedey's timing way more than trying to hard....which is not to say that he is not trying. However I am not sure what else we would have expected when the guy sits right down, can't really do much of anything and is then right back in the lineup. Pedey had to be brought back ASAP. but it would likely have been total luck for Pedey not to have skipped a beat.

Well I guess AGons is not the only guy that is going to be stubborn about his recent performance because there is no way you can sit him in the next game the Sox have to play after tonight's game, against the next LH pitcher they have to face. Not a good idea V. This would have been a good game to sit Agons for a whole bunch of reasons, not the least of which is that AGons needs to learn that playing stupid baseball is not the best way out of a slump by a long shot.

Agons has not drawn a walk in over three weeks...ridiculous!!! I have no problem with forgiving him a slump and allowing him a slump. All players slump. I have no tolerance for stupid baseball. Agons is making stupid baseball into an art form.

Two lefties in a row with Matuza tonight. I agree with the radio guys suggesting AGons should sit tonight. Also suggesting that he has gotten stubborn about this early swings thing. I rarely agree with what these radio guys have to say but I have been saying the same thing for weeks now. So for once I agree.

I got no problem with pinch running for AGons because AGons can't run his way out of a paper bag and you can't worry about what AGons (who is also not hitting his way out of a paper bag) might do two innings later when his turn would come around again when you need one run to tie late in the game like that. You have got to get back that one run and tie first...That is one of the penalties of being behind. I objected to what came after running for AGons. I can see why V did not feel like he had a strong enough offensive presence tonight and figured he had to manufacture that run. So given the option of giving up an out to get Pods to 3rd and allowing D-mac or anybody else V could bring to the plate at that time for that matter to hit away, I was OK with giving up that out. However putting the responsibility in the hands of Byrd to get something done after getting Pods to 3rd. made no sense. V had to pinch hit for Byrd and didn't. The point is when you are behind like that going into the later innings you have to climb back into a tie, especially playing at home before you can try to win the thing. Seems to me we got it half right tactically and half wrong tactically. Then as I said earlier, Aviles did not come up to the plate for his at bat after Byrd with the right approach for what needed to be done and limited his chances for success as a result. He might have failed anyway but he did not give himself the best chance to succeed. This team especially now, cannot afford to make mistakes like that. It MUST give itself the best chance to succeed as a team and that sometimes requires more individual sacrifice than I see these guys willing to make more often than not.

The most interesting thing to me about Abraham's comment is remembering how Lester left the dugout yesterday....clearly pissed off at somebody....maybe the world. There is something really odd going on here AGAIN with these pitchers. Lester had a pretty good outing I thought and Beckett had a very good outing but it is not like they have been models of consistency up till now with Beckett clearly more consistent than Lester. But neither has been so consistent that they can be in that much of a snit over poor run support.....not enough that Lester should be leaving the dugout with a huff and a snort and Beckett should be leaving the ballpark in a huff and a snort. Maybe there is no relationship between Lester's behavior and Beckett's but there is plenty of blame to go around for where the Sox are right now and plenty of reasons to think they can all do better. I would hate to see the whole thing go spiraling out of control at this point. However I did not like what I saw from Lester last night and what I heard about Beckett tonight. I have been as critical as anybody has been of some of the horse s*** baseball from some of the everyday players but more unprofessional behavior is not going to solve anything.

The Sox have to give themselves better chances to win. A game lost now as just as painful as one lost later. While it may well be easier to win games later based on returning stars that is no excuse for just playing like they have thrown in the towel in these games. They needed to push across a stinking lousy run tonight to at least get to a tie....got runners on base to do it and then could not push a lousy run across. You have to be patient and willing to sacrifice something of yourself to succeed at times like these. Byrd should never have been batting in that situation with Pods at 3rd. So as pathetic as Byrd is, that is on V from my perspective. But then Aviles coming up after Byrd and MIke was trying to be a bit greedy in that spot when all we needed was a base hit to tie the game. Maybe if he came to the plate with a different idea in mind, he still would have failed. But he was not swinging for a simple little base hit in that spot and that is really want we needed from him. I have seen him do that time and time again and it is getting as frustrating as seeing Agons come up hackin from the on deck circle.

Jim Rice comments tonight clearly along the same lines as the comments we have been making here about smarter plate appearances. Does not make much sense to relish a great pitching performance by Josh when it results in another lost game. They still play like a team that thinks they can just throw their gloves out on the field and it is not going to happen. They need to be smart about everything they do to win games. That includes V who on occasion now seems to be playing hunches or something. I can't explain some of this stuff cause you can't find a single piece of logic for it. So you are left feeling like he is playing a hunch or something??????

Well as densely packed as the AL East is with all teams at or over 500 which is where this was a few days ago speaks to how tough the AL East is I think. I hope we see pinch hitter in the 9th also. I actually thought V must have an ace up his sleeve batting Byrd in that spot with Pods on third cause I could not figure it any other way in favor of letting Byrd hit.

C'mon Pods these FAILs by Sox generally with guys on are getting tough to take...although the somewhat improved Orioles pitching is what they are livin' on anyway.

Well baserunner and a dinger did something last night....... Now we have a guy at second though so it is back to gotta' get the tie before you go for the win.

I think not allowing Byrd to bat there might have been more honesty than the Sox could deal with at this point. All he had to do was get the ball to the outfield which is why you have Pods on second. Even ground to the right side might do it. If you pinch hit for guy that only has to make contact to score you a run it begs the question, what the hell is the guy is doing here...a question many have asked about Byrd almost since he got here. I still would have pinch hit for Byrd there. I have no confidence in him.

Woe Byrd could not even plunk the ball into the outfield there. Gotta' at least put the ball in play. Then Miks comes up and tries to kill the thing when any kind of a base hit would have done just fine. He does that so much. I know a dinger would have really been a big deal there but ya' gotta' get the game tied and let somebody else have the shot at the HR in that spot.