jung

Oh my God. Why have Padilla warming and have Hill pitching to these guys?

You beat me to it. I think he is about to hang another one also.

Man that was an ugly pitch. I will never ever figure V out. Last couple nights he has emptied so many guys out of the pen that he has been stuck bringing Aceves into the 8th. Tonight we get Hill against Jones. Hell I am glad he held him to a single.

Good thing Aviles made it down there. He took off OK out of the box once he saw it had gotten behind the catcher but at the very end looked like he thought the throw was sure to beat him and he slowed up just before getting to the bag.

At this rate, Bard and Doubront will be moving up in the rotation. Still have the issue of innings to confront at some point but I doubt the Sox will have an option after tonights Buch outing.

Miller struck that guy out at least twice....maybe three times

I think this might be the first relief appearance for Miller where he had sat between innings and come out to pitch. Good sign!

I don't know why you guys are so shocked. Pitchers have been pitching around Pedey and Ortiz batting in front of Agons for weeks now. Just have not issues issues the IBB. However they have done everything but.

I guess the Sox have seen enough balks lately to know what one looks like. Byrd was all over that even before the ump.

I have not found a good spot to insert this post since the earlier discussion so I thought I would just give on trying to find a spot and post it here. Stanford actually studied hitting success as it relates to the pitch count. Stanford did a study of pitch count versus success of swinging for four seasons earlier this decade. While they studied a whole bunch of different aspects to the pitch count the best one with regard to hitting later in counts than earlier is the one that looks at swings in counts. For purposes of simplicity to the study it did not try to understand if a hitter actually swung at a pitch that would have been called a ball and simply considered all swings as strikes and all called strikes as strikes. The study shows that the least successful of swings are taken with the count at 0-0. The only "strike" recorded as less successful than an 0-0 strike is a 3-0 strike. However the 3-0 strike tally (not swing tally but strike tally) is biased by the fact that so many hitters are taking 3-0. Again all swings were counted as strikes and all called strikes were counted as strikes. Other than 3-0, the chances of having a strike produce success for the hitter went up in all cases, the deeper into the count the hitter got and his chances were always better at any count other than 0-0. In the case of swinging strikes, the chance of success for the hitter was always better swinging at pitches at any count other than 0-0. Even when they were behind in the count hitters produced better results when the count was anything other than 0-0 and in fact there results always improved the deeper into the count they got. Another way of saying that results are on a percentage basis worse swinging at first pitches than at any other time in an at bat. To say nothing of the fact that a hitter cannot walk unless he gets at least as deep into a count to have 3 balls. The study did not try to speak to the value of walks. It only concerned itself with strikes and swinging strikes relative to the pitch count. We only have to look at Buchs 3rd inning tonight to see the effect walks can have on a game.

Ya but driving up the pitch count is only one aspect of plate discipline. Ya gotta' see pitches to pick on pitches that are good pitches to hit. The more pitches ya' see the more ya' can pick a pitch you can drive and the more you will be on the pitch you do pick.

14 pitches through 5 outs....outf***ingstanding

Boy I hope Josh is not injured. He looked really strange over there at 1st.

Salty must be on his run. Amazing how often he goes from dead stop to 100 mph with apparently no steps in between. It is not like he works his way into it. He goes from K's galore to ball flying off the back walls behind the seats.

I don't think Aviles is a "miserable" SS. He is just not a plus defensive SS and at SS a plus defender can get so much done for you. Look at what Pedey does for us in a position not nearly as noteworthy defensively as SS. I also have come to believe that Aviles is a marginal defensive upgrade to Scuts at SS. Now Salty on the other hand is a miserable Catcher. Salty has got everybody so conditioned to his miserableness that now when he makes what is really a fairly mundane, routine play for any decent Catcher everybody goes nuts because the expectation level is so low. However in Salty's case I will take anything I can get so I even find myself going nuts when he makes a fairly mundane play.

Yes and no....coming into the 8th to get the Sox out of a jam and then coming out to close is pretty intense stuff. Ace pitched a lotta' innings last year but they were mostly earlier in games....coming in to start innings and then going 2-3 innings from there. Now he is coming into these pressure cooker situations in the 8th and then coming in again in the 9th. I think that is the sort of thing you only want to try to get away with once in awhile cause that is a hello of a lot of pressure to put on anybody. You really don't see anybody being handled that way except in really rare instances. Now V has done it twice in really short order and mainly because he appears to be planning it this way. That really bothers me. I would rather V find a way to not be one arm short because that is how he is ending up at this point and he is bringing Ace in to make up for that one arm short he is leaving.

This is a couple times in a row now that V has used Aceves to get out of a jam in the 8th and then close it in the 9th. That is tough duty. V kinda' seems to be depending on this lately. I would prefer V find another way to get through these fixes. It is like he uses everybody up real quick and it looks like he is banking on Aceves coming in where he is that one pitcher short getting through the 8th. Man I don't like that. He has gotten away with it.

Well this scares the living daylights out of me.

Sucky position to be in. Less than two outs so not a go at the crack of the bat kind of deal for Salty. Heck who know Padilla was going to pound that thing to center when he got up. He would almost have had to convince himself he was going on any hit ball in that case...which might not have been a bad idea with Padilla coming up. I wish Padilla would stop with this eephus. Guys can make a mistake twice and still have time to recover. At some point guys are going to start to treat that thing like a poorly thrown change up, just stick their bats out and dump it into the outfield.

No the pitch was the "E"ephus pitch Jacko. What a play by Sweeney! That I think is the play of the year so far for the Sox.

Damn....Padilla burned on the E

Shoot...would have been nice if we could have gotten more runs out of four dingers. But hey the ball is goin' out...just gotta' hold these characters down.

Hi folks...had to install a new printer tonight..that is after returning two of them...one that would not feed and one that would feed but would not print. I see we are ahead. Looks likes lots of runs scored. Any dingers for us? Anything exciting?

Good night Irene

Damn Nava was on that