jung

By the way, it is early 2nd period in Phil so that is 8 goals in 24 minutes! Philly just changed goalies.

Wow, Pit over Phil, 5-3 in only the 2nd period of the 4th game of their NHL series. That is a barn-burrrrnerrrr

C'mon...get Josh some runs this inning

These guys just don't miss mistakes. That one to Napoli was right in his wheelhouse. Josh did well to stifle any more s*** after that.

Josh regains courage and throws straight FB

Looks like Josh is going back to cutter after that bomb

Yikes I don't think he left much at home plate on that swing

Holland seems to be dropping down often to the LH hitters. I guess he always has now that I think about it. Can make it real tough to hit and tougher for the ump to track the ball. The way home plate umps have gone so far this year, this guy has not been bad. First time we have not been totally off the wall by the 3rd inning.

Gotta' have a new category for that one. Right after Caught Stealing...Caught Sleeping

Now what the hell was that!

Aviles loves these left handers.

Josh pitched very well there. Beltre is really tough especially with guys on, with two outs....with one out....nobody on....pretty much all the time.

Christ they had to change home plate after last night it had so many Ranger spike marks in it.

How can you discredit a HR? Thank God I don't try to watch those guys. I always think I might switch over just for some variety and usually end up switching back in about 5 nanoseconds.

Josh is still maintaining velocity and his location is the best it has been with FB in the three starts.

Geez I really thought Repko was going to check swing that thing. That was way out of the strike zone.

Maybe Youk will like the 6 hole

Man Hamilton was totally fooled and still got enough of that

Getting 93 on multiple FB here in the first. Won't have to go to plan B if he keeps this up.

Not sure everybody knows yet but Melancon is on his way to Pawtucket. Did not catch who is coming up to replace him.

ESPN guys might be fun for a night and a change from the NESN crew. I have to admit though Don and Jerry were really kinda' funny to listen to last night.

Beckett did hit 93 last year with his FB. However he is aging. He was at an average of 94 for the period from 2007-2009 and had been at 96 for a period in his ealier years occasionally throwing at 97 but not with regularity. He is not getting younger. I would put the chances that he hits 93 with any regularity this year at 50-50.

The contact actually helped Josh against Tampa as they were swinging at the off speed stuff early in counts and not doing anything with it. Josh threw 33 pitches in the first two innings when he was on plan A and only threw 61 pitches in the remaining six innings of his stint because the hitters kept swinging at that off speed stuff he started throwing early in counts starting when he reverted to plan B with the third inning. Presuming that Josh does again go to plan B if the Rangers force Josh to prove he can throw that off speed stuff for called strikes by laying off of it that will tell the story of what Josh might do for the remainder tonight and going forward. This might be one of the most important starts of this part of Josh's career. He is transitioning as all pitchers that have relied on high heat have had to transition at some point or another. I do think both he and we expected the FB to have more velocity than he has shown so far. I would not bet that his velocity will go up that much simply because of the period of the season we are in. Don't see the fast ball pitchers around the league suffering 5 and 6 mph reductions in velocity. Still not sure he is fully sound for one thing.

Look in the early innings to see if Beckett uses his usual plan A, trying to get ahead in the count with the FB and reverts to plan B if plan A does not work as he did with the Rays. Then see if the Ranger hitters lay off the off speed plan B stuff early in counts forcing Beckett to prove he can throw it for strikes. If he can't and is forced back to the same FB he has had in his first two starts.....watch out. He mixed splitters successfully against the Rays but they never caught up to what Beckett was doing in the first place.

Hate to say it but both Salty and Youk are making it easy for them. It is not like they are putting up middling piss poor numbers. They are putting up putrid piss poor numbers and both are defensive liabilities. Poor Salty has nothing to recommend him at the moment. He can't receive, can't throw and can't hit. What else is there? If it is possible for Lavs to continue to hone his catching skills up here then I would bring him up. I don't know what to do with Youk. That is a tougher one. Ya' wanna' keep him active enough to see if he can work out of it but at some point the Sox won't be able to keep from bringing in WMB or moving Aviles to 3rd and making room for Iggy up here. The Sox are giving teams four outs an inning and you don't have to be a genius to know that if you are only getting three outs an inning and the other team is getting four, you are screwed. The actual scored errors are not the issue. It is those combined with the mental mistakes that are just going to eat this team alive. The left side of the infield is not the only issue either. Watching the Ranger outfielders glide around in the outfield was frankly sickening when you compare it to our stickmen. Sure they pounded our pitchers to heck yesterday but they scored 7 unearned runs while scoring 11 earned runs in the process. At least we will be able to see what approach Beckett takes tonight. This really does bear watching.