jung

Way to go David. Almost got it out. Geez Youk looks like me running.

Youk gets another hit. Almost wanted him to walk just to get his first of the year.

Maybe 30????....got out of the second quick.

Oh yea....Felix is eating the right handers up inside.

Nice bender for strike 1. If Felix can throw that pitch for strikes today these guys are toast

More high heat from Felix as an out pitch

Felix is probably still down in the clubhouse takin' a wiz.

Strike 3 was particularly impressive

Already at 18 pitches so he needed to get the hell outta' that inning. Pop up fine.

Ate him up with high heat. Way to go Felix

Love watching umps one to the next. Apparently, this guy's MO is "not able to see the outside edge to right handed hitters.

No reason to believe we will not hit today unless Moore pitches well enough to keep that Rays bullpen off the field. We are playing at home and for the most part have been patient at the plate, forcing the Rays starter's pitch count up early. Drive the Rays starter off the mound by the 5th or 6th and they appear to be dead! That said based on the last two days I expect Madden to try to keep Moore out there until his arm falls off or until it is painfully obvious that he can't continue.

The biggest change Beckett made against the Rays came at the beginning of the third inning. He had been trying to start hitters off with that 91-92 FB in the first two innings. That pitch was the same against the Rays as it was against the Tigers....flat with middling velocity and right in the heart of the plate. He threw 33 pitches through those first two innings struggling with the use of that pitch early in counts trying to get ahead of the hitters. The weak hitting Rays fouled off a good many of those pitches where a better hitting team would have hammered them. In the third inning Beckett went to plan B and began to offer off speed stuff early in counts and the Rays never picked up on it. They continued very aggressive at the plate and swung at that s*** instead of laying off of it. Beckett only threw 61 pitches in the remaining six innings of work for an average of just over 10 pitches per inning as the Rays kept swinging at that stuff early in counts and did nothing with it except hitting it weakly for the most part. Have to credit Beckett for finding a way to get through that game. However the Rays are a pretty weak hitting team and the Sox OF defense actually did make some plays on the few balls the Rays did hit well. The problem is that Beckett's FB was really no better in location or velocity than it was against Detroit. He put it away after the first two innings throwing cutters more often. Josh has grown more and more dependent on the cut fastball in the last two seasons. The cut FB is a very tough pitch to hit if thrown well and at the right time. The problem I see for Beckett is that once the league's advance scouts begin to report out what he is doing and how he is throwing the FB, you will not see teams do what the Rays did. If Josh is forced away from using the FB the way he has used it for the bulk of his career, they will lay off that off speed stuff thrown early in counts forcing Josh to prove he can consistently throw off speed for strikes. That has also been an issue for Josh throughout his career but the Rays never exposed it choosing instead to swing at those pitches thrown early in the count, never giving themselves a chance to get ahead. If the hitters lay off that junk Josh will be forced back to that nothing FB he has been throwing so far this year and the good hitters will tag that. In fact, mediocre hitters will hit that pretty good. I do think that Josh will someday be a reasonably effective pitcher with a 91-92 FB especially since he has developed such a good cutter. However I don't think that is this year. Using off speed stuff early in counts is still plan B for Josh because he does not have much faith in his ability to throw off speed consistently for strikes and hitters will usually not swing at that stuff from Josh if thrown early in counts when they can wait and pick on that nothing FB he is throwing this year. As I said early, all it will take is for the advance scouts to report out how Josh is throwing that FB and when he again makes the conversion he made against the Rays, hitters will just lay off of the off speed stuff thrown early in counts and sit on that nothing FB.

Oh yea...they are a long way from out of the woods. We are learning more about the Rays in this series than we are learning about the Red Sox.

Well that is interesting. They are gonna have roster spots open with guys on the DL. Seems like it would make sense to get somebody up here. Hell with 13 pitchers on the roster they don't have any backups bench players to start with. So if they are sending Lin back down they must be sending somebody else back up.

Good point...Sweeney is so gangly and uncoordinated. I keep expecting him to actually trip over himself out there and have the ball doink right off his noggin as he tries to right the good ship Sweeney. Ross will be tough to watch in center but Lin's cannon arm may serve us best in our right field. I would bet that V will be more concerned about the offense with both Crawford and Ells out at the same time. so for now I would expect Lin mainly to go into right in the late innings for Sweeney.

So does anybody think Lin will see any time in the line up or will he more likely be a late inning defensive replacement? I suspect that unless another outfielder goes down, he will be a late innings defensive replacement.

Madden is already spooked by his pen. I expect that tomorrow he will be checking his starter each inning to see if his knuckles are bloody from draggin' them on the ground. If not....he's goin' back out there again.

Aceves pitching for a second outing in a row instead of throwing like he was the first couple times out.

Rays have no pen. They are already rotating guys up from Durham which should tell you something.

Well if it was a cookie I guess he should have creamed it. The pitch to Ross was a cookie

Agons bailed out by Ortiz. Nice hitting David. Time for the conveyor belt again Joe. Although looks like he is going to let this guy die out there before he sends him back down.

Don't care whether it was a ball or a strike it was the first pitch of the at bat from a guy that is struggling.

Comeon Agons the guy is struggling to throw strikes and you go up there hackin. Nicely done.

De La Toasta just earned himself a ticket back to Durham