jung

1-2 throw heat

0-2 anything under 90 mph and jones is out

Geez this is scary with the ball carrying so well tonight. One more out pleeeeeease.

I agree that execution makes all the difference with the straight change but I think location is huge with that pitch because if it is low and over the middle of the plate, you don't have to time it as much. You could be fooled and still hit it. Just keep the barrel of the bat in the hitting zone as long as possible and doink.....off it goes. The other problem with being in love with the pitch I think (and that is what I am really saying here) is that the hitters see too many of them and it becomes very difficult not to telegraph it. Hitters end up catching one low and in the middle of the plate and doink....off it goes. Beckett through them by the bushel barrel last night. To your point Kenny Rogers threw straight change after straight change in that monster performance for the Tigers in 2006 but he never got it over the middle of the plate to anybody. He was alway low out of the strike zone or low inner or outer, never low in the strike zone, middle of the plate and nobody touched him that night.

Oh my God, why are so many Sox pitchers in love with the straight change. It is the most dangerous pitch in baseball. It has to either be out of the strike zone low or low inner half or outer half in the strike zone. If it is low in the strike zone and in the middle of the plate all the guy has to do is keep the head of the bat in the hitting zone as long as possible and he will be rewarded with not just a single but often will get extra bases or even a home run. Watch how many guys just drag the head of the bat through the hitting zone on that pitch. We saw it in spades last night with Beckett.

Wow two nice sliders in a row from Bard for the K. Best sliders back to back I have seen from him in a looooooooong time.

Yea I guess some folks have been impressed but I am not sure I have seen a worse defensive performance over the course of a season from a catcher...throws have been terrible, he can barely receive the ball (stabs at the ball like a little leaguer) and I am still not convinced he gets more than a C- grade for the way he handles pitchers.

Geez did you see Crawford swing at that worm burner. That thing never got over ankle high and he was swinging like it was belt high, middle in.

I am happy for the kid but did you see how that thing carried over the left fielder. He was there waiting for it to come down and it ends up about two rows back. Salty, I would visit the Boston landmarks the next few weeks if I were you. We are all so sick of your act.

Aceves is burned at this point so I am OK with pitching him to Guerrero. I think this will be it though. Bard in the 8th, Paps in the 9th.

AGons disappointed that there was nobody on base and two outs preventing him from adding to his league leading DP stats. "Damn" he says on his way down to first " a wasted ground ball".

I think Aceves will stay in this game unless he shows any sign of weakening before the 8th. I do think we will see another Bard sighting tonight. In fact I am wondering if Aceves is really going well and we still have a 3 run lead if Tito might try to bring Bard in the 9th tonight. Paps is due for one of those turns into a pumpkin at midnight save attempts and I would hate to see it happen tonight if they even get there. Although Tito is like a book. There is probably no chance of him holding Paps out in the 9th even if we have a 10 run lead.

Jesus but does it not look like the ball carries like crazy in this park this time of year? It carries there pretty well anyway but this is ridiculous. That was basically another long fly ball that just went out.

Scutaro two run dinger gives us a little breathing room....yea That said does every single Sox hitter have to swing at the first pitch now with runners in scoring position. Scutaro was a fraction of an inch away from popping out one pitch before he hit the homer.

I left the TV for one second to take care of my daughter and they are down one. Did Crawford drop another ball?

I would prefer it go the whole nine if only because not only are we playing badly but we can't catch a break either. With our luck the game will get to five innings, with the O's scoring one more run than the Sox as a downpour starts.

Best thing that could happen to the Sox is an end to the perennial sell out streak. It is about time they started to get dinged for piss poor performance.

Talking head Holly from WEEI spent the afternoon defending Theo. Frankly I have yet to find a sport that Holly knows anything about. As soon as Holly's defense of Theo started falling apart he wanted to talk about Cashman's free agent signings. I hate it when people use that sort of argument. I don't give a rats ass what Cashman did. Cashman has nothing to do with this Sox mess and last I looked the Sox were looking up at the Yanks. Lowrie in the 4 hole.....thats imaginative Tito....good luck. I guess we are trying to win the AL pint sized clean up hitter award.

They are a very bad combination of personalities. They don't match up well with each other and the manager does not match up well with the team that he now has. Funny people have nipped around the topic of Tito and Theo not being on the same page. Whether he knew he was doing it or not, Theo has transformed this team into a team that is virtually impossible for Tito to manage. Not saying Tito is a great manager but he has no shot with this team. The Crawford deal is the poster child for this mess with Drew, Lackey and Julio not far behind. I don't know what is worse. If John Henry wanted the Crawford deal and Theo did not have the ammo to dissuade him that sucks. If Theo wanted Crawford that is even worse. In my view Theo is too reliant on his computer generated numbers to make determinations about free agent players and does not believe in scouting. While we are at it, how do we feel about Theo bringing Salty here? On top of everything else Theo is so insistent that he is right about players that he signs them to these ridiculously long contracts that we are doomed to eat.

Even when Salty had that run at the plate he was still the worst defensive catcher in the league from what I was seeing. Heck I thought he was the worst defensive catcher I have ever seen....never mind worst now. He can't catch it and he can't throw it and at the start of the season he could not even handle pitchers competently. What else is there but catch it, throw it and handle pitchers. I actually think that as the overall team performance got worse and worse it's worst players felt compelled to sink even lower into the abyss. Remy is talking about the injury effecting Salty's throwing. Ya' mean it could be worse?

Well I have not seem them recover from many four run deficits lately. Beckett has not been able to get out of these innings all year long. I just don't understand why Tito left him there. Remember last night. He pulls Aceves instead of letting him get the last out of the 7th inning with nobody on base and no threat from the Yanks and Aceves clearly pitching fine. He leaves Beckett in tonight hoping Josh can get the last out of the 6th when Becket is up over 100 pitches, clearly done and with a history this season of blow up innings? To me Tito's biggest problem as a manager is that he does not think situational baseball. He gets it into his head that this is what he is going to do in a given situation and that is it. in other words he has a managerial style and the situation can be damned. In this case, I have to believe that for Tito, Beckett is his ace....he must get this last out of this inning for me. Why? So it appears not to matter to Tito that Josh has not gotten out of these inning all year and now he is stuck in one, obviously tired and having already thrown 100 pitches in a game that we have to have.

Frankly Salty has been the worst defensive catcher in baseball since....well....the beginning of the season. and they still found ways to win. Problem is that they all for the most part play like stiffs now except for Pedey and Ells. Sure he should have thrown Vlad out but how different is Salty's play tonight than it is every night. Difference.....not even Beckett as this is the way he has pitched now for awhile. Ya' have to manage for today Tito not tomorrow. Beckett has shown us time and again this season that he is not capable of pitching out of innings when he gets in trouble. That has been the case even when the pitch count is not up there. Injuries to starting pitching started the ball rolling downhill but that is all it did, start the ball rolling. Biggest difference in this team is that it has checked out mentally. Most impact from having checked out mentally has been at the plate followed by defense, followed by base running. At the plate, they bat thoughtlessly and can't get back to the dugout fast enough. In the field, most of them are no longer even in the right position to make a play.....on the bases Tito is over-managing them. Best thing that could happen for them is a complete collapse into the oblivion of the off season and a very serious evaluation of where they are. Heck it may be the best thing for us for that matter. They ar playing double AA baseball at best and that is getting hard to watch.

Goodnight Sox. Does not matter when in the game it happens lately....when Josh starts to struggle we don'e get a one run inning we get an avalanche of runs. However I will go back to the top of the inning and ask how you can possibly go down that fast in a game that you have to have and expect to be taken seriously as a playoff contender.

OK so Pedey missed the tag on the steal but where was Salty throwin' it? Do we have to have an overshift for Salty's throws?

C'mon Josh....get the ball down. Ya' gotta' go at least 7 tonight.