sk7326

Spinning it to our game last night - obviously wish Koji did not give up the homerun. But he is human, and at least we lost that game with our best guy. Fredi Gonzalez, alas ...

Figures - Rodney threw his 2 best pitches of the inning to Carp right there.

Imagine if this was pre-2004?

From the land of interesting managing tactics - concede the run ... although the go-ahead run was in a precarious spot, Maddon probably did not have much choice. Pitching to Carp was another option but not sure that was a marginal difference.

No reason to be too pessimistic, Rodney is not amazing and got some solid dead red guys coming up

Wow, a Pedroia misread - don't see THAT everyday, s***

two excellent plays by Salty ... Morales made a nice play on the bunt, but Napoli misread that ... Farrell We Love the 80s Baseball with the move to workman - why not Koji now, for real?

on Napoli ... misread that

from the land of switchhitters who shouldn't ... Salty, Nava ...

well, driving him in was another ... not much he could do with most of those pitches

lucky break - although zobrist did block the base ... so it evens out

all jump there - good throw ... great slide

Would have waited til he got to 2nd ... but fun to see a lefty lose the guy he was brought in, REALLY brought in to retire.

Calculated risk - tells you how little Maddon thinks of Delmon Young's ability to field

Delmon Young is so not an option in the outfield ... let's get something done here. We know Uehara is available for hard work tonight ...

Buch did nice job to at least get this game to the "good bullpen" ... if only he had gotten that pitch a wee bit further in on Longoria, sigh ...

Given how horrible the hitting standard is at catcher - being able to catch well is enough to justify a regular nod. If you can hit at all - watch the offers come in!

I don't dismiss them at all - but entering the series, we looked at bat-missing pitching and superior defense as two distinct checks in the Rays column - and the Rays screwed both of them up. I thought (and I suspect I am not alone) that Tampa was a slight favorite assuming both teams play to form ... but Tampa has forgotten to bring their strengths to the party so far.

and blatantly ignoring things like "On Base %" which most baseball fans have already figured out.

They have been excellent. Tampa has been poor - especially poor at the stuff they NEED to be good at. Of course Shaugnessy wrote his article about how the series is ovah, but that's silly. 3 games is a bad weekend. That said, have to like how the team has approached these fireballers.

The bringing out Lackey for the 6th was not great - although going right to his winning bullpen was. You had the extra day and the blowout the night before - so 6 outs of Uehara was there if needed. The thing with Lackey is a bit of the "old timey baseball" things Farrell does at times which is a little baffling given how smart he is and how much the team uses the newer information. Either way, using Breslow aggressively was a good call - and the thing you do when you have a bullpen that you do not have to worry about. And tonight, back to more of the same. It also does give some clue as to what a lot of folks on the board worried about. How do you solve the Red Sox issues with the middle of the bullpen? By skipping it entirely.

Dusty knew how to get his guys to play - but his tactical managing was ... not good.

There are probably 10 "number one" starting pitchers in the league period ... it would be nice to make a serious bid, but we have to be realistic. Ellsbury gets a QO, Napoli probably does and Salty is at least a maybe. Drew is a no. Dempster can be moved, although if we have to endure him for another season, that's not a bad thing - his durability means that those are 180 innings we don't have to give to guys who legitimately can't pitch. His contract was one of the best of the offseason though - the cost of pitchers whose main skill is not getting hurt is significant and the Red Sox did not have to tie themselves up for years. Somebody should see some value in a guy who still has swing and miss stuff and who never gets hurt - it is hard to get through the marathon without that. Getting a Choo to man LF would make a lot of sense as would a Beltran. But if you did not want to overextend, the platoon system works just fine. There is no reason Nava-Gomes-Carp-Napoli still can't hold those two positions down credibly next season. Now we probably cannot expect an MVP-ish season from Victorino again, although if he stays a righty, he very well might have more offensive value than could have been projected over the next 2 years.

Flags fly forever. The 2006 Cardinals need to apologize for being an 83-79 team who hit a September swoon. Now the name of the game is scoring runs and preventing them. The Red Sox did both in tandem better than just about anybody - those are the essential skills here. Now it don't mean jack now because it's a 4 week tournament, and even after hanging 19 runs up against 2 of Tampa's 3 best starters ... losing 3 in a row is the equivalent of a bad weekend in the regular season. It could happen, we have turned the trick before several times. It would not be a choke job or anything historic if Tampa won this series. Dem's the breaks. Basically in October, everything which evens out over the long season - no longer evens out. The Red Sox are the best team in baseball this year - but they are (as any team is) capable of a s***** weekend. We saw Tampa deliver one, particularly flailing at the stuff they are good at (catching the ball and pitching). The Red Sox regular season is the GM's success - not that the players and manager aren't responsible (duh) but if you are measuring Cherington, measuring by the 97 wins is the right way to go. A GM can't get the ring - that is on the players, managers and the usual luck and stuff which come with any tournament. Basically this weekend, the players for Tampa have been shaky enough that it is hard to really give a grade on the tactical managing aspect of thing. That said, Farrell (who has not been great at this part of the job) did very well Saturday. And tomorrow, coming off the travel day and with a chance to put the Rays away - you figure Koji is there for the 6 outs if they need em.

Byrd is a screaming fluke at his age. He has been important for Pittsburgh because they got literally nothing out of that position before his arrival. Choo is the best target - giving years to a 31 year old comes with risk, but he is an on base machine who can play a corner solidly. His platoon split this year earns some additional scrutiny here. Beltran is a great player for a short hitch too.