Navafan29

I think anything that provides more strategy to the game makes it less boring. The fielders all standing in the same spot every game sounds more boring to me than letting teams strategize with positioning as they wish. Thinking about the shift in-between pitches is like mind candy that holds you over until the next pitch. The more strategy and freedom a team has, the less repetitive the sport is to watch. In the NHL, they used to let goalies roam pretty much anywhere they want, and it kinda gave each goalie their own style because some would go out into the corner more aggressively to get the puck. Then the NHL decided it wanted more scoring, so they drew a little trapezoid around the goal and banned goalies from going outside of it when the puck is behind the goal. Now every goalie has very similar movement patterns, and I always wonder how much less repetitive watching the goalie would be if they could do as they wanted again. And the NHL is still a very low scoring sport. I get that some people want to appeal to that brand of sports fan that loves instant gratification and seeing more scoring. But those sports fans will get tired of baseball no matter how we change it. They'll always go back to basketball. If we want people to appreciate baseball, we should do so by getting people to appreciate the tension and strategy of lower scoring sports. We have to get people to understand that the moments where teams do score is worth the wait, because an RBI double is much more exciting than say a three pointer in basketball. We have to popularize watching sports without texting on the cell phone the entire time, so that people can see the strategy in it. Perhaps soccer or the World Cup getting more popular will be the bridge that allows Americans to become less instant-gratifcation with their sports interests.

no big deal

Warm up Ziegler ASAP.

Ortiz is ridiculously friendly with the other teams. Maybe after he retires, we'll be able to have rivalries again...

Forget what year, but there was one game where the Fenway fans chanted "Steroids" particularly loudly. It was so loud and obvious on the broadcast that the commentator had to acknowledge exactly what they were saying.

Looks like the Red Sox are back!! Time to watch a bunch of Red Sox games and root them into the playoffs. I went to the crazy and close 6-3 win over the D-Backs on Sat., and man could that have been a turning point. The crowd was a little demoralized until the D-Backs error and Benintindi RBI. Then after Ziegler's impossible striking out the side with the bases loaded, the crowd went insane, and right afterwards the score in the Baltimore game updated to show them losing. Now fast forward to today, and we have a performance that's even better than what the Good Red Sox have put up this year. It may be time to go on a tear. We managed to stay only a few games back throughout our not great streak, and now it's time to storm to the top. I'm a little worried that the O's keep having all the comeback wins, since teams like that seem to never go away in the regular season. But teams like that do often lose in the first round of the postseason, where everyone is mortal.

We know that we have to make some trade for pitching before the deadline. If you never go for a World Series, there's not much of a point in raising a team in the first place. What's important is not just how good a player is, but the timing of them becoming good. A top pitching prospect that will only be good by the time our offense isn't good enough to win the WS anymore... sometimes isn't as valuable as a pitcher who is solid while our offense is elite. We're a big market team that can afford to take risks to an extent. Was there a better deal possible? Maybe, but it's risky to let the limited number of pitchers sit there as other teams eye a trade. I don't see much of a point in even watching this season if we don't want to go for it. We were all in agreement that we should do some sort of trade for a SP, but we don't all agree on the whether this one was worth it. It's a bit silly that we are trying to figure out whether or not the trade was worth it without seeing the end result of this season. I won't care how much we gave up this year if we win the World Series. A World Series is always worth anything, even two World Series. World Series win = the entire point. How about we complain about all these trades after we get eliminated this year? I may even join you guys in complaining if we don't win the WS.

Nice, I've been watching the game for a few innings. It's the prospects All Star Game, USA V.S. World. Moncada's HR made World go from 1 down to 1 up, and it came in the 8th. His swing was very simple and short, not a cocky power swing.

I've never seen a commentator just rip on their team's manager like Eckersley just did. Farrell thought that the confidence it gives the pitcher to see nobody warming up outweighed warming up another pitcher, which I don't agree with.

I like how after the grand slam that happened due to leaving Wright in the game for too long, O'Brian said something along the lines of "And that opens up the door for questioning Mr. Farrell's decision to leave Wright in." Then Lyons criticizes Farrell to start off the rain delay stalling. It's kind of amusing when NESN turns on Red Sox leadership.

I was telling Wright to throw a knuckleball with the 3-2 count, because his not-fast fastball was extremely obvious. I know there's a wild pitch possibility, but I don't think it's as bad as throwing a fastball that is almost guaranteed to be hit with solid contact. This isn't the first time that Wright has been burned by throwing a 3-2 fastball while in a jam. But as long as the Red Sox win, I won't care, because Holt is doing so good!

I think a WS win is in the top 3 most likely scenarios, but realistically not the most likely. Assuming we don't sit on our butt at the deadline, I feel like we're going to make the playoffs, and not take our playoff position for granted since we had this mid-season slump and will have to fight hard for a playoff spot. Will we win the ALDS? The odds depend on whether or not we have to play in the infamous Wild Card Game. Having to burn through our #1 starter before the ALDS will stop us from having an easy 2-0 series lead. In the scenario where we win the WC game, we'd have like a 55% chance of winning the ALDS. If we win the division, then we're "definitely" winning the ALDS. Now as far as the AL Championship Series goes, this is what I'm worried about. In a 7 game series, you're not going to be as dominant with only 2 great pitchers as you are in a 5 game series. Our weakness will be glaringly more apparent in the 7 game AL Championship series. Beyond that, something about it just shouts "this is where we might lose" to me. However, if we look at the World Series, things get brighter. If we do get past the scary AL Championship series, then that means we'll have figured out our pitching enough to beat anyone, even the best. Our very likely World Series opponent is the Chicago Cubs, who always have something dumb happen to them to ruin their championship. Overall: Most likely Scenario: Red Sox lose in AL Championship Series. Second most likely Scenario: Red Sox WIN World Series Third most likely: Red Sox lose Wild Card Game So not bad at all. I'll take these "odds" that I came up with in my head any day! Let's hope for a championship, but not expect it like spoiled fans do.

I find it interesting how Bad Price and Good Price have similar looking pitches, and they both seem to have decent location and decent control. But Good Price has just a little more - not sure what it is exactly... movement? - on his pitches and it makes a massive difference. I guess you could say that when Price is good, his pitches are alive. When he isn't good, he still has control, but pitches like a robot, and the straightness of his pitches are easy for the batter's vision to track.

Started watching the game again right before Betts's home run... I was shocked. Then I looked at the scoreboard and realized it was the 9th inning! Then my head rapidly realized that this could be the technically best game of the year. Then we won the freaking game with 2013 Koji in the 9th. Then I saw the highlights and realized that this wasn't just some crazy higher scoring game, but had a lot that went into it such as Leon's 11 pitch at-bat and JBJ's walk. It was a tough decision as to whether this game would beat out the April 29th win over the Yankees for my favorite game of the year; that was the game where we won 4-2 in a postseason-esque comeback near the end of a game where runs were hard to come by, thanks to a game-tying double out of nowhere from JBJ against the shut-down Tanaka, and a go-ahead homer by Ortiz against the invincible Betances. That game really helped us bust out of the even AL East and survive the initial storm to become one of the top teams. Today's 8-7 win however, was an even more improbable comeback. Today's game could have even more significance than the April 29th one. The story of the season seemed to be going in the exact wrong direction before yesterday and todays' back-to-back 8-7 clutch comebacks, and sometimes it's hard to believe that you'll stop slipping once you start. To have a slip from greatness that lasts weeks, but come back from it and storm back to 1st and take a huge lead in the standings, is what this win could lead to. Denying a slump from controlling you is arguably better than the initial rise to greatness. Freedom!

Very very glad to see Price on top of his game. If there's one thing that can not happen, it's Price collapsing and his contract burdening us for all eternity. There's a bright side to this season when it's over as long as Price performs well.

Nice, JBJ made a comeback. The three Red Sox that are in right now are the three I voted for, and definitely deserve in. If it wasn't for Altuve, Pedroia would have a shot too. Personally, when I vote for all star rosters, the first thing I look at are stats. Then, after widdling a position down to 2 or 3 players that have the best stats, I see if any one of them has stats that are undeniably above the others'. If not, then I vote for the person that is either A - a more established superstar, or B - a member of the Boston Red Sox. The three biggest problems I have with the All Star Game voting system are: 1. We can't vote for pitchers 2. Defensive statistics are not shown on the ballot, which is unfair to players like JBJ, and catchers who are good defensively. 3. We can vote too many times

Tuned in in time to see Betts's perfect bunt single, and Bogaerts's god-like take of that cutter with 2 strikes. Not sure how he took that. What a top of the 10th! Now let's win.

I do like how almost every game this year has been within reach of victory until the end. Not many games that you can stop watching after the 4th. The 9th inning rally should give us "momentum" for next game.

So we split the Baltimore series 2-2 and end up right back where we started, 1 game up. Splitting 2-2 without our hottest player isn't too bad, if you consider that going 3-1 is technically winning at a .750 rate, which is impossible for a team to do over a long stretch. But our pitching could use some improvement, as more than a couple have said... Time to get JBJ back and beat R.A. Dickey like we always do.

Anyone else think that instead of trying to survive until the trade deadline, we should just go for it now and trade for at least 1 more pitcher if anybody will accept? It's easier to find a trade at the deadline, but trading would be worth a shot now.

And half the ballpark explodes in joy... Tazawa has been struggling when brought in with men on base this year. He does much better when brought in while the bases are empty, it seems.

Holy...Yes!! Dramatic comeback inning (and there's still nobody out!) Game just turned on its head in a heartbeat(obviously). Let's take 3 out of 4 in Baltimore! All the sudden in a third of an inning, we go from a disappointing series outlook to being on track for taking 3/4, which is all anyone could ask!

They just announced that Kelly was sent back to AAA. Didn't see that coming.

I counted 35 seconds in between the battler fouling a pitch off and Buchholz throwing the next pitch. Guess they gave up on the pitch clock?

How to make a game take forever: Step 1: Score a ton of runs in the first few innings, historic record breaking optional. Step 2: Start a nervous starter with a high ERA, and fall behind in every count while the other team rallies. Lose the lead. Step 3: Bring in Clay Buchholz as a long reliever in just the 4th inning. Step 4: Continue historic offense, and have hysteria over the first player to hit 3 HRs in consecutive games delay the game. Step 5: Rally to tie the game, then go to extras. Step 6: Get fatigued and bring in Heath Hembree in the 11th, as both pitchers settle in.