Kimmi

There's more to it than that. The best example is of two teams both getting 9 singles in a game. Team 1 gets those 9 singles in the same inning. They are going to score 6 runs, assuming no double plays in between. Team 2 gets 1 single each inning. They won't score any runs. On a somewhat related note, there was something very cool about JD hitting 6th in Friday's game. To me, the line up seemed much more lengthened.

I'm with you. I hate seeing those kinds of clips, despite our recent WS success. If the Rays end up winning this series, I don't ever want to see that Arozarena clip again. Of course, if we win, they can show the clip as much as they want to.

It's not called "cluster luck" for nothing. Teams have little control over the clustering of their hits.

LOL I was about to post something in response to iortiz, but this sums it up well enough. LOL

Since I'm not posting in the game threads, I have to give a shoutout to Houck here. Our offense exploded, but IMO, Houck was the MVP of that game.

The Rays are a very good team. I won't deny that. It's amazing how they never seem to skip a beat, regardless of which players they lose. At this point, I like our chances even more. Today's game will end up being the deciding game of the series, IMO. Win today and I think we take the series in four.

I've said it before and I'll say it again. The Rays are where they are offensively in large part because of cluster luck.

Did not see that coming, and I really hope he doesn't do this. Focus on being a one-way player.

To be honest, I am never extremely confident in predictions when going against the Yankees. LOL I am not a big believer in home field advantage in baseball, but for this game, I think it was a pretty big factor. The crowd was louder than I can remember hearing it in a very long time. I don't think the Yankees stood much of a chance after the Sox grabbed the early lead.

Just because I think Bloom deserves more credit, how good of a pickup did Schwarber end up being? Not including the postseason, he has 161 wRC+ and 1.4 fWAR in 41 games with the Sox. Not to mention the intangible effect he has on the plate discipline of some of our other hitters.

Martinez is not opting out.

This is a very real possibility, an added benefit of not going over this year. The Sox have the financial flexibility to make some big moves this offseason. Not that I'm condoning signing any huge contracts.

Every team has the 'ability to go over'. In reality, it's not going to happen year after year, regardless of how much money an owner has.

The team is in the playoffs during what was a rebuilding year. Yes, I agree that much of the talent was already there, but you can't argue with the players that Bloom picked up that turned out to be key players. He did this while staying under the luxury tax limit and, most importantly, while strengthening our farm. Depending on whose ranking system you use, the Sox farm improved by about 11 spots this year. IMO, that's pretty incredible. That said, I would still give larger credit to Cora for this year's turnaround.

One game at a time. Needless to say, today's game is pivotal. The winner of today's game will likely be playing in the ALCS.

That's a fair point about the manager.

I found this piece to be rather interesting: Former MLB exec: Gerrit Cole isn’t an ace without sticky stuff so Yankees are working on solution with Commissioner’s Office Former Miami Marlins president David Samson joined The Rich Eisen Show on Thursday, and laid into Cole, who didn’t make it out of the third inning in New York’s 6-2 loss in the American League Wild Card Game. “Gerrit Cole has a great contract on paper. He makes a ton of money. But at the end of the day, without foreign substances, he’s far less effective. He’s not really an ace.” That led to this exchange between Eisen and Samson: Eisen: “So are you saying Gerrit Cole is not going to be the same pitcher because the sticky stuff is no longer allowed? Is that truly what you are saying?” Samson: “I’m saying that the New York Yankees are working very closely with the Commissioner’s Office and they are trying to develop a foreign substance that is agreed to by the union as part of the new Collective Bargaining Agreement and they are testing that substance by calling up Gerrit Cole and saying, ‘Hey, do you like this one? Do you like that one?’ Gotta do something.” I don't know how much truth there is to that, but I hope the Commissioner's Office is not catering to Gerrit Cole and the Yankees.

I think I am one of the few who is not that critical of Cashman. He is not without fault, but no matter how right handed this offense was, or how defensively challenged they were, the talent was there. The team should have been better than what they ended up being. IMO, this is on the players and the manager. That said, Cashman's time with the Yankees has probably run its course.

I'm not saying that Bloom hasn't made some mistakes, but what he has done with the franchise in the short time that he's been here is really rather incredible. As Nick said, value, value, value.

Good to hear. Life is good, but it's also very busy!

I'll take the Red Sox in 4 in this series.

It's always a great thing when the Yankees are eliminated. It's 100 times sweeter when it's the Sox that eliminate them. Woohoo!

That's the bottom line.

Let's just hope that Devers does not turn down the equivalent of Mookie's $300M offer and choose instead to go after the most money.

The common thread with all those guys is Francona. He doesn't get enough credit.