Maxbialystock

Lousy at bat by Devers, swinging at 2 pitches inside. Plus of course he hit both of them poorly--lefty vs lefty. Close call on that 4th pitch to Ref. He definitely swung at it but got the call. Now he gets ball 4 on a pitch in the zone. Angels know they got screwed by the ump.

That was not a double play ball, so the Angels still score 5 in the first. To Cora's credit, he didn't send him back out for the 2d and brought Dobbins in instead. He then pitched 5 IP so far with 1 ER. And the Sox are down just 7-5 in the 6th. Great move by Cora because I thought this game was winnable after the 1st inning. Bottom line: great managing by Cora.

A prescient point. It's that lousy lineup that enabled the Angels to jump out to a 6-0 lead in the top half of the 1st inning. This fixation on lineups is just stupid.

Agree, which is the point of the OP. No quick fixes for the pitching. So of course we bring Anthony up. I would prefer him at 1b, but if that's not possible I would keep Rafaela in CF, put Anthony in LF, and use Duran when situations permit. Duran's WAR is .8 compared to Rafaela's 1.9 and Abreu's 1.9. Both Abreu and Rafaela lead MLB in DWAR for their positions (RF and CF). I think the OP stole some of my stuff. I was the first one to point out the hitting stopped the day after Bregman took himself out of the game. I also recommended Gonzalez be first choice at 1b. I was also the first to remind everyone that Devers led MLB in rbi's and has the highest OPS of his career. Breslow trying to move Devers to 1b was just stupid. I vehemently disagree with the OP's assertion that we miss Casas as much as Bregman because there was no Casas to miss, at least not this season. Toro's OPS, .845, is over 250 points higher than Casas' was. I also disagree with moonslav's assertion that the defense is a big problem because he bases that on the number of errors. So one more time. The Sox team fielding percentage is 98 freaking percent and the best team fielding percentage is 1 per cent higher, 99%. Fielding percentages are meaningless. Better are the individual players' DWAR's, and right now Narvaez, Rafaela, and Abreu all have the highest DWAR's at their positions. Before he went down, Bregman's was a solid +0.8. Since pitchers normally don't have DWAR's, that means that half of this team's defenders were/are well above average. Story has lost some range, but he has been steady at SS with a DWAR of -0.1. I think Toro is an improvement (over Casas) at 1b. 2b is clearly a problem with Campbell, but Mayer already has a +0.1 DWAR at 3b.

Pretty good laydown, all in all. Last paragraph/sentence is a doozy. Best rationale yet for bringing up Anthony now. I also like putting him at 1b. Interesting take on pitching coach's preference for breaking balls. I agree with that prefence, but of course they have to be good breaking balls. But I also like the notion of using heat more often. Uehara never had "heat," not when his fastest was about 88 mph. Nevertheless he mixed that slow 4-seamer with the splitter and was devastating. One of my favorites.

You want to fire Cora because of the freaking batting orders? You must be nuts. For starters, the pitching is what's ranked 17th in MLB in team ERA while hitting is ranked 6th in MLB in runs scored. Then there's the fact that Devers, batting 2d, is tied for the MLB lead in rbi's and has the best OPS of his career as the DH. As for those 1 run games, I think it's simply a matter of opposing teams rising to the occasion more often than our guys. Forget late in the game, others have pointed out that we stink with RISP early and late. Plus we are ranked 3d in strikeouts (by our hitters). And this. Our recent 5 game losing streak was caused in part by the injury to Bregman. I like Mayer a lot, but he sure ain't no Bregman. At least not yet. While I don't fully agree with the OP, I do think one of our issues right now is inexperienced. In today's game, for example, Cora started just two real veterans, Story and Devers, Story's OPS, season to date, is .603. The OP makes an interesting case about the pitching staff's preference for breaking balls--as dictated by the pitching. To be honest, I favor breaking balls too, but the radio announcers keep reminding me that too often the breaking balls are in the middle of the zone and not breaking sharply. In a completely different sport, NCAA mens basketball, Ken Pomeroy has developed an off the wall stat he labels "luck." It refers to close games of 1 or 2 points and a team with good "luck" wins those games more often and with bad "luck" loses them more often. That's kind of the way I see those 1 run games. Some of it to me is luck. But I agree some of it is malfeasance by our hitters and/or pitchers. And some of that malfeasance is because of inexperience.

Agree.

Ahem. We've already seen how difficult it has been for Mayer to adjust to MLB pitching. The simple fact is that the hitting was hurt bad by the Bregman injury. I'm still in favor of bringing Anthony up, but I'm less sure than you he can fix the hitting this season.

Afraid so.

Can't get the game, so have reverted to NESN radio, which is pretty good. What's happening is not so good.

Love line 2.

Pitching has been a problem all season long, but now the hitting suffers from the absence of Bregman. The Sox lost 5 straight after Bregman's last game (for an estimated 2 months). We all like Mayer at 3b, but his OPS so far is .554. Against righty Schwellenbach Cora is repeating last night's lineup: Duran, Devers, Abreu, Narvaez, Mayer, Toro, Story, Campbell, and Rafaela.

Yes, it is.

Chapman needs to keep using that slider to keep the hitters from sitting on that excellent fastball. He gets in trouble when he keeps throwing heat. As for Crochet, the point is to win games. He's been great almost every time he's pitched, but he hasn't won many because of the other 24 players on the roster.

Neat game. Big play by Toro on that bad throw. And didn't Rafaela go way back for a drive to CF? 40,000 came to see these teams play in Atlanta. 5 relievers, but I think all were necessary.

Agree.

What breaks? All I've seen is good hitting and pitching and fielding. This 5-1 lead is earned.

Surprise of surprises, I do. One heckuva game and it's a long way from over. Since I am the only one who ever said replacing Casa was the easiest thing in the world, I can't help noting that Toro's OPS is .843 and he just made a terrific grab of a horrible throw by Story for out 3 in the 7th. Also a shout out to the radio guys on NESN. They are constantly on topic with lots of insights, plus they get really jazzed when the Sox do something right--like Story's dinger tonight. I used to listen (1953-54) to Curt Gowdy call the games. He was terrific, but I like these guys more. Nice grab by Mayer!

Emphatically agree with both of you about not giving up. While I love Breslow's acquisitions this year, I can't forget that he dumped Sale for Giolito last year. I also didn't like his bypassing Cora to tell Devers to play 1b and that's mostly because I think DH is the right slot for Devers this season.

Given that Story's hitting stinks and his range has lessened at SS, that's where Rafaela could go. Story to 2b, where he was pretty good in 2022 (WAR 1.0). Christian to 1b. With Anthony basically replacing Toro in the lineup, the Sox should get a nice uptick in offense/hitting. Plus Christian just might be better at 1b than at 2b, where his DWAR is -0.7.

Good point. The current MLB pitching dictum is not to let a starter go through the opposing lineup a 3d time because the stats say the other team will hit your starter hard. I say that depends on the starter. Crochet seems fine the 3d time through. Last year Houck was fine the 3d time through. In 30 starts he averaged 6 IP per game and had 19 quality starts. Another key factor of course is "how good is your bullpen?" Ours ain't that good, plus I think they are being overworked. Another factor has to be the pitching coach. Two no doubt insignificant factoids: last year Houck was great and this year he stinks; last year Pivetta stunk and this year he's the Padres' ace. What did our pitching coach say about 18 months ago when Bregman wanted to dump Sale and get Giolito?

I said that already when I discussed the ongoing 5 game losing streak. As for "help," I don't see many good options. I'd love to see Anthony move up, but, with Bregman gone for at least 2 months, the 2d, 4th, and 5th best WAR's on the team belong to Abreu, Rafaela, and Duran. (Devers has the highest WAR and Narvaez is 3d. On this Sox team, it's the infield that needs help. Story can't hit and had lost some range, Campbell has stopped hitting, and Sabol never has hit. If Anthony wants to get to Boston ASAP, he should think 1b.

And the pitching, despite the addition of high-priced Crochet and Chapman, is just as Notin says--ranked 17th in team ERA, it's no better than last year's and therefore stinks. Historically, the Sox have been terrible at developing pitchers on their MiLB teams. Breslow is a former MLB pitcher (10 seasons) and is the guy who dumped Sale and paid $40M for Giolito. Last year Sale won the NL Cy Young, and this year he has a lower ERA, more IP, and more quality starts than anyone on the Sox not named Crochet. However, despite his lousy ERA (5.27), Giolito has 3 quality starts in 5 games. Plus I haven't quite given up on Buehler (ERA 3.95) and Bello (ERA 3.83).

One game can't tell us spit. If it could, the 19-5 win 6 games ago could not possibly have led to 5 straight losses (and still counting). It's the 5 game losing streak that is scary because it revealed the Sox ineptitude in piching, hitting, fielding, and even running the bases. In those 5 games it was the Sox hitting that sucked the most. The pitching was actually decent in games 1, 3, and 4. I don't recall any great baserunning feats, but do remember a number of gambles that failed. For most of the 5 games, I think the defense was pretty good--until last night.

Actually, you said Bregman sucked this year because of the 5 errors and fielding percentage of .967. While I support the DWAR approach to measuring defense, I think for infielders it probably leaves out one factor I think is important--and that's double plays. And right now the Sox are ranked 3d in double plays per game. For that reason alone I'm not all that distraught about Story's DWAR. Also this. Casas's DWAR was an awful -0.7, but I liked the way he fielded throws to 1b. Plus I'm pretty sure that this season he intiated at least 2 double plays with excellent throws to 2b and then hustling back to 1b. He was routinely awful on pop flies and only a little better on grounders. If his OPS had been .850 I would have been very happy with him at 1b. And that leads to my final point. Scoring runs is job 1 for the infield and outfield and DH. That's especially true when we know that team fielding percentages suggest all defenses are equal.