Maxbialystock

Astonishing game, completely unpredictable. Terrific win for the Sox, especially because of the hitting and 12 runs scored.

He's missing on his pitches, but he is not mindless. It's possible you are however.

Yesterday was grim if only because it reconfirmed how rotten the Sox hitting has become and the bullpen has continued to be. The Orioles have beaten the Sox like a drum this season except the 4 game series 3+ weeks ago in Baltimore which ended at 2 games apiece.

After 2 K's, Valdez pops up to the infield. So, progress. Sox have scored 2 runs in 8 innings. Not good.

Sox are of course 0/5 with RISP.

Also a gross error by me. I didn't see that misplay by Casas. Grounders are in fact his weakness. And yes, both runs are unearned thanks to Casas. Abreu ties it up with the Sox second solo dinger.

I deserve that. Looks like maybe Fitts just ran out of gas.

Horrible, horrible hitting and baserunning by the home team, with absolutely no excuse for it.

You think? The rest of the team absolutely stinks at the plate and on the basepaths, so the game is tied without his dinger. Plus his catching doesn't seem to have hurt Fitts' first ever MLB start, now 5 IP with 0 runs scored.

We're in the 4th and so far the Sox hitting stinks, period. Baserunning also stinks, which actually means the baserunning had been stupid. Dummies include the 3d base coach, Abreu, and Story. Defense looks pretty good, especially the starter Fitts, 4 IP, 0 ER, 0 BB, Another nice double play, Fitts to Story to Casas.

Horrendous baserunning by home team in the 1st. Duran waved home when he didn't have a chance. Then Abreu tries to steal 3b when he too did not have a chance.

Excellent graph/display!!!

Once again, excellent laydown and analysis. Recently I said the Sox need righty bats, but now I'm not so sure. So it's hard to disagree with focusing on the pitching. And your big point is that fixes are doable within almost any budget.

Up from Worcester where his ERA is 4.17 in 23 starts. Last night the Sox needed 7 runs, which is likely again today. Cora going with 6 lefty and 3 righty bats and no Rafaela.

That was a superb 97 mph fast ball to finally strike Abreu out. Also a great slider to get O'Neill. Kuhl strikes out all 3 Sox hitters in the 7th.

Good last pitch by Bernardino to get the last out in the top of the 7th.

Now Bernardino wants to give up a dinger. You know, to tie things up.

Agree with both of you. Criswell does not impress me, but there is absolutely no arguing with 5 IP, 2 ER. I have been impressed with Story tonight, especially in the field. On one of those double plays, I think his short toss was perfect and necessary. Plus he's consistent. moonslav needs to chime in because I also like the overall defense tonight and am OK with Wong's error on the grounder, which he should have caught. But the amazing stat is that Cora went with 7 righties and stayed with them after the Chisox lefty starter was pulled after just 2 innings. The Sox have scored 7 runs with 7 righty bats. So of course in comes the renowned BoSox bullpen, friend to all, and dispenser of largesse. Score now 7-5 because Shugart gave up 3 runs in 1.1 IP.

Who are all those other idiots who posted on the OP? Most of them criticized Cora for going with 7 righty bats in the lineup tonight, and we're still in the 1st inning with 4 Sox runs in and Wong on 2b with 1 out.

7 righties makes all kinds of sense because the Sox have a pretty big OPS gap between hitting lefties and hitting righties. Someone, one of the newbies I think, claims the Sox have never played defense, ever. Not true. What is true is that the Sox prefer to play hitters first, glove men second. Ted Williams never came close to a gold glove. Tonight's lineup actually is not that bad on defense with Story at SS, Duran in LF, and Rafaela in CF. Devers is OK (not that good) at 3B, but I like Casas these days at 1b because he is especially good at grabbing throws to 1b. Romy's fine at 2b. Jansen's probably better defensively at C than Wong. Musclebound O'Neill is not good in RF, but you can't have everything. I can't decide whether Ref has enough arm to start at DH, but for now he gets a pass.

Actually, I think it's billions. And he did make millions, not billions, in the commodities market. But over the last 30 years he has invested primarily n baseball, starting with owning a minor league team, then owning the Marlins for 2 years before buying the Sox circa 2002. I agree with bellhorn there is nothing likeable about John Henry. He is fundamentally a cold-hearted businessman. But he did astutely buy the Sox, hire smart guys to make them better while at the same time underwriting it all with one of the top three payrolls in MLB for close to 20 years--2003-2021. He not only ended the 86 year drought, but brought home 3 more WS wins, the most in MLB during his tenure with the Sox. And that's why the Sox are reportedly worth maybe $5B. Not too shabby. Plus JH has a soccer team and other sports ventures and has long been out of the commodities market. Would I like him to go back to one of the top 3 payrolls in MLB? Sure I would. But I honestly think he owes us fans nothing because he delivered more than any other Sox owner and by a wide margin.

You have no peer in laydowns like the above. That said, the biggest shortcoming--my opinion--is the Sox need to fix the righty bat issue. It's now almost universally known they simply can't hit lefty pitchers. Their current OPS vs righties is .764 and against lefties--with O'Neill and Ref both in those lineups--.716.

And you're definitely entertaining! DD signed Sale to the long-term contract, after which Sale stopped pitching and DD got fired. CB kept Sale around almost certainly because there wasn't much else to do with him, plus in 2021, 2022, and 2023 there was always the possibility he could pitch. He did in fact pitch all 3 seasons, just not much until 2023. So, honestly, I don't think CB was fired because of Sale--but probably was fired because he was a bad fit for the Sox or simply incompetent. Breslow looks great on paper, but so far hasn't done much good and is the proud owner of one of the worst moves in MLB in the last five years: dumping Sale, who is now a Cy Young candidate for the Braves while the Sox are paying him $17M this season. Breslow instead signed Giolito, who struggled the last month of last season and has yet to pitch one inning for the Sox while being paid $19M.

The hitting seems to have collapsed, having gone from about 5 runs per game to less than 3 runs per game, which is a 40% drop in scoring.