Maxbialystock

Love the "Over Managing once again," which certainly dovetails nicely with the CBO, owner, and others in the Sox brain trust recently agreeing to extend Cora for 3 more years @ $7M/year. The Sox scored 1 run in this game. They have not won a game this year in which they scored just 1 run. In fact, the vast majority of wins have occurred when the Sox have scored 5 or more runs.

Fair enough.

He has indeed. His WAR is currently 8.8. Devers is next best at 4. Then Abreu at 3. 8.8 is the 2d best WAR in MLB. Judge at 9.8 is first. Bobby Witt is 3d @ 8.7. Ohtani, primarily because he's a DH, is only 6.9. Duran leads MLB in triples with 13 and is tied with Bohm for most doubles with 44. He is 8th in runs scored with 96.

A pretty good rule of thumb this season is that Sox must score 5 runs to win.

Meh. Fact is the Sox hitting/scoring, season to date, is better than the pitching. Last night and today, agreed, the lineup has been miserable. Last night the Sox pitching was excellent, Today, Criswell was fine and the bullpen stunk--yet again.

Duran K's to end the Sox 3d inning.

Sox have 6 lefty bats going against lefty Hurter.

Lefty Hurter, now pitching for the Tigers, went 5 IP while giving up 2 runs against the Angels on August 27, 5 days ago.

Sneaky. In comes the lefty in the 2d inning with 2 on and 1 out in the Sox top of the 2d inning--leading to Abreu's GIDP. Devers remains hitless in his now 3d game since returning to the lineup.

You were really close to being right yesterday despite the Tigers having a big edge with their starter, lefty Skubal, who was terrific for 8 innings. Thus did Pivetta get a quality start--6 IP and 2 ER.--and the loss.

I cannot resist adding that in his very first season, Breslow, who's smart and has 12 years MLB pitching experience, did nothing to assuage JH's lack of confidence in his CBO"s when he did the Sale for Giolito thing. And this. David Dombrowski has been repeatedly successful as a CBO for over 20 years and on several teams. But even he could not prevent what happened in 2019 when Sale and Price both went down with years left on their pricey contracts.

As I keep reminding everyone ad nauseum, JH has been reacting to what DD led the Sox into--the biggest payroll in MLB in 2019, not making the postseason, and not having enough money to compete with the Dodgers for Mookie nor enough money to replace Sale and Price while still paying for their huge contracts. So, yes, no big contracts for a starter since Sale. Biggest payroll in 2024 is the Mets, who are 72-64. Next biggest is the Yankees, who are 79-57 and neck and neck with the Orioles, whose payroll is 22d and--wait for it--$200M less than the Yankees. Does no one on here remember the movie Moneyball and how the John Henry character commended Billy Beane for how little the A's paid per win compared to the Yankees? The real JH, who no doubt loved sabermetrics, nevertheless kept the Sox payroll among the top 3 in MLB for roughly 20 years. Then I think it's possible he just got pissed off.

Another truncated game thread, maybe because they are hard to find. MLB is showing Roman Anthony hitting @ or for Worcester. They flashed his over .900 OPS right before he struck out. Now it's Story. Swings weakly at an outside curve. and misses. Then flies out to LF/CF. Just a tiny snapshot, but it's nice to know Worcester is fully in tune with the big club.

Terrific game, which I did not expect. Credit to moonslav who predicted a win in what turned out to be a very close game.

Of course he's more comfortable in CF. It's easier. And maybe he will hit better while playing CF. But that doesn't mean he isn't still the best Sox SS this season and where he should play this season. I think playing Duran in LF is a waste even though I think he makes the catch Ref didn't tonight which cost the 2d run.

Too valuable to be sent down. He is the best Sox SS right now and the best centerfielder. Plus he's a righty batter facing mostly righty pitchers. I'm not sure the minors can teach him how to see and hit MLB pitching.

I think Pivetta showed a ton of heart getting through 6 innings and giving up 2 runs. Skulak, however, is just as tough as advertised. But at 2-1 it's still a great game and one the Sox could win.

That was a wicked changeup Skubal used to K Gonzalez.

Home plate ump is doing pretty well so far. He might be favoring the pitchers, but that's fine with me. Devers remains hitless in Detroit.

We are just 3 innings, and the score is 2-1, Tigers, but it's been an excellent game to watch. If Ref catches that catchable fly to LF, the game is score is 1-1. So your prediction looks pretty good so far.

Enough. Let's just agree I'm the pissant and you're the expert. I don't know the numbers, but my guess is that most double plays for a major league team involve the 2d baseman. And double plays are a pitcher's best friend. Good double play tandems need to be artists as well as fielders/throwers because tenths of a second count.

You are dead right, of course. That also shoots big holes in all my ranting and raving about Breslow dumping Sale and signing Giolito. Sale was injured, first with the elbow in 2019 and subsequent tommy john, then by a vicious bicycle. Plus one other injury. But then, guess what? He freaking recovered. And, because of the tommy john, his arm was younger than the 35 years of the rest of him. His last 3 starts in 2023 were pretty good. I think Mookie is prototypical of the kind of player who can avoid injuries, but that pitch nailed him and that was it. Story, on the other hand, was just diving for a grounder. And Casas was just swinging at a pitch. But now Casas is swinging again and swinging pretty well. Story is a story worth following--this season.

Sox OPS's vs lefties-- O'Neill 1.082 Gasper 1.000 Ref .912 Gonzalez .911 Wong .875 Jansen .829 Casas .754 Devers .718 Duran .695 Rafaela .694 Yoshida .610

Not much of a surprise to see Wong and Jansen in the lineup together with Wong at 2b. Cora's got 6 righty bats: everyone but Duran, Devers, and Casas, the three lefty bats I would have gone with. Thanks to moonslav who, as always, could not resist sticking in a hopeful comment.

With this new format the game threads grow shorter and shorter, which I don't think is a good thing. The dismaying thing about last night's win is that the Tigers, ranked 19th in runs scored, aren't that good offensively, but still scored 5 freaking runs off the bullpen after Houck pitched 6 scoreless innings. So, even if the Sox hitters perk up and get some hits and runs off lefty Skubal, Pivetta and the bullpen's largesse could give the Tigers the win. I can't say the Sox are in the hunt for the postseason, not with the way they've been playing lately, but I can't say they are out of it either. The Twins and especially the Royals are going to be hard to catch. It does not help that Hamilton is probably out for the season and that Devers' shoulders may have reduced his effectiveness. It is not a good sign that Yoshida had to be benched so that Devers could DH, especially when Devers went 0 for 5. Sogard at 3b was essentially fielding for Devers--probably an improvement--but hitting for Yoshida, a big step down.