Maxbialystock

Pretty gutsy game by Houck. Horrible 3d, but 5 other scoreless innings. No lineup subs by Cora so far.

Funny. I was just looking at the box score and realized he has 2 freaking hits. My very bad. Houck out for the 6th--of course. There is almost no Sox bullpen.

Note the 5 run comment at the end. I checked earlier this season--5 runs has been the magic number of runs the Sox must score to win. And tonight that's the case once again.

Heckuva rally by the no-names. Way to go, guys. No help from Devers, Yoshida, or O'Neill of course. They're not playing for minimum wage, so they have nothing to prove. Just relax, enjoy the outing, and let the no-names do heavy lifting. Houck has 4 scoreless innings and one bloodbath, the 3d, yielding 4 runs.

I was being facetious about LA because of the 6 dingers in game 3. They used to have a lot of smog. Is that gone?

Up ahead are 3 vs Seattle and 3 vs the Yankees. The Sox could easily lose 12 straight and end their season in time to prevent any help from Breslow/JH.

The air was even thinner in LA. I think you got it on the first comment. Crawford and Houck could be tired.

Well, let's see. Bello was OK and Pivetta was excellent against the Dodgers. But our two best, Crawford and Houck, not so much. Crawford gave up 5 dingers, and so far Houck has given up 4 runs in 2.1 IP. Oh, and once again the Sox simply cannot hit a lefty pitcher. Plus the Dodgers proved the Sox have literally no bullpen. What's left? Defense! I don't think the Sox gave up any unearned runs in LA.

Really???!!!

I know what you mean. Sox split with the White Sox.

You have a faulty memory of 2019. Mine is that the Sox were paying top dollar--the biggest payroll in MLB--for a team that couldn't make the playoffs. In fact, most of the 2018 best Sox team ever players were on the 2019 team. The problem was the Sale and Price turned sour. Price stayed that way but was still paid $30M/year. Sale stayed that way basically until this year, by which point he had moved on to the Braves with the Sox paying his salary.

Thanks for starting the game thread. I agree with everyone who says the Sox need to win at least 2 of these Rockies games. Houck should give the Sox the edge, but of course Gomber is a lefty, so Cora is going with six righty bats-- Duran CF Ref LF Wong C Devers 3B O'Neill RF Yoshida DH Gonzalez 1b Rafaela CF Westbrook 2b Right now--as I keep whining about--the Sox bullpen stinks, and Jansen didn't come to Denver because of the altitude and how it energizes his atrial fib. So, unless Houck goes ape and pitches an 8 or 9 inning gem, the Sox probably need to score at least 5 runs.

Agree on your last statement, but don't agree Breslow helped--except for bringing in Bailey to be the pitching coach. To date Weissert's WAR is -0.5, Slaten's is +0.5, and I. Campbell's is -1.2. So those three are a net negative for the Sox pitching staff. And let's not forget that his big starter move was to dump Sale and pay the Braves $17M for taking him and to acquire Giolito, who has yet to pitch an inning for the Sox. So, when Criswell and Winck and Whitlock started this season, it was partly because of how Breslow botched Sale and Giolito. About my whining about the bullpen. I think you provided a spreadsheet less than a month ago that showed the bullpen was pretty darn good. So I'm wrong to whine so much now.

I'm probably guilty as charged on both points: what Breslow did and whether the bullpen was any good this season. Also, he can't be blamed (or applauded) for bringing in Jansen. On the other hand, except for bringing in pitching coach Bailey, his handling of the rotation last offseason was terrible. He booted Sale and gave the Braves $17M, and he signed Giolito for $38M for 2 years. He did bring in O'Neill, but that's about it for lineup players. Oh, wait. I forgot the Great Grissom kid who was pretty decent (OPS .792) in 41 games in 2022 but has stunk (OPS .520, WAR -1.2) in 46 games since.

Agree on Duran. My bad. Also disagree with my tirade about signing relief pitchers. If Breslow gets starters, one or more current starters can go back to the bullpen. Besides, I know nothing about who's available out there.

Ahem. I'd say the Dodger series demonstrated pretty convincingly that by far the biggest weakness of this Sox team is the bullpen. So I'm less sure than you that 2 starters solve all problems. I've been harping on getting a good righty bat, but maybe what the Sox really need is a hitting/batting coach as good as their pitching coach. Someone who can teach our lefty batters how not to look like complete idiots when they face lefty pitchders. To me these OPS's vs lefty pitchers are inexcusable: Duran .678; Devers .644; Yoshida .518; Abreu .449. I just took a peak at Philly's 2 best lefty bats and these are their OPS's vs lefties: Schwarber .961; Harper .992.

I think of myself as upbeat, but I too have griped on talksox. In fact, that's one of its great values because most of us want/need to vent when we are frustrated by what we've just seen. Apparently, the Sox fans who pay big bucks to watch games at antiquated Fenway Park are also grumbling. Before covid, the Sox were drawing 36K or so per game. Now it's 32K for 3 straight seasons, including this one.

Agree. The simple fact is that the Sox had the lead, 1-0, in the 8th inning Friday night when Bernardino came in and gave it at away and then some. Then Jansen blew the save in the 9th Saturday night. As it turned out, he also blew a possible win last night when he gave up 3 runs in the 8th and the Sox closed it to 9-6 in the 9th inning. Meanwhile our brand new CBO did absolutely nothing to improve the bullpen last offseason. He did dump starter Sale, who now stars for the Braves and is paid by the Sox--go figure that one out because I sure can't--and did pick up Giolito, who will somehow have to earn the $38M he's getting for 2 seasons in 1 season.

Oh, stop it. Just stop it. You are ignoring the fact that as early as 2017 there were signs his elbow/arm was having problems near the end of the season. That all finally came to a head in late 2019, which led to TJ surgery in 2020. And the key point there is that for most pitchers TJ surgery is a new start. However, in Sale's case he missed not only all of 2020, but practically all of 2021--and then lost most of 2022 because of the freak bicycle accident. So Sale only really "used" that new left elbow last season, and that's when we saw some positive signs that he was close to the old Sale, but wisely taking a little off the heater and also adding a cut fastball to go with the slider and changeup. I personally was looking forward to the new Sale this season. Also don't forget that Sale is the ultimate professional in terms of staying in shape and staying focused about his job and about what he is doing in the game. You could be right about "unprecedented," but this was not a miracle. It was Sale being Sale helped by the effects of a surgery that has helped literally hundreds (thousands?) of other pitchers.

He's a righty bat with the 4th most total bases on the Sox and the 2d best OPS. Of course he's an asset, especially when our best hitter, Devers, struggles against lefties.

It looks horrible because it is horrible. Sale is brilliant this year, and the Sox are paying him to pitch for the Braves. That by itself is catastrophic. Grissom might help the Sox someday, but he will never be able to do what Sale is doing right now. Plus I'd rather have Story or Mayer at 2b than Grissom.

I'm being disingenuous of course. I was quite happy with the big payrolls of yesteryear, to say nothing of the 4 WS wins after the 86 year drought. On the other hand, I also understand JH's frustration when the 2019 Sox had the biggest payroll in MLB and didn't make the playoffs. Plus, to make matters worse, DD wanted a bunch more money to keep Mookie and replace Price and Sale while continuing to pay them huge sums to do nothing. That's when he brought in Chaim Bloom, who didn't fare too well with the new budget (which remains a mystery). Breslow stepped in and sent Sale packing to the Braves while paying $17M of his 2024 salary and brought in Giolito @ $19M x 2 seasons--and who has yet to throw a Sox pitch in anger. Talk about a horrible start! But he also brought in pitching coach Bailey, who has been terrific.

You absolutely do not want this team to be competitive. In fact, your biggest disappointment this season was when the Sox went 11 games above .500 right before the ASG break. You want a big payroll and big names in the lineup.

You're blaming this on Cora????!!!!! Varitek is a fat slob who sits on the bench the entire game and brings nothing to this Sox team. I'm not saying he wasn't a good catcher because he was--except when it came to catching Wakefield. For that, the Sox had to have Mirabelli.

Meh. The Sox played well in the first two games until they brought in their bullpen, which stunk uniformly, including Jansen. Tonight, Paxton is simply outpitching Crawford because he has a terrific knuckle curve, a better fast ball, and better command. Crawford relies heavily on his fast ball and cutter and the Dodgers are killing both pitches.