Maxbialystock

Smith is hitless and worthless. And Casas may or may not play again this season.

Well, there's always the excuse that the bullpen is overworked and exhausted. Oh, wait . .

Can someone explain how the call against Kike at 2b wasn't reversed? He looked safe by a mile.

Sox bullpen stinks. Sox bullpen stinks. Sox bullpen stinks.

I agree, but he has the Sox bullpen's only $16M/season pitching arm. In fact, if we ignore Sale, $17M, and Giolito, $19M, he has the most expensive arm the Sox are paying for this season. Giolito is on the IL and Sale is on the BL (Braves List).

For tonight, absolutely.

O'Neill just might have a hot bat. So, should Jansen be asked back to pitch the 10th? Better still, how about an encore from Bernardino?

The Sox bullpen is broken, period. In these two games the starters have gone 12 innings and given up 3 runs and the bullpen has gone 6 innings and given up 4 runs. And I left out that Winck got incredibly lucky to escape with that GIDP.

It is not, repeat, not an implosion. This is exactly what Jansen throws every game. The amazing thing is how often it works.

Two straight games the Sox get quality starts by Pivetta and Bello only to have the bullpen blow leads both times.

On the upside, I thought it was a very exciting game until the bottom of the 8th. I was hugely impressed with the Sox pitching--@ the Dodgers--and by Duran's dinger. I think Pivetta struck out Ohtani 3 times.

I don't particularly like Bernardino because of other games I've watching him pitch in. But it did in fact make sense to send him in against Ohtani and Freeman. Ohtani's OPS is .875 vs lefties and 1.119 vs. righties. Freeman's OPS vs lefties is .753 and .966 vs righties.

The inscrutable notin. While I agree the Sox hitting, especially with RISP, wasn't so hot, I remain amazed that no one has mentioned Bernardino as having had any effect on the game outcome. In fact, I don't think his name is in this game thread. The simple fact is that all by himself Bernardino killed us. Pivetta went 6 scoreless and Kelly would have gone 1.1 scoreless if Bernardino hadn't been absolutely terrible. He's done this before--sabotaged a winning effort--but he usually does it by allowing the previous Sox pitcher's to score runs. This time the grand slam cost him 3 runs and jacked up his ERA to a very misleading 2.53. His WHIP, 1.28, is a better indicator of why he hasn't been that useful this season. Yes, O'Neill got caught napping, not only not getting back to 1b quickly enough, but also going most of the way to 2b on an easy fly to short LF. But, had he been safe at 1b, the Sox would still have had 2 outs with little likelihood they would bring him home. To me the real message on this game is that the Sox are tough, but still need some help in the form of one or more good arms (SP or RP) and maybe a good righty bat or two.

Yet another 93 mph fast ball right down the middle for a K, this time by Duran. Maybe all the Sox have "can't hit mid to upper zone fastball" disease.

Wong K's on a 93 mph fastball near the geometric center of the strike zone.

Good old Vargas. Gotta love that guy.

I've seen him hit those this season, but I've also seen him miss a bunch. His OPS is .974, not too shabby, you think?

6 shutout innings for Pivetta!!!!! At 90 pitches, he might come back out for the 7th.

mlb.com box score says the temp at Dodgers Stadium is 78 degrees, just about perfect for baseball.

Ohtani The Great One has K'd 3 times against Pivetta.

Good move by the Dodgers to bring in the lefty reliever to get Devers, Yoshida, and Abreu.

Fat fastball right down the middle, and Devers swings and misses for a K.

Way to go, Pivetta! 5 scoreless innings and 77 pitches against the 3d best lineup in MLB. going into this series, the Dodger have scored 479 runs--compared to the MLB leaders, the Yankees, with 488 runs. Related applause for catcher Reese McGuire.

Good grief. Who is that masked man batting leadoff for the Sox? That was pretty nice and pretty doggone big.

I don't know any applicable rule, but what you say makes perfect sense. This is an absorbing game so far. Pivetta has used a lot of pitches, but has done the job for 4 innings. He could go 6. Sox are 0 for 8 with RISP.