Maxbialystock

Terrible at bat by Yoshida. Not quite so terrible. That was a curve on the outside freaking corner.

That's what he struck Casas out with--a cutter right down the freaking middle. Huge hit by Duvall.

That cutter Civale is throwing is very effective.

Devers tripped, but somehow--I think the ball hit the baserunner--got the ball back to prevent the baserunner from advancing (beyond 2d and 3d). If Devers catches the ball, the guy stealing 3b is still safe because the baserunner got a huge jump when he realized Bello was ignoring him.

Great comment--"even the balls are looking like strikes until the last instance."

9 Sox up and 9 Sox down. I've said way too many times the Sox normally, usually need to score 5 runs if they want to win the game.

Good point. In fact, he didn't throw pitches way away from the plate--all four were close but no cigar. On the other hand, the Rays are/were pretty good at exploiting that BB because they then pulled off a ridiculously easy double steal, followed by a single in the hole and a double down the line.

Normally, usually, I'd agree 100%. But right now I think the Rays hitters are actually hitting toward the gaps. But I also agree the double was the only one hit really hard. On the other hand, let's not forget that Bello walked a guy on 4 pitches. It took Civale 19 pitches to get through the 1st inning, but he didn't walk anyone.

Right now I'd have to say that the ump is giving more to Civale than to Bello. Of course Civale is much better at hitting the corners, so he got the benefit of the doubt on a couple.

The big difference in pitching is that the Rays pitchers can hit corners and the Sox pitchers usually cannot. Also, I'm impressed that, while I think Rays hitters are fully prepared to swing at pitches in the strike zone, they are also good at not swinging at pitches outside the zone. The pitch that Casas grounded out on was right down the freaking middle. And now Duvall wants to throw a tantrum over a pitch that was in fact a strike.

Well, it's an unfair matchup. Rays do 4 things well the Sox don't do well: hit, pitch, field, and run the bases.

Rays routinely score from 1b on a double. Sox rarely do.

Single, walk, and double steal followed by a single, 2-0.

Love it. You have no peer in laying out solutions--or just data, for that matter. And I actually agree on the infield with Devers, Story, Reyes/Urias, and Casas, especially if Reyes can keep hitting. But the real point of agreement is that to me Devers and Casas are good enough on defense and have the good bats. As for Story, he's got the glove, but it should would be nice to the freaking bat. But my sniveling counterpoint is that the Sox already have this fix right now--except Reyes is on the IL--so this really isn't a fix. As for the outfield, I would keep Dugo, but would have absolutely no objection to moving Duvall over to RF--a good righty bat is pretty important at Fenway. But, when you do that, you put an unproven player, Rafaela, in CF. As for Yoshida as full-time DH, don't forget that having Turner DH now and then was good for Turner. And next year the same could apply to other players. Finally, let's not forget that Manny Ramirez was our leftfielder on two WS teams, 2004 and 2007. Handing LF over to Ref and Duran--in order, as you say, to fix the defense--seems to me to be bass ackwards. LF at Fenway has always been reserved for great bats, not great gloves.

Good point. I agree.

Gotta love fWAR which ignores fielding--which I believe you think is important.

Improve the defense? Good field, no hit is the definition of minor leaguer. Improving the defense is the easiest thing in the world, but a losing proposition. Hitting>>>>>>>>defense.

If Bloom were to pursue gloves over bats, he should be summarily fired.

Absolutely not. Devers is perfect at 3b: very good hitter, good enough fielder. And the guys who want to move him to 1b and Casas to DH are nuts because Casas is also perfect at 1b: very good hitter, good enough fielder. His weakness is grounders, but, because of his reach, he is terrific fielding throws to 1B. Also, his infrequent throws to 2b and to home are not half-bad.

Here we go again with the "fix the defense" crap. I'm perfectly willing to concede to moonslav the point that the defense has cost some runs and even games this season, but I would ask when has that not been the case, not only for the Sox but for other MLB teams? Hitting and pitching win games far, far more often than defense, and that's what Bloom should be going after. I am also fairly sure that Cora, like virtually every other MLB manager, shapes his lineup card based on who is mostly likely to be able to hit the opposing team's pitcher/pitching. The best gauge of whether the Sox will win a game this season is whether they score 5 or more runs. And that is not unlike Sox teams in the past because the Sox have always looked first for hitters with defense secondary. Thus 4 WS wins in the John Henry era. And the best defense is not a bunch of gold glovers (regardless of whether they can hit), but a terrific pitching staff.

He might still be. Who better than one of his faves to criticize? Dugo has easily the best WAR, +3.7, on the team because he is the only good fielder on the team who can also hit the dang ball. I think he gets a reputation for being too casual because of the utter simplicity of his batting stance--and the same could apply to how he moves in the outfield, also a no frills approach.

In the postgame interview Cora said he went to the mound with an open mind and was satisfied when Sale basically said, "let me pitch to one more guy." Sale threw 100 pitches in yesterday's game, and that's a lot of pitches for any Sox starter and especially for Sale. So I think you are way off base in your assumption that Cora had no business going to the mound in the 5th inning.

Good summary of Kike, who seems to be doing OK with the Dodgers (and they with him).

For the record, here are the miscreants who--with their nasty negative DWAR's--have kept the Sox from winning games this year: Yoshida -1.3 Casas -0.8 Turner -0.7 Duran -0.4 Refsnyder -0.3 McGuire -0.2 Urias -0.2 Devers (-0.1, but it was much worse earlier this season) Little known fact: the Sox lost the 1946 WS because they were stuck with having to play Ted Williams in LF. And don't forget these defensive stinkers on the 2004 Sox team-- Manny -1.8 Ortiz -1.2 Millar -0.8 Damon -0.6 Mueller -0.4 Kapler -0.2

I think you are onto something. Instead of shelling out for pitching and hitting, the Sox should aggressively pursue good defenders. I mean, with a good defense, the other teams can 't score. And, if they can't score, you don't need much offense--a couple of runs a game should do it. And good gloves come dirt cheap.