Maxbialystock

Exactly. It's wasted because the lineup stinks and so does the bullpen.

Urias, the worst hitter on the team by a mile, hits the grand slam home run. This to me underscores just how pitiful the rest of the lineup now is. Reyes, who, like Urias, was hired to play defense, got the 2 run dinger last night.

They can't hit Nationals pitching even though it's ranked near the bottom of all 30 MLB staffs--28th in ERA and 27th in WHIP. And let's not forget that, in addition to weak hitting, their defense also sucks.

moonslav's attack on resting players too much just might be right on target. I say this because this team is probably more "rested" than any other in MLB and right now they stink in every way imaginable, but especially the position players who stink at bat and stink in the field. It is abundantly clear to me they just don't give a s*** because they get paid really good money whether or not they produce.

Just trying to back out of what I think was unfair criticism of Sale. But as it turns out, this just might be the signature game of the season because this team stinks in every way imaginable with the errors, the lack of hitting, the rotten bullpen, you name it.

I cannot imagine any sensible MLB player wanting to be the "face" of this rotten, stinking team with their two freaking errors and one stinking run in 5 freaking innings. Oh, and their second abysmal bullpen effort in two days. Sale got screwed by the homeplate ump, but just on that one batter, who should have been K'd. This is, on the other hand, the second straight game in which Sale kind of fell apart in the 5th inning and right around the 60 pitch mark. In my opinion, that's to be expected. Hence the bullpen. But Winck decided to follow Whitlock's lead and just destroy Sale's effort as Whitlock destroyed Paxton's. And now of course the top of the Sox order comes up in the 6th with a fly out, a K by Devers, and a ground out by Story.

Sox have 1 run, 2 errors, and 3 hits in 3 innings. In other words, another signature Sox effort.

Casas just might be coming around on hitting lefties. He certainly has a good eye, the one thing Devers emphatically does not have.

Hey, dummy. He's also doing an excellent job of hitting the corners--so back off.

Sale saving his arm by taking several mph off his pitches.

Well, he's got the experience and knows how.

Seeing eye single for Ref. Devers grounder is not seeing eye, but luckily only one out. The pitch was in the dirt, of course. And Story chimes in the the obligatory GIDP. These guys have forgotten how to hit and/or score runs.

Six righty bats, a recipe for minimal runs. Of course, one could say the same thing if the Sox started six lefty bats (against a righty starter). Sale was just brilliant (after a 2 month hiatus) 5 days ago, so he could well be brilliant again today, maybe for 5 innings. But that ain't enough to win. The bullpen has to contribute some scoreless innings and the bats need to bring home some runs.

Really? Right now the biggest problem is with the hitting, and that's despite the fact that all the so-called good bats--Story, Duvall, Turner, Devers, Casas, Dugo, Reyes, Duran, Yoshida--are active and healthy, but can't seem to score any freaking runs. Over the last 18 games they've scored 62 runs, including some unearned runs, for an average of 3.44 runs per game. Story, Duvall, Devers, Dugo, and now Duran and Yoshida are all disappointments for various reasons. Plus Casas and Duran can't hit lefty pitchers.

He came into last night's game with an ERA of 5.03. In 3 seasons with the Sox his ERA's have "progressed" from 1.96 in 2021 to 3.45 last year to 5.60 this year. So you just might have a point.

Consider this. Casas has played in 107 games this season, and in those games in which he played the Sox have won 54 and lost 53. In the games in which Cora no doubt very foolishly did not play Mr. Wonderful, the Sox won 9 and lost 4. In other words, less Casas, more wins.

You could have a point. In the movie Moneyball, the John Henry actor tries to hire Billy Beane and seems committed to Sabermetrics and, like the A's, getting more wins for fewer bucks in player salaries. But in fact the real John Henry was not reluctant to spend big bucks for talent, especially pitchers because then, as always, the Sox system was lousy at finding and developing pitchers. David Dombrowski was the culmination of all that because he arrived after the 2015 season, inherited some talented guys, and opened the salary floodgates to fix the pitching with the likes of David Price, Chris Sale, Nathan Eovaldi, and closer Kimbrel--to say nothing of bringing in a good DH, JD Martinez, to replace David Ortiz. The result was the incredible 2018 Sox, who had the best Sox season ever and one of the best MLB team seasons ever with 108 regular season wins and an 11-3 postseason record. However, the Sox collapsed the very next season, 2019, which apparently soured John Henry on spending large. So he dumped DD and brought in Chaim Bloom, who came out of the Tampa Rays system, which was and is one of the best systems in MLB for finding and developing talent without paying big bucks for it. So we are clearly in a sea change. This year the Sox collective salaries are ranked 15th, the lowest ranking in the John Henry era and probably in the last 40 or 50 years of the Sox. That said, however, Devers did sign a $300M or so contract last year, and Story's is $140M for 6 years. Thus does Sox attendance continue to struggle to recover from the covid 2020 season. In 2012, for example, the Sox went 69-93--a horrible record--and averaged 37,563 butts in seats per game. Right now the Sox are 6 games above .500 (63-57) with a real shot at a wild card, and the average attendance is 32,900.

Target. I kept saying the Sox hitters were flat on their ass while Paxton was pitching a quality start. Then Reyes came thru, yet again! Suddenly, a ball game where none existed. Then Whitlock didn't have it even though his last time out vs the Tigers he went 2 innings while giving up 0 runs. As everybody knows by now, my chief concern is hitting. Weak hitting by the Sox is the hobby horse I keep riding, and even I am getting tired of the whining. Thanks to you, I still think this is a good team capable of getting to the postseason. All the pieces are there.

Bard's problem was way, way, way worse than Whitlock's is. Bard completely lost his control.

I can't disagree. That's why they are bringing him back as a starter.

Very few MLB pitchers don't want to be starters, and Daniel Bard was very eager to become one. Same goes for Whitlock. Moreover, since the 2019 season John Henry has shown an enormous reluctance to aggressively go after top notch starters, with the result that we have seen all manner of starters over the past 3 seasons, including this one. It is in that context that Whitlock was given a chance to start, both last season and this one.

I don't recall Whitlock having a high 90's fastball. Whitlock got to start because he has a good repertoire of pitches. However, a good argument can be made that he just doesn't have the strength to start every 5 or 6 days and throw 70-110 pitches. I think Houck does have that strength. The issue with him is his repertoire. But right before the line drive hit him he seemed to be doing OK the 3d time through the other team's lineup.

I like Wong and have said so repeatedly. However, I now suspect the Nats have detected something in his stance which says a low pitch is coming. I say that because all 3 dingers--off two different Sox pitchers--were off pitches low in the zone or just below it.

Reyes ties the game! Reyes ties the game! Reyes ties the game! Not the high priced guys like Devers, Yoshida, Turner, Duvall, Story, et al. But Reyes.

The Sox have now gone 12 straight scoreless innings against the Nationals--the last 5 innings last night and the first 7 tonight. Sure looks like last night's win was kind of lucky, plus excellent work by the bullpen. Tonight Paxton had/has a quality start, 6 IP, 2 ER, and it sure looks like it's wasted. In the last 18 games, including this one (so far), the Sox have scored 57 runs or 3.16 runs (some of which were unearned) per game. This team has all its "good" hitters back on the active roster, and they still can't score freaking runs.