Maxbialystock

Yankee manager needs to fine that pitcher who allowed Turner to steal 2b--he got a huge jump, which he needed because he's slow.

5 righties in the Sox lineup against righty Cole. 4 righties tonight.

If you read talksox regularly, you would doubt that because on here the Sox are just worthless, especially Kike Hernandez, the guy who hit the dinger last night (in a 3-2 win) and made a couple of good defensive plays. However, I agree with you, and so do the networks.

You carping critics keep assuming that Chaim Bloom has complete authority over how to spend money. To me it's a better assumption that John Henry wants a change in direction, and that begins with no more big contracts for starters. You and others forget that all four of the WS teams relied on buying good starters--Schilling, Pedro, Beckett, Lackey, Price, Sale, et al--from other teams. John Henry almost certainly was the one who also said not to meet Mookie's demands, nor Bogey's.

Agree. He already has 14 saves. Last night's was somewhat precarious, especially given that line drive that was just foul or would have been a game winning 3 run dinger.

Meh. He absolutely blew back to back games on May 12 and May 13. In the 2d game Sale had gone 8 innings, giving up 1 run, and Jansen inherited a 3-1 lead, which he gave away. And just a week ago he gave up 2 in the 9th in a 4-2 loss to the Rays. If an infielder or outfielder has committed errors that literally cost a game, they would be excoriated on talksox. But Jansen is above reproach when he blows a save. In case you've forgotten, the Sox literally had no closer in the 2021 postseason. But they still beat the Yankees in the one game showdown, then the 100 win Rays in the ALDS, and then lost 4 games to 2 to the Astros in the ALCS. Having no closer was literally not a problem at all.

Too many syllables. Samuel Johnson: when editing your own writing and you happen upon a particularly felicitous phrase, strike it out. Venom was right word all by itself. Churchill: when writing or speaking I find that the small words are best and the old ones are the best of all. I was mad because: 1. The Sox are not out of it, not by a long shot. 2. This was the Yankees, in their park and with their ace on the mound. 3. The Sox have been lousy lately and last night got trounced by Cleveland, 10-3. 4. We just found out Sale is out for 60 days at least, so guys like Whitlock are all that much more important, and tonight he was terrific in just his 3d start this season: 6.1 IP, 1 ER. 5. The bullpen went 2.3 IP with 0 runs scored. 6. Devers is back! He doubled and scored on a hard hit single straight at an outfielder and later hit a dinger. 7. Kike (the leper) was good on D and knocked in the winning run with a dinger. 8. Sox are now 4.5 back of the Yankees, who currently have the 3d wild card slot.

20% of the time we don't, which is all the more reason to celebrate this win instead of picking on Arroyo and whoever. Kike made a couple of decent plays and also knocked in the winning run, but that doesn't count with anyone on good old Talksox. He's still the 2d rate SS who can't hit and belongs on the dung heap of history. And Devers, who has struggled at the plate, was just amazing--a double and then scoring from 2b on a hard hit single plus a dinger.

Sox win and beat the Yankees ace in Yankee Stadium. But you sure can't tell that from the scurrilous venom plastered all over this game thread.

Great play by Casas. I do believe he is better at grabbing those off-throw than Turner is.

TB has a freaking system that works like gangbusters. The Sox have no system for developing pitchers, which is why they have to buy them--which has actually worked in the John Henry era. By worked, I don't mean any of those bought starters lasted all that long, but Beckett, Schilling, Pedro, Sale, Price, Lackey, et al made a difference.

Every time I see that replay, I think Dugo had no chance at 2d base. But I also agree with Cora that he didn't even try.

Chris Sale is textbook for why big/long contracts for starters are such a gamble.

Well, you sure picked the right night to do that.

Arroyo's the man . . . for the Yankees. Cole's OPS-against vs righties is .640, and Cora has 5 freaking righties in the lineup.

Very intelligent, heady hit by Casas--soft, but brilliantly placed.

Whitlock looks tough. Got an easy groundout after that non-error bad play by Dugo.

Whitlock is throwing a lot of sinkers, but the changeup is the deadly pitch. Sweeper pretty good too. Verdugo took a bad route on that fly ball which should have been out #3.

Cole is red hot this year, including a complete game shutout vs. the Twins way back in April. 7-0 with an ERA of 2.82. However, his ERA in May was 5.18, including giving up 5 to San Diego on May 28, 5 to Baltimore on May 23, and 5 to Tampa on May 7. And the Yankees are 9th in runs scored to the Sox 5th.

I'm not sure he will be fine, plus right now his WAR is the 2d worst on the team. Nevertheless, I agree that he ain't the problem. It's pitching and the whole lineup, not just Casas. Also, if your hitting and pitching aren't so hot, having the world's greatest defense can't save you.

The Sox scored a total of 3 runs in this game. As I pointed out on another game thread, 80% of the Sox wins have occurred when they score at least 5 runs. 3 ain't going to do it. Kluber pitched a clean 5th, at which point the score was 3-1, Cleveland. So out he went to pitch the 6th and just got hammered: the first four Cleveland hitters went dinger, single, double and double, making the score 6-2. At that point I thought the game was out of reach because of the recent spate of weak hitting by the Sox. And I think it's pretty clear that, by leaving Kluber in, Cora had reached the same conclusion. So why use Kluber at all? Because he's on the freaking roster. As it turned out, when Kluber went out to pitch the 6th--after a very successful 5th inning--the Sox definitely had a shot. But then came the avalanche. When Ramirez led off with the dinger, the score was still just 4-2. It wasn't until the 4th hit that it went to 6-2. As for Whitlock not starting last night, Cora gave him 6 days rest between his first and second starts (since returning to the rotation) and probably figured to give him 6 days this time--which is tonight.

Not that it's relevant, but Kike's DWAR is -0.2, which means that his defense will have cost one win by the end of the season. Also irrelevant is that, at least during the John Henry era, the Sox have always preferred hitting over fielding at the SS position--and, really, all other positions. That stupid approach has led to 4 World Series wins. Another irrelevancy is that Kike, who has been a pretty good centerfielder, inherited the SS job when everyone else--Story, Chang, Arroyo, et al--went on the IL. Anyone care to guess which two players are seriously damaging the defense? Yoshida with a DWAR of -0.8 and Casas with a DWAR of -0.9. But enough of irrelevancies. Let's beat up on Kike, Cora, and Bloom some more.

Agree. Hitting is suspect right now.

moonslav provided a comprehensive laydown on usage of the bullpen and made a convincing case that the bullpen is not, repeat not, being overused. I also agree with moonslav that this year's bullpen is an improvement over last year's. I also think the rotation is better, but the injury to Sale is dismaying. The hitting is definitely better than last year, but the defense is worse. And, frankly, I think the hitting is vastly more important than the defense.

Crawford vs Bibee, both righties Bibee is a rookie, but has more starts (7 vs 3) than Crawford and a pretty good ERA (3.20). Four days ago Crawford went 3 IP with 1 ER, very likely to test the waters for a future start. Bibee went 5 with 3 ER six days ago and has not faced the Sox. I give Cleveland the edge tonight because Crawford ain't no Paxton, who had to go 8 IP and 2 runs last night just to keep the Sox in the game. They/we rallied for 4 in the 8th, but then Martin gave 2 back in the 8th before Jansen pitched a clean 9th for the 1 run save. I don't see that scenario repeating itself, but also admit I'm a terrible prognosticator. Also this. I've read a ton of negativity on talksox lately--and contributed some myself. Nevertheless, I do think this team is better than last year's and a glance at the wild card race says that the Sox are just 6.5 games behind the Orioles, the top wild card team in the American League. Given that the Sox still play 13 X 4 = 52 games against AL East teams and the AL East this year is the winningest Division in the history of MLB Divisions, getting a wild card berth is a worthy and attainable goal.