Maxbialystock

Meanwhile, however, there are games to play. Repeating the "bumpy flight" analogy, this team is in a tailspin. They've lost 4 straight and literally have no bullpen worth mentioning. Pivetta starts tonight and, season to date, opposing lineups collective OPS against him in the first time through the lineup is a frightening 1.062. Wednesday Seattle starts Marco Gonzales, a lefty who won his last two starts against Houston and Detroit. We will be sending out Bello, whom I like, but we still won't have a bullpen. Plus right now the hitting seems to be struggling--and it's still the same old defense undercutting the pitching.

Castillo vs. Pivetta, both righties. Huge edge to Seattle in pitching, just like last night. Pivetta stinks, and the Sox bullpen is in a state of collapse. First time facing Pivetta, opposing lineups' collective OPS has been an unreal 1.061. 2d time through, OPS .789. 3d time through, OPS .634. If those numbers hold true again tonight and Pivetta gets hammered, I think Cora will leave him in for at least 100 pitches to save the bullpen arms.

I always keep the sound off. If it's on cable, I will show closed captions.

Great point!! I had no idea.

Timely. The Sox are 22-20, which is better than I expected. The Sox are 4th in MLB in runs scored--with a "no name" lineup--which is fantastic. But the team ERA is now 27th in MLB, definitely a disappointment. The 8 game winning streak ended 9 days ago. Since then, just as you say, the rotation seems to have taken a turn for the better. But the bullpen's wheels have literally come off--signified last night when Reyes took the mound for the 9th inning. Winck got hammered by St Louis. Jansen, our $16M closer, got hammered twice by St Louis. Schreiber hasn't pitched because he's hurt and is probably going on the IL. Brasier is gone. Bleier could be right behind him. Bernardino's ERA for May is 6.14. Assuming Jansen is actually OK, I see two decent relievers for tonight: Martin and Jansen. My guess is Whitlock and Crawford, both of whom can start, will go to the bullpen in an effort to reconstruct one. So will Houck, with Pivetta getting the 5th starting spot after Sale, Paxton, Bello, and Kluber. Finally, the "no name" lineup seems to be struggling: 5 runs total in the last 3 games against the Cardinals and Mariners. To paraphrase Bette Davis in All About Eve, "fasten your seat belts, it's going to be a bumpy season."

Sox are 22-20, which is better than I expected, 27th in team ERA, which has to be a disappointment; and 4th in runs scored, which is completely unexpected. The 8 game winning streak ended 9 days ago. Since then, the rotation looks better, but the bullpen is a disaster, and the hitting--the "no name" lineup that has been so great--is looking less great. To paraphrase Bette Davis from All About Eve, "fasten your seatbelts, it's going to be a bumpy season."

Sending Reyes out to pitch the 9th was embarrassing but necessary and not the first time it’s been done by the Sox. The bullpen is hurting bad, but the games continue.

Looks like I was wrong about sending Jansen out Saturday. There really was no one else. The Sox bullpen is broken.

I’d say the Sox bullpen is in full collapse. This is the fourth straight game in which they have opened the floodgates. The four Sox starters in those games went 24 innings while giving up 10 runs. The bullpen 12 innings so far and 18 runs.

Assuming the Sox lose, Winck and Jansen should be available tomorrow. But will they be needed?

Dugo lines out ever so softly with the bases loaded. Sox still with one lonely run.

Let’s see now. 2 days ago the Sox had 13 pitchers including 6 starters (pivetta should never be allowed to pitch in relief). Of the 7 relievers, Winck and Jansen and Bernardino are suspect. Bleier might be. Brasier is gone. Schreiber is headed for the IL. Who’s left?

Please, please, if you think the Sox can score some runs, speak up. Because I don’t.

Could be

Never fear, Bleier’s here and all is well. Except for the hitting of course.

Ahem. He just walked off the mound. Just maybe he’s been nursing an injury.

Need room for Whitlock and Crawford.

Could be we are seeing the second day of the dud liberation movement.

Raffey rally-killer.

His mommy

Solid 1st by Houck

Nicely said.

New day, new series + I like houck

As Kevin Costner's character says in For Love of the Game (a movie based on the novel by Michael Shaara, the same guy who wrote the terrific Killer Angels), "we count everything in baseball." Stats are unavoidable if you are a serious fan--or even just semi-serious. Forget the score in a game and just consider the ball-strike count on a given batter--it's huge. With the arrival of computers and reams and reams of data and software, a good case can be made that managers are more influenced by stats than by what they see on the field of play. Thus the--I think--Dodgers manager who said that he decided to pull his starter after 6 innings no matter what--and did exactly that in a playoff or World Series game. The pitcher was fantastic for 6 innings, but out he came, and the bullpen promptly blew the game. To this day the manager still believes he made the right decision. Despite the above, baseball remains incredibly unpredictable. Try this stat on for size. A team with a .600 record will win 97 games, which is not only good enough to guarantee being in the playoffs, but is a good bet to win a Division in the regular season. A team with a .400 record is dog doodoo, the dregs of society, losers-loser-losers. They will win just 65 games and trail that 97 game winning team by 32 games. That said, however, .400 means a team wins 2 out of 5 games and .600 means a team wins 3 out of 5 games. Not that much of a difference. The simple fact is that a MLB season is incredibly long at 162 games and therefore masks the reality that .600 teams aren't hugely better than .400 teams. In addition is the central aspect of any game, the confrontation between batter and pitcher. What could possibly be more unpredictable? Ted Williams rightly said nothing is harder to hit than a round ball with a round bat squarely, but I would argue a pitcher's job is just as daunting. First and foremost, just throwing the ball hard enough to be in MLB is tough. On top of that you need a variety of spins/pitches and greater accuracy than a knife thrower in a side show. To add to the fun/unpredictability of MLB is a hit ball which can be an easy out when hit really hard or a double when not hit well at all but hit in just the right place. I believe getting rid of those computer-generated shifts was absolutely in accord with the appeal of baseball, especially MLB. Consider this Sox season to date: lose 4 straight in April to the Rays at the Trop and look just awful: win 8 straight to get back in the hunt for a wild card; and now lost 3 straight at Fenway to the losers Cardinals (who, as splendidsplinter said, are better than their record). I think the Sox at 22-19 and dead last in the AL East are semi-miraculous given the rotation, bullpen, defense, and no-name lineup they have. A month ago the rotation was the wrong kind of oderiferous, and last night we were furious at Kluber for giving up 4 runs in 5 innings because in the 3 previous games he looks almost decent. Sale started badly, but now looks like the Sale of 2018. Bello looks like he will stick in this year's rotation--ditto Houck. Paxton must have gone to Lourdes in the offseason because his first start in half a decade or so was terrific. And Pivetta, who truly has struggled, just might drop out of the rotation. Meanwhile, the bullpen which, anchored by the indomitable Jansen, has been so terrific now looks like Freddy Kruger. Anybody catch Jansen's stint last Friday night? How about Winckowski's? The point is--to me, anyway--the game has lost none of its appeal--despite the importance of statistics.

Brasier relieved in 6 games in April with an ERA of 5.14. He gave up 0 runs in 4 appearances, 1 run in an 11-5 win, and 3 runs yesterday in a 9-1 loss. Friday vs the Cardinals he pitched 1 inning and gave up 0 runs. In April he pitched in 13 games and gave up 0 runs in 9 of them. In the 4 games in which he gave up runs, only one was close--the loss on April 29 to Cleveland, 8-7 in 10 innings. In the other three games in which Brasier gave up runs in April, the scores were 11-5 (Sox won), 10-4 (Sox lost), and 14-5 (Sox won). If Brasier were to apply for a job in medicine and claim he lives by the hippocratic oath--first do no harm--he just might get hired. I'm fine with DFA'ing Brasier, but his appearances have not been nearly as disastrous as everyone claims. That said, for the most part Cora has been careful not to use Brasier in close games. It will, however, shock you as it shocks me to discover that Brasier has one save this season.