Maxbialystock

Hill (4.40) vs Marco Gonzalez (3.59), both lefties, edge to Mariners. Mariners start seven righty bats in their lineup. Sox lineup TBD--start time is 10:10. One game at a time.

Great stuff, as always. Thanks. My view is a little simpler. Thanks to Devers, Bogey, and JDM--and maybe even Story--the Sox hitting is getting back to the standard needed for the Sox to succeed in the toughest division in MLB. The problem, however, is that those first three want more money. The pitching is just the opposite. Bloom and John Henry are still paying $36M for Sale and Price, who have done zilch for this team this year--and hardly anything for last year's team. Eovaldi @ $17M/year was a good addition, but is pricey compared to Pivetta, who has the same WAR, 1.2, and is paid just $3M, and Wacha, WAR 2.0, who is paid $7M. Whitlock and Houck are even bigger bargains. So my no doubt simplistic view is that, since the hitters actually deliver the goods that the expensive pitchers don't deliver, the smart thing--and I'm astounded I am writing this because I am one cheap bastard--just might be to go ahead and pay Raffie, JDM, and Bogey enough to keep them. As for the pitching, Bloom should continue to do what he has been doing: keep looking for bargains. Big bucks for great arms don't make sense to me even though I know there are some great starters who earn their huge paychecks.

Hmmm. If you reread that post, I think you will agree it cries out that the manager was at fault and pretty stupid. Bad lineup, bad decision on the bullpen. I, on the other hand, thought we saw vintage Ohtani--on the mound and at the plate--who made our absolute best hitter (Devers), lefty bat vs. righty pitcher, look like a rookie. So, no, I don't agree Story and Bogey would have murdered Ohtani last night. Yes, Sawamura did throw a fat pitch that cost the game. But you've ignored that he came in with 2 on and no one out and got two outs before that fat pitch. On top of that, you ignore that last night our starter was April Pivetta, Nick's kid sister, who was butchering the game but was saved by atrocious baserunning by the Angels. You also sound like someone who thinks that good managers should win 10 of 10 games on a West Coast trip and that losing any of those games is unacceptable.

Seven straight, including six straight on the West Coast. Not too shabby. Sawamura stunk, of course, but the bullpen has otherwise been pretty decent. So has the rotation even though April Pivetta was on the mound last night. Hitting, however, has faltered in this series.

Boy, have you read this wrong. All three Sox wins in this series were by 1 run and 2 of the wins were with 1-0 scores. Winning 3 of 4 approached the mildly miraculous. Plus last night Ohtani clearly had his good stuff--blazing fastball, nasty splitter, tough slider, etc--while going 7 innings. Meanwhile, Pivetta was so freaking lucky in the early innings it was ridiculous--like men on 1st and 2d who only advance one base on what should have a double and scored both of them, but the Angel on 2b couldn't make up his mind. Maybe he saw Angels in the outfield. If JBJ had been in RF, he would have been right and the ball would have been caught. But it was Cordero, the Sox primary defensive butcher.

Both have been up and down this year, but Pivetta is in a groove lately and Ohtani has rejoined the human race. Still, I expect another tough game.

Don't change. Stay minimal/sparse in the OP.

Long winning streaks are rare. One game at a time is the key, and even more important is how/why the Sox are winning: sometimes it's the hitting, sometimes it's the starting pitching, sometimes it's the bullpen, sometimes it's the defense, and sometimes it's all of the above. Sox pitching is currently ranked 8th in team ERA and 7th in team WHIP. Batting is 5th in runs scored and 7th in OPS. And thru it all Cora continues his regimen of days off for key players. Raffie sat last night, so Dalbec played 3b, batted 7th, and drove in the only run in the game with an opposite field double that scored Verdugo from 1b.

Huge. I also have no problems with his attempt to score. A bad throw (to the 1b side) and he makes it.

He has the 6th best WAR among the Sox position players--+0.6--and is a better overall defensive outfielder than anyone else on the team. His OPS for the season is a lousy .634, but better than Kike's .613 and just a tad worse than Verdugo's .634. Better still, his OPS for May was .737 and for June it's .857. Did you stop watching the games after April? I am happy to admit I thought getting him back was a terrible idea, especially given his salary. But right now he looks like the old JBJ, the guy who stunk in 2013, had an abominable OPS of .513 in 2014 (when he replaced Ellsbury but kept being shuttled back to Pawtucket until something clicked in August), and then clicked at the plate (while also being erratic). His WAR's in 2014-2020 were .6, 2.2, 5.3, 2.8, 2.1, 2.0, and 1.9. His OPS's for the same years were .513, .832, .835, .726, .717, .738, and .814 (short season).

I just watched and think he would have. Still, that was also an excellent throw by Kike.

Funny, but I was thinking the same thing--but only thinking. I'm not sure JBJ would have caught them.

He was awful May 17 vs. Houston, going just 1.2 innings and giving up 9 runs, but since then he has gone 6.2 vs. Seattle, 9 vs. Baltimore, and 6 vs. Oakland. 6-7 solid innings tonight would be nice. I worked in Tabuk for 4 1/2 years 25 years ago. It was 8 hours ahead of Boston (East Coast) time. And every time I flew over and back--about 3 times a year--the jet lag going east was much, much harder than the jet lag going west. And yet, historically the Sox seem to be totally jet-lagged whenever they go west--but not this time.

Actually, a great job by the bullpen, period: 6 innings, 1 run. They did give up 4 BB's, but only Diekman's hurt. Maybe Strahm is the potential closer. Back to back wins with just 1 run margins. Fascinating substitutions: first JBJ to RF for Arroyo in the 8th to shore up the defense, then Kike to SS, JBJ to CF, and Cordero to RF when Bogey goes out for the bum shoulder in the 9th. Game winning rbi by Vazquez, whose OPS is now .734 and his WAR +0.6. Surprising.

He's smart, but he also manages nasty. I thought he was a genius at Tampa, but it turns out it's their system that wins games. He did get that WS for the Cubs, a big deal, but then they let him go. And I'll be surprised if the stays with the Angels.

I would be in favor of $500M for both Raffy and Bogey, assuming those are longish contracts. Price and Sale were great starters when they were signed, but I do agree paying big for pitchers carries more risks than position players. No, I didn't say I want to be like the Rays because theSox actually have a fan base and can afford good players. But, while big bucks help, they don't include performance guarantees. And the Sox have had their share of players who were getting paid a lot for playing elsewhere (or not at all).

Well, at least you mentioned Bogey and Raffy. However, you put signing them on Bloom when the decision is actually John Henry's, just as it was when Mookie Betts signed with the Dodgers for $365M, which is probably in the vicinity of what Rafael Devers is expecting. My guess is that Bogey is looking for $300M. If it takes $650M to keep Devers and Bogaerts, I would pass because they are never going to be worth that amount of money. Think Price and Sales for a glimpse of what could happen if John Henry approves giving Bogaerts and Devers whatever they want to stay in Boston. I've been a Sox fan since 1949, and I do like the way the Rays have built their teams to be competitive just about every year despite low salaries. I think what they are doing is great for MLB even though it's for the worst ballpark and fan base in MLB except for the A's. However, I don't think for a minute John Henry wants to follow the Rays way. I think he simply hired Bloom because he's smart and hopefully can find a way to merge the Rays way with the Sox way, which has been awfully good since John Henry took over.

Good for you, and have a great time! And don't forget to boo loudly every time Whitlock has a good inning: Old Red wants him closing, not starting.

Well said. moonslav, the great defender. However, you are also the one who more than once has stated the Sox will not keep JDM, Bogey, and Devers through the end of this season. If 2 of those 3 are gone, so are the Sox chances of doing anything in the postseason.

Very exciting game and win!!!

On the other hand, as I keep saying (ad nauseum), last year the Sox had a terrific postseason before losing the ALCS to the Astros, 4 games to 2. In their 6 wins, the Sox had 0 saves. In their 5 losses, they had one blown save--in the 6th freaking inning. In the glorious 2018 postseason, Kimbrel got 6 saves with an ERA of 5.19 because the hitters and the rest of the bullpen gave him a good margin for whenever he trotted to the mound to do his act. Here are runs scored by the Sox in their 27 losses thus far this season: 5, 2, 1, 4, 3, 1, 2, 2, 2, 2, 5, 0, 1, 5, 0, 2, 1, 2, 3, 1,4, 1, 8, 2, 0, 1. And here the the runs scored by the Sox when they won 27 games: 4, 5, 9, 4, 8, 2, 4, 7,3, 4, 9, 7, 11, 6, 5, 12, 7, 6, 8, 16, 16, 5, 12, 7, 7, 8, and 5. And that's Kimmi's point. The Sox won 21 times when they scored 5 or more runs. They lost 20 games when they scored 3 or fewer runs.

Meh. The Sox started the season with two closers, Barnes and Robles, both of who have proved worthless. So has everyone else in the bullpen who tried to close. But the real point, which moonslav has stated and kimmi has implied, is that the bullpen as a whole is weak--and don't forget you don't have to wait until the 9th inning to get a blown save. The fact is that these days you really need a slew of good relievers, with 2 or 3 who can close, to have a reliable bullpen.

Finally, finally, a truth speaker. I love it when a great closer like Uehara works his magic, especially in the postseason, but I also can't forget what a dingus Kimbrel was in the 2018 postseason when he got 6 saves with an ERA over 5.

Terrific win!!! I saw very little because this game coincided with our youngest granddaughter's graduation from high school. Another quality start, this time by the 5th man in the rotation, Hill. Plus some timely hitting. moonslav disagrees, but I think the rotation is way better than the bullpen. The top 5 (Wacha, Pivetta, Whitlock, Eovaldi, and Hill) have started 49 of 54 games and accumulated 253.1 innings, which is over half of the total innings (482.2) pitched to date. Indeed, they have averaged over 5 innings per start (divide 253.1 by 49) and their ERA's range from 4.04 (Hill) to 2.43 (Wacha).

When the Sox win, the game thread is short. When they lose, it goes on and on and on. I myself have been known to criticize errors, decisions. Right now, I'm kind of staying with moonslav's point that the big weakness is the bullpen. The lack of a reliable closer is only one manifestation of that weakness. Three very solid wins in a row thanks to three solid starts by Whitlock, Eovaldi, and Pivetta--plus good hitting.