Maxbialystock

Our best hitter pops up for an infield fly rule.

Plus the SS was cheating toward 2b.

Hamilton did most of that. He got the balk. Then, because he stole 3b earlier. the Yankees SS was cheating toward 2b which left a big gap for Anthony, hit a very nice single for the rbi.

Wilson has thrown 13 pitches, 10 of them balls. That's our bullpen, yessiree. Game ain't over, but so far it's gigantic choke job by the Sox--especially the rotten hitting--1/10 with RISP.

Just a reminder. Giolito is facing a red hot Yankees team that leads MLB in dingers by 10 and are 2d in runs scored The Sox are facing an up and own pitcher who neverthless walked 5 Sox and whose team committed 3 freaking errors. The Sox are still in this because of Giolito. The error by Narvaez was made doubly painful when Hamilton failed to block the bad throw.

The Sox know both players very well. There is no way either one would not have been brought up if they had been ready For now Gonzalez owns 2b and Lowe 1b. However, right now Gonzalez's OPS for August is .379, so Hamilton gets a shot. And I think Grissom is on the IL and his Worcester OPS is .783.

Something like that.

Boy, is it ever.

He can play defense and is a good baserunner. As for his lousy hitting, he is now a part of a very big crowd called the Boston Red Sox non-hitters. If you just watched the Sox 4th, I rest my case.

Sweet double by Yoshida to the opposite field. All at bats hereafter are RISP--the kiss of death for the Sox.

It was a horribly bad play, but cost the Sox nothing because they can't hit the dang ball. The Sox have `1 run because of throwing errors and a balk.

Good OP, as usual.

Great point. I Iook forward to a sweep against the Yankees now that the lineup has been fixed.

Sox will definitely miss Abreu's lefty bat. Hamilton an interesting choice at 2b, but that gives the Sox a good infield, a good outfield and a good defensive catcher. All that remains is for the Sox to hit the freaking ball with RISP and the Yankees to be held to less that 9 dingers.

i'm reporting you to mods for plagiarism. 😁 Does this mean we finally get to see Love at 1b?

Duran can't hit lefties, period. Abreu has the higher OPS and the same rbi's, 69, despite playing in fewer games. And anyone who claims Duran is in any way comparable to Rafaela in CF is out of his mind. He's got the wheels, but absolutely no instinct on where the ball is going.

One more time. Abreu's OPS vs lefties is .721 and Duran's is .583.

Interesting, but dead wrong on Abreu. His DWAR is 1.2 vs Duran's 0.3 primarily because he has the arm to play RF which Duran does not have, which is why he is in LF. Abreu's OPS is .811 vs Duran's .787. Duran's better against righties, .886 vs .828, but Abreu is better against lefties, .721 vs .583. Duran has the higher WAR, 3.8 to 3.3, because he's great on the basepaths and has played in more games. Both have 69 rbi's. For my money, the two best Sox outfielders by a wide margin are Anthony and Rafaela. Anthony is another Ted Williams (not really) and Rafaela is fantastic in CF. His OPS in June and July combined was .860--so maybe he can hit too. I think the reason why the Sox want to keep Duran and why other teams want him more than Abreu is that he has terrific crowd appeal--which Abreu lacks. I have argued the Sox should keep all 4 outfielders, but now I think it makes sense to trade Duran or Abreu. If Ref stays, he can be the 4th outfielder. So could Campbell if he doesn't get 1b next spring. Cora's mistake was in playing Rafaela at 2b so that Anthony, Duran, and Abreu could all play the outfield against righty starters. I understand the logic, but it absolutely did not work.

Not against lefties when his OPS descends to .583. Duran also leads the Sox in AB's vs lefties.

All good. You will recall I went completely ape last year when Sale started like a house afire and went on to get the CYA. Plus Giolito couldn't play. Plus Grissom did nothing. Plus this year he sent Devers to the Giants when he had an OPS of .905 as the Sox DH. So I cannot claim to be the first to see Breslow's value. But in fact we can all see he has made this Sox team better and the fact of his inexperience (2 years total as CBO) should only add to his future value.

Hard to say. In August he was great at Fenway against Miami and Houston, but stunk @ San Diego. But my real concern is that the Yankee bats have come alive. Last night the Rays tied the game with 2 runs in the bottom of the 9th, and the Yankees scored 3 runs in the top of the 10th with 2 dingers. Yankee Stadium is a hitters ballpark, and the Yankees lead MLB in dingers with 20 more than the 2d place Dodgers. The Yankees pitching is just so-so, but these days that's all it seems to take to shut down Red Sox anemic hitting.

Can we not recognize that Breslow got the Sox to this position by bringing in Bregman, Crochet, Chapman, and Narvaez in a single season? And he did that in just his second season ever as a CBO. All this whining about his communications skills (which stink) masks his real value to the team.

Your comments reinforce the notion that Breslow/Cora also recognize the issue with Rafaela, which is why they brought in Lowe for 1b. That keeps Gonzalez at 2b and Rafaela in CF when and if Cora actually allows Lowe to play 1b. Ref and Abreu on the sidelines only reinforces Rafaela in CF. When both are back Duran should be the drop out against lefty starters so Ref can DH. Duran's OPS vs lefties is .583. Rafaela's June OPS was .870 and July .852. IN August it's .533. Is it possible that Cora killed a pretty decent bat by moving him to 2b where Rafaela's defense is only so-so? The world wonders. ,

One more time. Name another Sox CBO since 2002 who brought in a better haul for one season than Bregman, Crochet, Chapman, Narvaez. Plus he brought in May last 3 weeks ago and May has had 2 quality starts and an ERA of 2.87. Am I the only one on Talksox who noticed that? The Sox also got better after losing Devers. Nevertheless, I'm plenty worried after those 2 losses to Baltimore and the hot Yankees coming up. I see the postseason in jeopardy.