Maxbialystock

Schwarber with a magnificent leaping grab of a sure home run!!! Different standard for part-time DH'er.

Kike K's again. Sox on schedule for 15 more K's today. Both starters have good variety, good velocity, good movement in their breaking balls, and good command.

Sox K'd 15 times last night and are intent on getting more today. Iggy with a brilliant swinging bunt perfectly placed!!!

What most of us forgot is that it is almost impossible for a decent thirdbaseman not to be a decent firstbaseman because the latter is a much, much easier position. Thus is leftfielder Schwarber almost adequate. As for Arroyo injuring himself at 1b, that seem to me a tell-tale that Arroyo is from the Ellsbury school of injury-proneness.

So far two guys came to play--Pivetta and Dalbec. All others look lost. But here comes Shaw!!!

Devers still has that great swing and big chaw of tobacco. I think he believes the tobacco will help him out of a pretty obvious slump at bat and in the field, and I also think he is wrong.

I can remember when Jacoby Ellsbury would get injured for extended periods and we all kind of hoped/believed that he would put that behind him. To their regret, the Yankees believed that even more than we did.

Pivetta looks sharp. If only the defense did. How many mistakes by Iglesias today now that he's back at SS? Hold it! Iggy just made a routine play at SS!!!!!

Verdugo seems better going back than coming in for a ball.

Correction. His cutter looks like a slider--same speed, same break. I see 4 pitches: 4 seamer, cutter (92 mph), slider (85 mph), and changeup. Schwarber continues to struggle.

Lance Lynn appears to rely heavily on 3 versions of his fast ball.

I believe DH is still Shaw and 1b is still Dalbec. The big switch is Iglesias for Bogey at SS.

Seabold did not fare well with respect to your four criteria for a starter and was lucky to last 3 innings and 2 runs. Yes, bad error by Devers, but those 5 unearned runs are a tad misleading because Richards did in fact give up 5 hits and 2 walks, so the odds are he would have given up earned runs in the 5th inning which were unearned in the 4th. Overall Sox defense was pretty good--good grab deep against the wall by Verdugo, another good one by Renfroe and even Schwarber, at least two good grabs by Dalbec at 1b, and some overall solid play by Bogey. Plus Kike solid at 2b. Except for Richards--who was charged with 0 earned runs despite 5 hits and 2 BB's--the bullpen looked pretty darn good: Robles, Feliz, Whitlock, and Taylor went the final 5 innings (6th thru 10th) while giving up 0 runs. Taylor gave up a hard hit single to the leadoff Chicago hitter in the 10th which did not allow the guy on 2b to score--Schwarber was playing shallow in LF. Then he struck two and got the last guy on a groundout. Chicago pitchers had 15 K's, which is usually an indicator of good pitching. No way, no how would I have started Shaw at DH. Cora knows what he is doing.

A shout out to jung who says I routinely have to eat my early posts on a game thread. This post was but one of several pessimistic comments on the early stages of last night's game when I was certain our guys were going to be blown away. Cease looked invincible and Seabold vincible. About those 5 unearned runs from Devers error. I know the rules, but usually also think we fans--as opposed to the official scorers--should acknowledge Richards' complicity in giving up 5 hits and 2 walks in the 4th inning Chicago deluge.

A terrific comeback win which would not have been necessary if Devers doesn't make that 5 run error. Except for that, I thought the Sox played pretty good defense, including Devers on that double play he and Bogey cooked up. Shaw came through big time. Bullpen gave up 1 earned run in 7 innings. Wild card race is now, well, wild. Sox, Jays, Yankees, Mariners, and A's all within 3 games of each other.

Seabold gets the ever popular GIDP, for an easy first inning.

True. When he is good, he is very, very good.

Seabold gets an out on a hard hit ball and decides he ain't throwing any more strikes. If he can just keep walking guys, eventually Cora will pull him and he can go home to Worcester where it's safer.

Two fastballs back to back and right down the middle, and Renfroe could only close his eyes, swing the bat, and hope he hit something.

One of the absolutely worst at bats I've ever seen Devers have. He looked completely lost, and Cease didn't even throw a changeup. Devers seems to think chewing that tobacco is good for his game, and he is dead wrong.

Stunning. Huge swing.

Agree on all, but especially on what you look for in a starter--four excellent nouns. Those should be applied when evaluating all starters.

Well, we'll see "my" lineup tonight, 9 of 9 if not in the same order. I disagree about Dalbec because he has been hitting well in both August and September and because his defense at 1b has improved, which was inevitable. 1b is not hard even though it's much too hard for Arroyo, the same guy who has played all of 53 games this season. Thus Kike at 2b because, unlike Iglesias, he doesn't have bad hands and can hit. Verdugo in CF, I agree, is a step down, but he still has a decent bat. Same for Renfroe in RF, Schwarber in LF, JDM at DH, Devers at 3b, and Bogey at SS. Too late to fix the defense this year. I thought Iglesias would help but he cost last night's game with a terrible play on an easy grounder. Plus 2-3 games ago he cost a GIDP by fumbling the throw to 2b.

Meh. Label me the advocate for "hit first, defend later" crowd. I do love great defense, however, because it is the poetry of baseball which is too often defined by the relentless, endless, prosaic confrontation between pitcher and hitter batter which composes 90% of every game. Most 4 hour games can be boiled down to 10-15 minutes of: final pitches of walks or K's, fair balls hit and ensuing defense/baserunning, balks, HBP's, etc. That said, the big bats--herewith defined as Devers, JDM, Renfroe, Dalbec, Bogey, and Schwarber--are going to get into the lineup one way or another. I added Dalbec because of his 70 rbi's and .793 OPS and despite his negative DWAR, which I think is misleading. Kike and Verdugo will get in there because they can hit and field. Indeed, someone quoted Cora as saying Kike is the best fielding second baseman he's seen. Thus this lineup: Kike, 2b, DWAR +1.7 Schwarber LF/DH/1b, DWAR -.3 Bogey SS, DWAR 0.0 Devers 3b, DWAR -.4 JDM DH/LF, DWAR -.9 Renfroe RF, DWAR -.2 Dalbec 1b, DWAR -1.3 Verdugo CF DWAR +.2 Vazquez C, DWAR +1.1 Duran, Arroyo, Plawecki, et al, play as needed.

You make this sound as though the Chisox are vastly superior when in fact they are 2 games up on the Sox, who are in a much tougher division. The Chisox have much better pitching, which barely showed yesterday. If Iglesias doesn't make that error, his 17th this season and twice as many as Bogaerts, it's 3-3 going to extra innings. Houck left that slider up against Abreu with his 29 dingers and 107 rbi's--so one more dinger and 3 more rbi's. Sox bullpen--D Hernandez, Feliz, Ottavino, Brasier, and Taylor--went 4.1 scoreless innings. Kike, Schwarber, Renfroe, and Devers all went hitless yesterday. Some of that was excellent Chisox pitching, but not all. Devers gigantic wad of chewing tobacco which he masticates like an addict is abundant evidence he is feeling the pressure--.740 OPS in August and so far .736 in September. My guess is that the entire lineup is feeling the heat, especially since, in addition to hitting, they also compose one of the worst defenses in the MLB.