Maxbialystock

I never played or heard about T-ball until 10 or 20 years ago--and I think it's sheer genius. In the movie Mr Baseball, Tom Selleck's manager-coach has him hit balls off a tee to help adjust his swing.

This is not a super good team, but it's definitely competitive and better than the last 3 seasons. Before the Miami series, I said the Marlins would be tough because they were 30-32 on the road. However, today I expected the sweep and, thanks to Crochet, it was definitely in our grasp--until the bullpen collapsed for the 2d game in a row. So I'm very disappointed. Next up, the Orioles with May, Buehler, and Giolito on the mound. I hate to say it, but I think 2/3 is the best we can do. Today they whipped the Astros @ Houston, 12-0.

Oh, heck. I agree with him every time I think he's made a good point, which he has in fact done. Plus I myself am finding it a littler harder to be optimistic when the bullpen has been absolutely rotten in the last 2 games. And let's not forget that today Anthony, Story, Yoshida, and Rafaela were all hitless. Anthony was especially egregious because he left a lot of guys on base. Twice he made the last out with 2 men on base. What's most painful to me is that Crochet pitched another gem, 7 IP and 1 ER, and the bullpen butchered it.

Going into this game Weissert had given up 1 run in his last 7 games and 7.1 IP. Plus he had not pitched since Wednesday. Going into this game Whitlock had given up 1 ER in 18 games/innings and had not pitched since Friday. Chapman pitched both Friday and Saturday. I'm not saying Chapman wouldn't have gotten the save, but am saying the other guys in the bullpen need to do their jobs.

Bullpen gave up 8 runs in just 5 IP in the last 2 games. Obviously, Cora was using the wrong pitchers.

Indeed.

😄

Anthony, 0-3, needs to get a hit here. 0/4.

Abreu singles off a below the strike zone slider on an 0-2 count. Gonzalez singles off a first pitch sweeper well inside the zone! Toro drives in Abreu with a first pitch sac fly to CF! Rafaela screwed on called strike well below the zone.

Watch the game. Luck is lights out. That 2 run dinger by Abreu was off an inside fastball that was not in the strike zone. Crochet has shown a ton of heart.

Grounder to Toro--scary. But an out.

Leadoff BB for Miami--3 bad pitches and 1 good one called a ball.

After 4 straight breaking balls, Junk throws a low fastball for a called 3d strike. I have seen no Sox pitcher show the kind of control he has shown in this game.

Classic double on another great pitch, low and inside--by Duran!

Those were three superb pitches to K Anthony. He is really hitting the corners. Same with Story for an easy grounder to SS.

Marlins have 2 on, 1 out in the 6th. Conference on the mound. Out of the inning after a lineout to Duran and a grounder to Story! 6 IP, 75 pitches.

Anyone remember the Boudreau shift? He was the manager and SS for the Indians and created it in 1946 to defend against Ted Williams who regularly pulled the ball to RF. , so other teams used it. Williams did not try to compensate by hitting to LF. Instead, he counted on hitting the ball hard to RF. He hit .400 against the Indians that year.

Exactly. I remember the splendid splinter who never, ever swung the bat hard. And it worked!

Looked like a pretty good dinger to me, especially with a man on and the Sox down 1-0. Abreu comes through. For that matter, so has Crochet.

Very little, but you were the one saying the 4 outfielders hardly get into games. I just checked that. The Sox have played 14 games in August, and Abreu has played in 13 of them, Mayer in 12 because he sat out 2 games with the back issue, Duran played in 13 games, and Rafaela in all 14. Against righty starters Cora wants to get lefty bats in the lineup, and three of the best are Anthony, Abreu, and Duran. So he can play all three with Rafaela in CF and one of the three as DH. However, he also wants to get Yoshida in as the DH, which is why Rafaela moves to 2b for those games. You have declared that to be a disaster because no really good defensive outfielder who can also hit should ever be forced to play in the infield. Have you checked who's playing SS for the Dodgers lately? How about Kike Hernandez whose best season ever was 2021 when he bounced back and forth between the outfield and infield all season long. The only better defensive 2d baseman on the Sox than Rafaela is Hamilton, whose currently in Worcester.

See below. Mayer is out for the season for surgery to right wrist--which is no surprise. Three catchers still make no sense to me.

Just announced: Mayer surgery on his wrist ends this season. This was not unexpected.

The third catcher is a tad expensive--he never plays but is 1 of just 13 lineup players. So basically Cora manages with 9 in the lineup and 3 spares, 1 of whom is a catcher. I think Mayer is in fact missed because he is a good fielder and a decent lefty bat with a .739 OPS against righties.

In 10 games in August Yoshida has an OPS of .820, 9 rbi's, 3 BB's, and 5 K's.

Let Anthony be Anthony and not who you think he should be. He has played in just 55 games, 1/3 of a season.