Maxbialystock

Sox have now lost 5 of 6 (and 4 straight). The one win was the game Houck started (and went just 4 innings). Houck is back in Worcester so Cora can keep some really great guys like Duran, Dalbec, Richards, Perez, ERod, etc on the Boston 26 man roster.

Three pitches in the geometric center of the strike zone, and Duran looked at one and swung and missed at the other two. He is not ready for MLB pitching. Sadly, sending him back to Worcester is unlikely to make him better.

Can't argue with that.

Plawecki, Dalbec, and Hernandez due up in the 9th.

Another difference between the Sox and Rays. The Rays flat believe that righty vs. righty and lefty vs. lefty favors the pitcher. So they consistently, especially in a close game, bring in a righty to face a righty or a lefty to fact a lefty, and it just worked perfectly vs the three Sox hitters (two righties and a lefty) who batted after Bogaerts walked to lead off the inning. Conversely, righty vs. lefty usually favors the hitters, so tonight the Rays started five lefty bats, which made Pivetta's job a little tougher. The Sox have never had five lefty hitters in a game this year and often only have 2 or 3. Ironically, and this is almost laughable, the Sox righty hitters stink against lefty starters, as we have seen in this series.

Completely agree it's a small sampling. But it's also the only one available. Dalbec has a full month (or was it more?) with the Sox last year and big chunks of 4 months this year, and he doesn't seem to be improving, but he statistically better than Duran.

I've kind of felt the same way and said so awhile back. But now I think: 1. Eovaldi got killed last night, and he was the one really good (not great) starter we thought the Sox had. We think Sale will be great, but he hasn't pitched to MLB hitting in two years, so there is no guarantee he will be great. 2. In other words, to have a good rotation, the Sox needed two Max Scherzer types, and those would have been prohibitively expensive in terms of salaries and prospects. 3. The hitting has also fallen off, and whether Schlarber can help or even play every day--preferably at 1b--definitely remains to be seen. He has been out a month already and has never played 1b. 4. The Sox defense remains the worst in MLB. 5. The bullpen has been excellent this season, but it too seems to be falling off lately. If you doubt me, ask the Rays.

Duran's OPS is under .500 and Dalbec's is over .600.

One thing I have noticed about almost all Sox pitchers over the years. Few of them like to work the lower part of the strike zone. This strikes me as dumb when the infielders have the advantage of those computer programs that position them to do well against ground balls. The Rays and some other pitching staffs seem to love working the lower part of the zone, which is why it seems--I have no hard data on this--the Sox hit a lot of grounders. Also, for big parts of this season there has been an incessant clamor on talksox to bring up the youngsters, so much so that one had the impression that Dalbec and Duran were almost guaranteed to be instant stars. Now we are in August and it sure seems that talksoxers who clamored for the rookies were wrong. Perhaps Bloom and Cora were wrong too, but at least their defense can be that, even though Dalbec and Duran have looked awful, they have at least gained some experience about what they need to work on. Plus, in defense of those clamoring for the rookies, it can also be fairly said that the veterans all got the first shots to show what they can do.

Nice DP by Dalbec, caught the grounder, threw quickly to 2b, caught the return throw.

Completely agree that fans, especially us on talksox, have zero effect on game outcomes. But so what? Game threads--all threads, for that matter--are fun.

It's what happened during the week that changed the mood. The rotation continued to slide backwards, the hitting did too, the Jays split a series we thought the Sox would take (3-1), Bloom made no moves to bolster the pitching and could only come up with an injured outfielder (the Sox need a hitting first baseman) to help the lineup, and the Rays beat the Sox 7-3 and, worse, 9-5 in the Trop, the latter game with the Sox ace Eovaldi getting smacked around--as was Ottavino, Barnes' set-up man who is paid more than Barnes. Oh, and bring-up infielder Arauz had 2 errors last night. To me the bad week fits the worst case scenario: the rotation sucks so badly the hitting can't make up the difference, and Bloom has signaled that this is not our year. I am more pessimistic than you because I just don't see how the pitching is going to come around, but I also am grateful for a superb first 2/3 of the season, which was completely unexpected. And this. Our two hotshot rookies, Dalbec and Duran, don't look like they are ready for MLB. I also agree with moonslav's analysis of why Bloom didn't go after a really good starter: JH didn't want to go over the luxury tax limit, and Bloom didn't want to give up any of the Sox best prospects.

We had this discussion on another thread, maybe last night's, and everyone agreed it is good for talksox to have differing perspectives and that everyone is absolutely entitled to his/her opinion. I myself am pessimistic, but am happy to read posts from the optimists.

Rays now in first place, which they can cement further with another win tomorrow. It was a fun 2/3 of a season, but the final 1/3 looks like a whole lot of pain.

Well, it's unlikely they will do any of those things. So, with Eovaldi going tonight and the Sox being trounced, 9-5, this season could well be over. Indeed, it's entirely possible Bloom and John Henry both knew the season was over when there was no attempt to fix the rotation--for the reasons you stated. JH didn't want to go over the luxury tax amount, and Bloom didn't want to give up a decent prospect. In their defense, I honestly don't think this rotation is fixable. However, I also think your ideas are as close as any I've seen for fixing the rotation.

Six straight sliders, and Renfroe still couldn't figure them out. Horrible at bat.

Actually, I'd settle for a catcher who can, well, catch the dadgum ball, who doesn't run into outs on the base paths, and who can throw out base stealers. He doesn't have to be a great hitter or a genius at working with pitchers to make them as effective as possible.

Well, at least the Sox got Shwarber and his .910 OPS. Too bad he's on the IL and can't play 1b.

Who, however, should have been brought in one batter sooner. Cora wasn't thinking very straight.

On top of which, Cora waited too long before bringing in Taylor. And let's not forget that Arauz did his level best to make Eovaldi's job a lot harder. And Vazquez's pitch-calling wasn't very smart either.

That could well have been a mistake by Cora. I thought Eovaldi had a good mix of pitches, but Franco, batting lefty, had no problem fouling off a bunch of them until he got that splitter up in the zone and nailed it for a triple, scoring the Rays 6th run. Now in comes lefty Taylor, who should have been the one pitching to Franco.

Vazquez K's after a 3-0 count, not because he swung at bad pitches, but because, well, he can't actually hit a fastball or even two straight fastballs in the middle of the zone. Neither can Dalbec, for that matter. So maybe Kitteredge really deserves that ERA of 1.40.

He was joking. No way is Cora going to pull Vazquez in the middle of a game. In the past, despite my animus toward Vazquez, I have in fact given him credit when the pitcher does well because I do honestly believe the catcher is part of a pitcher's success. Tonight, however, I think the two big hits in the 1st inning and the dinger in the 4th were the direct result of Vazquez calling for too many fastballs. Eovaldi is at his best when he is mixing his pitches, throwing fewer fastballs, and using that very good splitter he has. I also don't mind you disagreeing because I think Cora agrees with you: everything Vazquez does is just hunky-dory, which is why he catches 4 out of 5 games (or whatever).

Touche!!!!!

Probably right. With any other Sox catcher, I'd bring him back. But Vazquez is clueless. That dinger in the 4th was the result of Vazquez calling for fastballs and nothing but fastballs--Eovaldi's most hittable pitch.