Maxbialystock

No dishonor in that at bat by Devers. Cole was at his best, and the only hittable pitch was the knuckle curve, the only one he threw. Cole has now thrown 70 pitches in 3 innings. Valdez has thrown 31 in 2. If he can throw two more good innings, he will have done a great job. But the WEEI guys say he has never thrown more than 3.1 innings.

Cole just threw a 94 mph changeup. A ball.

Cole is an idiot. He's got great stuff and trying to hit the corners against a rookie. I am pretty sure Duran can't hit that 99/100 mph fastball.

I don't agree. I am no expert, but it seems to me Houck the 6th starter now is the 5th starter, plus Sale should be here before long. Would I rather have ERod than Garrett Richards in the rotation? Absolutely. But Garrett did OK until he got to the 6th and the 3d time thru the Jays order.

No. But it's certainly good enough so far. He's hit two guys already, although the 2d was also ball four. I complain about Vazquez, but tonight he is definitely earning his pay, preventing wild pitches, calling for the right stuff from Valdez, throwing a runner out at 2b.

Back in the first when Cole was pitching, Boone came charging out to argue a call. WEEI guys say that is an automatic thumb from the game, but such was not the case.

Valdez has control issues, but throws some wicked stuff.

Rays up 4-3 in the 4th.

Vazquez again strives to take it easy on opposing pitcher. First pitch easy, lazy fly out. Wonder if he's go for his 10th passed ball tonight. That said, I do think he calls a good game.

The downside of making Houck the 6th starter is what we are watching now. How many outs can Valdez get before Cora has to go back to the bullpen, which pitched 5.1 innings last night and 3.1 in Toronto Wed night?

Astounding top of the 2d. ERod in trouble, leaves with possible injury, and Valdez works out of ERod's 2 on, none out jam without giving up a run. Cole, meanwhile, looks as badass as ever.

You can't believe that. With the possible exception of Connie Mack, owners who called all the shots on players have been uniformly unsuccessful. Successful owners like John Henry hire smart people to make those decisions and/or overwatch those who make those decisions.

I think it was on Ken Burns Baseball series that someone said that, before Curt Flood challenged the reserve clause, the average player made 7 times as much as the average fan in the stands. After Curt Flood, the average player made 7 X 7 as much as the average fan. That's probably still true.

ein gute frage

Last time, July 23, Eovaldi and Cole both pitched well. I expect the same thing tonight with ERod and Cole. We lost because Sawamura couldn't handle the rain.

Agree.

I'll take Houck over Porcello all day long, every day of the week, and twice on Sundays. Besides, Porcello was just one of a zillion starters the Sox have acquired (and not developed in the Sox system) over the years, and he doesn't come close to the good ones. His career ERA is 4.40, for crying out loud, and in the 5 seasons with the Sox his ERA's were 4.92, 3.15, 4.65, 4.28, and 5.52. His cumulative WAR in 12 seasons is a tiny 20.2, but his cumulative salary is sizable $127M.

0-3 doesn't bother me one bit. It's just great to have one of us at the game(s). I do not consider last night's win to have been lucky. Houck pitched great: 8 K's, 2 BB's, hits, and 1 unearned run in 4.2 innings, including in the rain. The bullpen, except for Ottavino, did well too: 3.1 innings, 0 runs. The unearned run was thanks to Vazquez's 9th passed ball, most in MLB. The hitting stunk--the first run was unearned and off a barely adequate SF--but the bottom of the order kept hitting, which finally paid off in the 9th when Verdugo got his 3d single, Dalbec got his 2d, and Hernandez got that 2 run double off the green monster. That's what good teams do. Granted, the 10th was kind of a joke what with Kriske's 4 wild pitches, but again that's because the Yankees ran out of bullpen, plus their catcher maybe should have blocked at least a couple of them and/or told Kriske to stay with the fastballs (with which Kriske K'd JDM). My point is last night's Sox were the same guys we've been cheering for--and grumbling about--all season long. True, they're only a game up on the pesky Rays, but guess what? The Sox have the best record and most wins in the AL and the second best record in MLB. Please give us your report(s) during or after the game.

Best thing going for the Sox is having moonslav, the eternal optimist, starting the gamethread. I think these Sox have to live with the fielding errors and those on the basepaths and make up for them with good pitching and timely hitting. Agree ERod is looking much better: better command, better mix of pitches.

Truculent might be the right word. I am certainly fed up with the sanctification of closers in an era when the best starters in MLB only average 6.6 innings per start and a reasonably good starter like Rich Hill can average 5 innings per start. Indeed, the trend for some time now has been to build deep bullpens. I think Barnes is having a great year, but I think what makes our bullpen so good is that he is backed up by Whitlock (who has a higher WAR), Ottavino, Sawamura, Taylor, Hernandez, et al.

Nope. When the Sox fail to rally, as indeed they seemed to be doing continually last night, no one on talksox says, "oh, golly, gee, what bad luck." Nosiree. The cry immediately goes forth, "why can't these bums hit, for crying out loud." As I just said, Verdugo and Dalbec were already getting hits before the 9th inning last night. The problem was with the top of the order until Hernandez finally came through, but I think you will have to agree that, as hot as he has been recently, by the 9th inning he was due. And, if you want to bring luck into it, I would argue that Ottavino, who has been terrific, had bad luck in the 8th. Even Kriske in the 10th was not bad luck for the Yankees, no more than Andriese was for the Sox three weeks ago in the 12th inning at Oakland.

His DWAR this year so far is -.6 and he has more at bats than Dalbec, but only 1 more dinger and 1 fewer rbi's.

Love Beaty. Such potential. Only thing is, his cumulative WAR after 3 seasons is -.3. That's better than Dalbec's cumulative (after 2 seasons) of -.5, but not by much.

That's dirty pool. Seriously. Did you have to bring out those stats when the very name Rizzo has such poetry in it?

Thanks for saying that. You yourself have said repeatedly that this year all the contenders have weaknesses. And right now, as you point out, Cora is not without options/alternatives at 1b. That said, Nelson Cruz, age 41, to the Rays was a good move. On the other hand, we already have a terrific DH (who can also play the outfield), and finding a really good first baseman who won't break the bank or the prospects ain't easy.