Maxbialystock

Depends on what they have to give up.

Montgomery's changeup is like Houck's slider--hard to hit.

Bottom of the Sox order get two solid singles after the first 7 hitters looked terrible.

Dalbec pops on a curve in the center of the strike zone.

Verdugo continues to be red hot at the plate. What's that, his first single in a month?

WEEI guys can't stop talking about the drizzle/rain which is totally unexpected.

According to mlb.com, Houck has a regular fastball and a sinker fastball, so those two plus the slider and splitter make 4 pitches. Plus maybe his motion is bothering the Yankees. Whatever the cause, that's 6 K's in 3 innings and 1 single.

OK. Ray Milland is now envious of that slider.

Houck throwing over 70% strikes. Splitter for a strike!

Montgomery look to me as much the better pitcher than Houck--better repertoire, better location, better results. But Houck's slider looks every bit as good as Ray Milland's "enhanced" pitch in It Happens Every Spring.

Houck lucky in the first with two hard hit balls caught--he was basically throwing to the middle of the strike zone. Not so in the 2d inning.

Houck going with just 2 pitches, slider and fastball, and the slider especially is working. 3 K's in the first two innings, 1 hit, 0 runs.

At least that good—despite my earlier comment. Overall, the 5 starters have been a plus despite so-so starts.

After NYY debacle, he’s become aggressive with the lineups.

3d time thru last night murdered Richards. And that's why I don't understand the argument that Perez is pretty good when he too often (7 times so far this year) only pitches 2, 3, or 4 innings.

True. He has the highest DWAR, +1.3, on the team, mostly because of CF play.

I count 7 bad starts, all games when he pitched 4 of fewer innings, which put too much of a burden on the bullpen and also allows Perez to avoid facing any hitters more than twice. To me those games are nonstarters.

In this 4 game series, the Sox vs. Yankees starters will be: Houck (ERA 3.38) vs. Montgomery (ERA 4.18) ERod (ERA 5.19) vs. Cole (ERA 2.63) Eovaldi (ERA 3.57) vs. Taillon (ERA 4.60) Perez (ERA 4.16) vs. German (ERA 4.16) I think Cole has the edge (over ERod) for the Yankees in game 2 and Eovaldi (over Taillon) for the Sox in game 3. The other two are crapshoots--remembering of course moonslav's adage that mismatches often produce surprising outcomes. The Sox to date have a +63 run differential and the Yankees +10--the latter mostly because of their tepid hitting which, however, just might be coming back to life. Both teams need this series even though the Yankees need it more. For the Sox tonight's game is the first of 11 back to back games vs. the other three AL East contenders: 4 vs. the Yankees, 4 vs. the Jays, and 3 @ the Trop vs. the Rays. Then, after 3 @ Detroit, the Sox play 4 more at Toronto (not Buffalo), including a double-header with the make-up game) and 3 at Fenway vs. the Rays. So that's 18 of 21 games vs. three winning teams, all of whom have a shot at the wild card or the AL East title. Oh, and right in the middle of those 21 games comes July 31, the so-called final date for making a deal for this season.

Yankees have now won 4 straight thanks to the boost the Sox gave them. They are 7 games back and 7-3 vs. the Sox 4-6 in the last 10 games for each.

And so he (Houck) is starting--tonight at Fenway vs. the Yankees, who will have lefty Montgomery (ERA 4.18, 99K) going for them.

An unusual movie with a very good cast even though bigger stars (than Reynolds, Voight, Cox, and Beatty) were considered/asked. No stunt doubles were used, also no insurance. Dickey was an alcoholic who showed up drunk on the set and got into a fight with the director Boorman (who lost teeth and the fight). It is preserved in the National Film Registry at the Library of Congress.

He sure did.

Lovely win. Richards was very, very good--before he was horrid. And the bats went wild.

3d time thru their lineup.

Richards continues to impress with, I hasten to add, Vazquez behind the plate.