Maxbialystock

Interesting. Both hits were off of first pitches.

WEEI guys blaming Dalbec, but my take is that catching that would have caused an injury.

Rain coming down hard according to WEEI guys, who can't resist talking about the stupidity of the no rain rain delay called by the Yankees.

WEEI guys say the home team makes the call on starting the game. After that, I think it's the umps who make the call on rain delays during the game.

OK. Sure looks like the good Eovaldi. Forget that K of Stanton, who stinks this year. I liked getting LeMahieu out after he fouled off all those pitches.

Raining. Yankees started the game 50 minutes late when there was no rain. The WEEI guys are right: the Yankees are really, really stupid. They have their ace on the mound and the chances are good he won't get 5 innings.

Good pitching tops good hitting almost every time. Cole looks good tonight, and JDM and Devers were helpless/hopeless. Credit to Verdugo on the fly to LF to move Hernandez to 3b. So now let's see which Eovaldi takes the mound tonight.

Horrible, terrible at bat by JDM. Good tag up by Hernandez.

No chance of that. Eovaldi isn't that good, and the Yankees have their very best bats in the lineup tonight. I just hope Eovaldi can get to the 2d and maybe even the 3d inning without giving up more than 5 runs.

WEEI says the game starts at 8:05. They talked at length that the Yankees lead MLB in "non-rain rain delays."

Well, as a minority of one, let me say I don't want no stinkin' rover era. Yes, I want to see Duran, but I expected Hernandez to go to 1B to replace Dalbec and Bogey to be the SS.

And Yankee fans need to be afraid, very afraid. Me, I'm looking forward to a good game against ancient rivals in a good looking ballpark which, however, does not have enough roof to keep the rain off.

Well, see, when you mention a trade or other acquisition, I'm at a loss because I don't know enough. Thus my preference for staying with the guys I know.

Agree command is a big factor, which I think is helped by going with just 2 pitches.

Good point.

I absolutely thought that trade made sense and Betts was unaffordable for the Sox. Getting some usable players/prospects was a bonus, paid for by the reality of continuing to pay half of Price's salary.

Love it. Duran for Bogaerts. Cole will be shaking in his shoes. Or maybe it's Dalbec for Bogaerts, which also makes sense.

I'm not seeing that. No way do I not see Sale as returning to form this year. He and Eovaldi should be very tough, especially backed up by Pivetta and I think ERod. Plus backing them up are Perez and Richards and Houck, plus a very good bullpen. You mention 2013, which was when the Sox picked up Peavy--blehhh. He pitched 12.2 innings in the postseason with an ERA of 7.11. Bottom line: I think Sale and Houck are enough to shore up the pitching and banish Richards from doing much more damage. And I'm hoping Duran will be the additional bat.

"Recency effect" has done more to Perez than Pivetta. Pivetta has sometimes looked like an ace, but not Perez. Thus Pivetta has 6 quality starts and Perez 3. Perez has had one good month, May: 5 starts, ERA 2.60, 2 quality starts, 27.2 innings pitched.

An idle, no doubt useless thought. Right now I am way more enthusiastic about bringing up Houck than bringing up Duran. Last night impressed me even though the Yankees lineup is its weakest in years, maybe decades. If Houck can keep this up--he does seem to have a good array of pitches--I can see all kinds of uses for him. Duran, however, has yet to demonstrate he is MLB caliber or even that he is needed. Despite Verdugo's downturn, he is still likely better than Duran and certainly so in the field where Duran has speed, but no arm and no judgment on where balls are going. I do like Duran's lefty bat, which the Sox have in short supply, but need to see him actually hit MLB pitching even though I am also aware that both he and opposing pitchers will make adjustments over time and much depends on how well he adjusts to all that nasty stuff that will be thrown at him. It is precisely because of my concerns that I now think this is the time to bring him up and, more importantly, to play him as much as possible. He is about the same age as Ellsbury--and 1" taller and 30 lbs heavier--when he was brought up in 2007 and became an instant success.

Barnes's career ERA is 3.93, but this year it's 2.61. I tend to throw out 2020 as an anomaly, a nonseason that had to be counted as a real season. In the three prior seasons (2017-2019), his ERA's were 3.88, 3.65, and 3.78, which is a pretty tight shot group. This year is clearly different, not at all like those three good seasons setting up for the closer. And I think two things changed for Barnes to get 2.61 this year. First and foremost, he changed his repertoire to a very good knuckle curve, a good fastball, and nothing else. In prior seasons he threw other pitches which weren't as good. The other change was becoming the closer, which meant he usually knew when he would be called upon--usually with a clean inning. A possible third thing is that none of his set up guys (Ottavino, Whitlock, Sawamura, et al) throw his particular mix of pitches.

His OPS's by month: April .863, May .755, June .718, July .659.

I honestly don't recall much bashing, but rather an earnest debate. I like our current outfield of Verdugo, Hernandez, and Renfroe, all of whom are better fielders than Duran and all of whom have shown they can hit MLB pitching (even though Verdugo is backsliding lately), which Duran has yet to do. Like others, I also fall back on agreeing with whatever Bloom/Cora decide. As soon as they decided to bring him up, I was completely on board. As others have seen better than I, there are a lot of angles to any moves made.

Well, almost. In terms of team ERA, the Sox do have the 4th best staff in the AL East. It's all in how you look at it. Indeed, on last night's game thread, you posted a Sox stats laydown that indicated a 4 man postseason rotation that looks pretty good assuming Sale is still Sale, Eovaldi keeps up the good work, the resurgent ERod doesn't backslide, and Pivetta/Houck/Perez can do OK. Plus what now looks like a very good bullpen--Barnes, Ottavino, Whitlock, Sawamura, Taylor, Hernandez, and of course Houck.

Not quite. In the immortal words of Miracle Max, a devout Yankees fan, they would be only be "mostly dead." Still to soon to take the change out of their pockets.