Maxbialystock

Winning what? All 162 games. Try this on. If Cora really wanted to win this game today, he would not have started Eduardo Rodriguez, who stinks this season. Or try this on. The Phillies aren't playing their superstar $35M rightfielder today. Granted, he's in a slump, but going against the incompetent ERod might have been the perfect therapy to bring him out of it.

Well, they haven't so far. When a good pitcher is on, the other team's bats go silent no matter which team. Are you actually unaware that we are getting about one no-hitter a week this season?

Whoops, there goes another easy single against the computerized infield.

I say again. This game had loss written all over it yesterday when we knew Wheeler was going against ERod. Seriously, how can you possibly believe that ERod could outpitch Wheeler?

You are making what I believe to be a false assumption, namely, that JDM and Bogaerts would be getting multiple hits if not dingers off Wheeler. To be perfectly honest, I might agree with you on playing Bogie and JDM in a day game after a night game except for one important fact. Starting pitcher today was a guy named Eduardo Rodriguez, who was lucky to go 4 innings only giving up 4 runs. This game ain't over, but it had loss written all over it yesterday when we knew Wheeler was starting against ERod. Good pitching beats good hitting almost every time.

So, blind squirrel gets a nut, and the Sox computer-driven positioning grabs a liner.

Very good post.

No question he stinks this season, not just today. Plus he has always needed too many pitches per out. Credit, however, to Cora leaving him in for the 5th and huge, huge credit to Sawamura for rescuing that decision. ERod got to make 103 pitches which he can hopefully learn from.

Devers K'd, but also fouled off both a high slider and very low slider. This is the 3d time thru the order, and, with two out from the bottom of the order, Hernandez singled, Santana worked a BB, and Devers actually had some good cuts and contact. Nevertheless, Wheeler is one tough hombre.

Interesting game so far. I'm about as anti-ERod as it's possible to be, but the simple fact is that horrible score is mostly the result of one good swing and a proverbial 3 run dinger. ERod wasn't half bad in innings 2, 3, and 4. Sox hitting sucks so far, but Wheeler is more than capable of doing that against any lineup. It might even be worth noting that we are still in the second trip thru the Sox batting order when good pitching is expected to dominate. Wheeler is capable of being tough the third time thru the order, but let's just see. Meanwhile, Sawamura did a fantastic job stopping what could easily have been a put-the-game-away rally.

I assume you too have watched just about every inning of every game this year. My very strong impression so far is that good pitching beats good hitting every time, and today the Sox are going against one of the best in MLB. He pitches the most innings per start in MLB and still has the 12th best ERA, the 7th most K's, etc.. When even our best hitters--JDM, Bogie, Devers, maybe Verdugo--go against really good pitching, they are just as overwhelmed as the rest of the lineup. As someone else on talksox said, the difference between great hitters and so-so hitters is their consistency in hitting bad pitches, which are usually thrown by weak pitchers. If Cora wants to give JDM and Bogie a 2 day break, I'm for it. It's a very long season, 6 games a week for six straight months.

Blank.

OK, I got it. Games in May are as important as games in September. Now I have one for you. Have you noticed that MLB teams play 162 games, 6 games a week for six months and that, even though, certainly, every game is important, it is probably not smart to play everybody every game or even close to it? Also, look at the pitchers, who outnumber the position players, but play in at most half the games, and if they do play in that many, they only pitch 1 inning per game. And this. I assume you too have watched just about every inning of every game this year. My very strong impression so far is that good pitching beats good hitting every time, and today the Sox are going against one of the best in MLB. He pitches the most innings per start in MLB and still has the 12th best ERA, the 7th most K's, etc.. When even our best hitters--JDM, Bogie, Devers, maybe Verdugo--go against really good pitching, they are just as overwhelmed as the rest of the lineup. As someone else on talksox said, the difference between great hitters and so-so hitters is their consistency in hitting bad pitches, which are usually thrown by weak pitchers.

Resting Harper actually helps their lineup because he is in a slump: 2 hits in his last 7 games, hitless in his last 23 at bats. If Eduardo "performs great today," it will indeed be an interesting game because Wheeler is one tough hombre this year.

I looked and can't find Opponent OPS stats on either pitcher, but can tell you that Wheeler's WAR is 2.5--way better than any Sox pitcher's--and ERod's is .3. Wheeler has had 9 starts and pitched 60.2 innings, almost 7 innings per start, which reduces the vulnerability of the Phillies bullpen.

I am borderline incapable of figuring anything, but MLB has an almost limitless capacity to surprise us. The 2021 ERod is a far cry from the 2019 one. He missed all of last year because of COVID and attendant (and scary) heart issues. Then he missed his first regular season start this year because of a reported "dead arm." Yet this is his 9th start and in his previous 8 starts averaged 5 1/2 innings (44 in 8 starts). He was better in April than in May (so far). I think his only good pitch is his changeup, and even that comes and goes. His BB rate is down, but at the price of throwing fat pitches which get hit--I leave it to moonslav to tell us what his OPS Against is. Oh, and in his last two seasons, 2018 and 2019, he was lucky. He's had great run support. That has continued this year because he is 5-2 despite having the worst ERA in the rotation.

Cool. Thank you.

The MLB channel on my TV says they will show us vs. the Phillies or the Yankees vs. the White Sox. I just might watch both games, one on TV and the other on the desktop. Rays @ Jays could be good, but that ballpark at Dunedin is crap, even worse than the Trop.

Let's use this as the game thread. Any suggestions on how to get rid of the other one?

Verrrrrry interesting.

Game starts at 1:05, EDT.

Error!

Eduardo Rodgriguez (L) vs. Zach Wheeler ® Definite edge to the Phillies, but last night we had the pitching edge, a better record, etc, and almost didn't win, even with Barned in for the save. Baseball is like that. You gotta play the games, which is why guys like us have become addicts. OK, maybe not addicts. Maybe connoiseurs of the fine art of our national pastime and the only sport that Ken Burns thought worthy of 9 segments. So today allow me to introduce you to a somewhat different flavor in lineups, one with piquancy rather than robustness: Kike Hernandez 2B Danny Santana CF Rafael Devers 3B Christian Vazquez C Hunter Renfroe RF Marwin Gonzalez SS Bobby Dalbec 1B Franch Cordero LF Eduardo Rodriguez P No Bogie, no JD Martinez. Day game after a night game. and a whole lot of baseball ahead of us.

He's going against Wheeler, who is tough. But you never can tell because you gotta play the games.

Vazquez once again catches Barnes in the 9th when he wasn't the starting catcher. Good job by both of them under pressure. Great catch of Dalbec's throw by Bogie. I just don't buy this stuff about how terrible the Phillies are. They win half (48%) their games, which means they are always a threat to win, which is what we saw tonight. I despise Bryce Harper and am delighted he is in a real slump, but that won't last. Tomorrow the Phillies go with Wheeler, and the Sox send out Eduardo Rodriguez, so a sweep ain't gonna be easy. Meanwhile, the low-down, no good, rotten Rays--who, it has been said on talksox, aren't even as good as the Jays--are on a 9 game winning streak and 1 game behind the Sox. But you know what's neat about that? They should be in 1st place but aren't. These Sox are tough.