Maxbialystock

Surprise, surprise. A rarity. ERod beat the batter to 1st base. Barely. Gotta give him credit beacuse he is mixing up his pitches and not over relying on his fast ball.

Absolutely bonehead play by Chavis, but it worked.

I get the game on fox 1. Sabathia looks dominant and ERod anything but—so far.

He has a good mix of pitches which held up well.

So much depends on whether the guys has all or most of his pitches that day--and of course command. Tanaka, who is capable of shutting the Sox down, got killed last night because he couldn't put the ball where he wanted to. Lefties have given the Sox problems this year, and Paxton was one of them.

I admit to helping it along, but have to admit there are definitely some bullpens that are a whole lot better. DD went cheap on the bullpen, which I was fine with, but right now i'm plenty worried.

You don't think the Sox did that last year and that the overwhelming majority of talksox posters insist that they do it again this year? We have some here who think the Sox actually must sweep any last place or below .400 team they face. I don't expect that. But I do watch with great interest any game against a team with a winning record or better still playing .600 or better ball. Last year the Sox got off to a great start, but then lost some games. Meanwhile, the Yankees were coming on like a freight train and somewhere around June I think the Sox played 3 at NY and only won 1 of the 3. But I was delighted--to a degree--because they played the Yankees tough in all three games and could have won all three. That's when I decided the 2018 Sox were as good as their won-lost record, which U somewhat distrusted. Now the question is whether these Sox are better than this year's won-lost record, so once again I'm looking at the games against the Rays, Yankees, Twins, Guardians, Astros, etc. Of course I didn't like losing 2 of 3 to the lowly Orioles, but that can happen, which is actually great for MLB if not the the Sox. Now the Sox are playing 14 straight against the Rays and Yankees--which to me is great iis a great time to be a Sox fan with access to TV/internet. Oh, and I definitely agree that bad pitching can/will catch up to you in the playoffs. That applies to the Yankees, and, since their pitching is actually better than ours, it definitely applies to us.

Yes, I do look at a pitchers won-loss record, but yes, you are right.

All due respect to bosoxmal, but "last days of Pompei" is a silly analogy because the people of that city barely knew what hit them. The volcanic eruption caught them completely by surprise. The injuries to Moreland and Holt and others turned out to be more positive than not because we got to see Chavis, Hernandez again, etc. What makes things tricky for Cora right now is that he has to keep 13 pitcher, 8 relievers, which means he only gets 3 spare lineup players--a second catcher and two extra infielders/outfielders. However, what Cora normally likes to do is field lefty bats vs. righty starters and vice versa. Plus, if Leon is catching, he likes to get Chavez into the lineup as DH, 1B, or even 2B or 3B. Right now the least versatile guy among the 12 lineup players is Moreland who can only play 1B and also seems slower than usual. However, he still has that .852 OPS and pretty good against righty pitchers, which the Sox see more often than lefties. So, while I agree Moreland could be expendable/tradeable, I can also see reasons for keeping him. After two hitless games since returning, last night he had a double and a single.

Tanaka didn't have good command, with which he can be very tough. He threw 87 pitches, so I don't see the "burned him down to ash," but do see it as a logical move to save the bullpen. As it turned out, Tarpley was almost as bad, but my guess is Boone isn't worried about saving Tarpley. Maybe not Romine either. Fun for Sox fans, but hardly a Sox-Yankees classic. The next three are likely to be closely contested and/or the Yankees lineup will gore a Sox starter.

Finally, something sensible. I have my doubts about Cashner, but completely agree, "no more."

Fool's gold.

A gritty performance for which of course he won no plaudits. Not on a talksox game thread, no sir.

I got this mostly right, except the part about forgetting London because clearly Tanaka hasn't. Good call by tylerD to start the thread on a positive note.

I know from nothing about seams and pitchers, but the pitches I've seen this year seem to break as much as in previous years--except maybe for Wright's knuckler.

Moreland scores from 2b on a double!

Hey, he stuck around all the way to 11-2 and not without some pain.

My picture of it says it was right on the corner.

Tanaka is a different pitcher when his control is off.

That was a terrible call--and completely unnecessary. Just ask the 1b ump. I invariably defend umps, especially home plate umps, but this guy is likely to get an adverse report from the chief umpire.

Hard to believe.

Judge needs to stay away from that wall in an 8-2 game--or anytime.

That was inside, but I love it when umps have a big strike zone. 7 straight outs by Porcello,who has given up 2 in 4 innings--against the Yankees, yet-- but on talksox he'll always be a bum.

I love that call because I hate the way batters just step out of the batter's box any old time they please. My rule would be that in fact a batter can step out of box as often as he wants, but there would be no timeout short of an injury.

You betcha. I probably need retract my complaint about his not catching that liner. He has smacked two hard doubles, one to right and one to left.