Maxbialystock

Agree completely. This dawned on me last night. I think Price earned the truck, but he gets so much money what difference would it make to him? Besides, Pearce had one heckuva postseason and is a very good choice.

Here we go again, the hot stove league. I would like to inform one and all that: 1) you guys do not do this just in the offseason--prospects, deals, trades, etc are a regular source of discussion throughout the season; 2) the season is over and there will be no games until April 1 or thereabouts, and to my way of thinking all these discussions are a distant second to the real thing.

And I’m the opposite, maybe because I’m older. I relish each season and especially this one. I won’t even think about next year much—until late winter. Instead, I’ll focus on my Div I basketball team that usually gets to March Madness. Also, I’m mostly lost when moonslav reels off those numbers and/or names for next year and the next decade or so. I’m like forest Gump opening up that box of chocolates. I like not knowing too much about what is coming.

4 of the top 5 and 8 of the top 12 in attendance this year were NL teams. If anything, the DL would appear to have less entertainment value.

We have a Dodgers fan, a good guy, in our office who flew from DC to LA to watch his guys play Saturday night at Chavez Ravine. Worst possible game for a Dodgers fan to see in person. At this late date in my life and having endured 55 years of Sox fandom during the 86 year drought, I actually feel spoiled by four WS and can easily sympathize with any Dodgers fan--or Astros or Yankees fan for that matter. But I have to say this postseason has been special because the Sox, despite winning 108, were never touted to beat the Yankees or Astros. Far from it. Heck, I wasn't so confident because of the bullpen and real concerns about both Sale and Price. I think the Sox were favored over the Dodgers, but the great majority of commentators, especially Fox, seemed to root for the Dodgers in part because of their great history (and it is), in part because of their 30 year drought, and in part because they made it back to the WS after losing last year's. They were, in short, due. And despite all that the Sox not only won, but won 11 of 14 games against two 100 wins teams and a 91 win team that was back in the WS. And they were all team wins with a bunch of different guys stepping up when needed even while (in the WS) a couple or so very good bats were kind of quiet. Price ended forever his choker title by going 13 innings vs. the Dodgers, giving up 3 runs, and getting 2 big wins. But the catching was good even though invisible to us. And the fielding was pretty good and in some cases (Devers) better than expected. The bullpen was great despite Kimbrel (and Workman). And the hitting with two outs was out of this world good. And in the middle of all that was a young first year manager who throughout the postseason was alert, decisive--boy, was he decisive--and calm.

The big hits provided most of the excitement of course, especially Pearce, but also the surprise 3 run dingers by Moreland and earlier by Nunez. But my three most enduring memories will probably be how much better the pitching was in the postseason, how masterful Cora was in numerous decisions, and how much these guys rooted for each other. I woke up this morning and could name all 25 from memory.

My MVP wpould have been Price. 2 wins, 13 innings, 3 runs.

Other Sox teams may have hit or pitched better, but none were as good winning games, season and postseason. This is the best ever Sox team without question.

What the hell are those 2 runs on the scoreboard, then? Kershaw is a great pitcher.

Yeah, sure. Because the guy at 1b right now is really hurting us.

Credit to you. He has really come thru. Very focused on the mound.

Not.

You think so? Have you already forgotten the damage Pearce has done?

Great swing by Reese on that dinger. Otherwise not a bad 1st for Price.

And I was one of the complainers because I was plenty worried we had used up 2 starters in one game and still lost it. But I still think Cora has had an incredible season for a manager because I've watched almost every game and think he makes good decisions. But more than that it appears he has the team thinking the right way and I love the way he looks in the dugout during games. Alert, decisive, and calm--the exact opposite of what a first time manager for a highly paid, highly visible ball club should look. They just fired a guy who took them to the WS in 2013 and won the AL East in 2016 and 2017. Gone. Francona, a perfectly good manager who broke the Curse and then won a 2d WS--gone. In the movie Bull Durham Crash Davis (Kevin Costner) holds forth on how tough MLB pitchers can be, but they ain't nuttin' compared to the Sox front office in the John Henry era. They are currently paying two guys, Pablo and Hanley, a combined $35M this season to stay away from this team. Yet there is Cora--to the manner born. Pretty remarkable. That said, just maybe it's time to recognize the players without whom all this--108 wins, 3 of 4 in the ALDS, 4 of 5 in the ALCS, and now 3-1 in the WS--is impossible. And it has to be said, especially by yours truly, the big fat whiner last night, that last night's game was representative of the best games they've played this season. In fact, it probably is the best game given their situation and what was at stake. So hat's off to all of them and especially Pearce who was interviewed after the game and said the same thing--it was a team effort all the way. I assume everyone has seen the replay of Sale charging guys up in the bullpen I think right before the Sox batted in the 7th.

The will to win is an interesting notion, even an attractive one if you are a Sox fan. If you're a Dodgers fan, however, managerial ineptitude transcends all else. And in the bottom of the 6th the Sox fans were just as sure they had the idiot at the helm--dummy Cora whose chief claim to fame, according to a few, was that he was a lucky manager. I find it fascinating that last night ERod threw 93 pitches and Hill threw 91 pitches and one fan base is furious ERod was left in and the other fan base even more furious Hill was removed. And perhaps both are right. Me, I think I can make a case that both managers were equally right/wrong. In Dave Roberts case his starter Hill had told him to keep a careful watch because he could run out of gas. At that point in the game the Dodgers had a 4-0 lead and the comfort of knowing that whoever they sent to the mound in the previous 24 innings was certain to be effective because in those 24 innings the Sox drove in exactly 1 run, a dinger by JBJ. As for Cora, he had a lineup that in the playoffs had been deemed relentless but in the previous 24 innings was moribund and now, thanks to a bad throw by Vazquez, were down 1-0 with the redoubtable Hill and his astounding curve on the mound. Why not let ERod get that last out and save the bullpen a tad because this game could well go extra innings. I personally thought the game was over in the 6th before the Puig dinger and because the lineup was dead, dead, dead. Wrong. This is baseball, and anything can happen. Lightning struck the Dodgers lineup when Puig got that dinger, and the same exact thing happened 1/2 inning later when Moreland, pinch-hitting, did the same thing for the Sox. Land o' goshen! Think about that. Two teams go almost 24 innings scoring a total of 6 runs, only 4 of them earned, and in the space of two half innings--the bottom of the 6th and the top of the 7th--they score 7 runs. And in the subsequent 2 innings they score 8 more runs. In that total of 3 1/3 innings they scored 15 runs including 4 dingers!!!! And let's not forget that Kimbrel, no longer having to worry about tipping his pitches, showed once again why the Sox will be nuts to renew his contract and why Cora had Price warming up in the bullpen with a 5 run lead that was suddenly a 3 run lead with no one out in the bottom of the 9th. So maybe it is was/is a will to win, but I would argue it is impossible for both teams in the World Series and after having to win both division series and league championship series not to have a very strong will to win. What we saw last night was baseball. Amazing baseball.

I don't believe that. Out of nowhere comes a hitter, a Sox hitter of all things.

True. The problem was that ERod might have been tired or whatever, so he had 3-0 or 3-1 count when the threw a fast ball right down the pike which Puig had to be expecting because that's what ERod tends to do when he gets desperate. He got away with it earlier in the game because he didn't get those counts and he was mixing in other pitches.

No doubt, but I still don't give a s*** because that one run was a good bet to hold up.

Time to celebrate!!!!! Bogie wanted to K in the worst way, but got the BB. Oh, I'm shocked. Nunie just K'd--badly.

Who gives a s***, seriously? The problem isn't with the pitching, but with the hitting. That dinger was a blessing.

If you were an announcer, you'd be ecstatic. And it has nothing whatever to do with the Dodgers, but with having a competitive WS.

He's good, definitely good. Lucky as well, I agree. FWIW, I believed this game was a goner before it started. Not because I thought ERod couldn't pitch, but because the lineup looked horrible last night, irrecoverably so. Today one pissy single in 6 innings. In that context, I think the 3 run dinger was a blessing in disguise. No chance the Sox will tie up this game--or, if they do, it will mean they are hitting again--and the last thing they need is another game going extra innings.

The lineup--hitting and defense--have simply disappeared in LA, but most of all the hitting. We're now at 24 innings in which they Sox have driven in just 1 run. What's the name of that movie that's been done at least twice? Invasion of the body snatchers. That appears to have happened as soon as the team landed in LA.

This is last night all over again. Sox have now played 22 innings and driven in exactly 1 earned run. Now we need to hear from Jung, who tell tell us that it's not the Sox who are struggling, but the gross injustice of not being allowed to have a DH--a thought which I still find laughable.