Maxbialystock

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.

Nonsense. The DH is the anomaly, not the pitcher batting. Some pitchers can in fact hit, and most are pretty good athletes who early on decided to specialize as pitchers. There have, however, been pitchers who went bad, converted to outfielders, and made it back to the The Show. In the American League, however, pitchers are encouraged to become single skill baseball players like ERod and Pomeranz, who have both apparently decided that, not only do they not have to hit, they don't have to field their position either. This ain't football. You don't get to platoon. As I said on another thread, guys like you will next be saying that, if one DH is good, two DH's is better and three DH's is better still. As for last night, I generally disagree with the tenor of this thread because I think what we saw was a night of horrendous hitting by the Sox lineup. The ball Kinsler fielded was a hard hit grounder up the middle that he fielded cleanly to his backhand side but then stumbled and consequently made a bad throw. But all he did was give back the go ahead run the Sox scored on--wait for it--an error by the Dodgers in the top of the inning (the 13th). I am certainly no Kinsler fan. But to me last night our lineup was just rotten, stinking horrible and it really didn't matter who the Dodgers had on the mound because our one and only earned run was JBJ's dinger in the 8th inning. I believe Cora has been a fantastic manager in the postseason, but last night we ended up with Eovaldi, Leon, and Vazquez in the lineup for several innings while the first four in the batting order--Betts, Bogaerts, Moreland, and JDM--went not only hitless but struck out 9 times and Bogaerts also got a GIDP. Meanwhile, Pearce and Beni each got 1 AB as a pinch hitter. So this was our lineup during a big chunk of the extra innings-- Betts 0 for 7 Bogie 0 for 8 Eovaldi--yes, Eovaldi, in for Moreland--0 for 2 Kinsler (in for JDM) 0 for 2 Holt 1 for 6 Nunez (in for Devers) 2 for 4 Bradley 2 for 5 including the dinger for the only earned run Vazquez 1 for 7 who finished at 1b because Pearce and Moreland were gone Leon 1 for 2 No DH applied to both teams and both managers. JDM played 9 innings, batted in the 10th, and Kinsler ran for him and stayed in. While in LF, JDM obeyed the hippocratic oath--first do no harm. In fact, he probably prevented a Machado double with his perfect handling of a single off the wall. During the regular season he was happy to play the outfield because he could and maybe because he didn't like being thought of as a one dimension player.

Kinsler bad, but so was the lineup, especially the top. Betts and bogie simply never showed up. Awful, awful game.

There. 3-2 count and Porcello threw a fat pitch in the middle that was fouled off. Then the K on a changeup out of the zone. These Dodger hitters do not impress me one bit. Great job Porcello!!! 4 innings and just 1 run. Come on, hitters, do your thing!

I disagree. JBJ looked horrible on that stupid steal, but it's obvious to me Buehler is way better than Porcello, and the score is just 1-0. This could be a whole lot worse.

One thing that surprises me is how well are goes are seeing those pitches. Not many swings at pitches outside of the zone. But not very good contact yet.