Maxbialystock

Crochet threw no fastballs to Walker, who was ready for that cutter. Whoever is calling the pitches is dumb.

I think the ump may be reacting to the catcher' pulling their mitts back toward the center of the zone. He's assuming the ball had to be outside the zone.

Another good IP for Javier. Still a long way to go for both teams.

Great. Another 4 takes on Bregman's dinger.

That fastball just above the strike zone seems to work on a lot of hitters, not just Anthony.

Seriously? He has the highest WAR, 4.0, among the Sox lineup players.

Javier back in control since Bregman's dinger.

Narvaez K's on a pitch that almost hit the plate.

Not very smart--Rafaela picked off.

My goodness that deep fly from Toro stayed in the air a long time

The worthless scumbag Astros hitter bad mouthed the ump on a strike well within the strike zone. Hitters get away with that bs, but not pitchers. Crochet got the K anyway.

I think the Astros starter adjusted after the dinger.

So far the ump is on the hitters side.

Sox 0/3 with RISP.

That inside fastball worked on Anthony yesterday for strike three. It was the sixth pitch and the only he swung at.

Excellent play on Abreu's grounder.

My goodness, the NESN coverage can't stop putting the cameras on Bregman. Meanwhile Duran walks and steals 2b with Story at bat--who's out on a pop foul.

No Yoshida tonight. Instead, Rafaela goes back to CF--hooray!!--Gonzalez to 2b, Toro to 1b (boo!!) and Anthony is the DH with Duran in LF and Abreu in RF. This is pretty much the Sox best defensive team because Hamilton can't hit well enough to start at 2b. Per moonlav's instructions, Cora has moved Abreu up to 5th.

You can bet JH knows that, but he also knows it's a little too risky.

Agree on both. I liked Toro for awhile, but no longer. Gonzalez stays at 1b. and Rafaela, Hamilton or the great Grissom plays 2b.

Meh. Arguing that a single pitcher would throw 5 different pitches in the 90's reminds me of what Samuel Johnson once said about a dog walking on its hind legs--"it is not done well; but you are surprised to find it is done at all."

So name the pitcher who throws 5 of those 7 in the 90's.

I think average hitting/scoring this season--the Astros are ranked 16th in runs scored--puts a team at risk in the regular season. The winningest teams--Dodgers, Brewers, Cubs, Phillies, Tigers, and Jays--are all in the top ten in runs scored. Seattle, 10th in runs scored, is hot and just .5 behind Houston.

Love "baseball is weird sometimes." Gioliito and Bello both stunk against week-hitting San Diego, but Buehler went 6, giving up 0 runs. 10 days ago at the Fens the Sox swept the Astros while starting Criswell, Buehler, and Giolito. Houston is starting three righties. The Sox best OPS's vs righties are Bregman .894, Duran .892, Anthony .882, Abreu .831, Rafaela .732, Gonzalez .719, Story .714, Narvaez .700, and Yoshida .686 (but Yoshida's OPS in August is .822). I think that should be the lineup in whatever order Cora chooses with Rafaela at 2b and Gonzalez at 1b. Surprisingly--to me, anyway--that's only 4 lefty bats.

Love the discussion--way better than I expected. I honestly think Devers was jacked around, no doubt because of Breslow's inept communication skills. To be honest, I wanted to keep Devers and his .905 at the DH position. However, as moonslav pointed out, that's the only position Yoshida can play and he too is a lefty hitter. Thus, from March 27 thru June 15, the Sox were paying $30M + $18M for their DH. You think JH was not aware of that? He used to pay top dollar for talent, but right now I think he likes that the Sox are competitive with the 12th ranked payroll. Thus did both he and Breslow fly to KC to talk to Devers. Casas was emphatically not a huge loss--his freaking WAR was -0.9 in 29 games--but his injury gave Breslow a chance to use both Devers and Yoshida. That made sense. However, the simple fact is that the Sox have played way better baseball without Devers than they did with him. They are 11 games above .500 and the Giants, who were 12 games above .500 on June 11, are now at .500. I claim that part of the Sox success is that they finally have a pretty good defense. Forget the errors and look at the individual players' DWAR"s. Rafaela and Narvaez are both at or near the top of the heap at CF and C. Abreu almost is in RF. Duran is once again a positive outfielder, even in CF. Anthony has plus DWAR. Bregman and Story are both solid on the left side of the infield. 2b and 1b are the weak spots, but they are way better than Campbell and Casas who started there when the season started. I cite the above because moonslav likes to remind us that a bad defense has a nasty effect on the pitching. And guess what? This pitching staff has a lower team ERA than the 2018 Sox. They don't miss Devers one bit.