Maxbialystock

I think you have the seeing problem. Kimbrel stunk but doesn’t always and does need that knuckle curve to complement his hittable fastball. Beni had a bad night, but so did Mookie. Yes, the Yankees have a terrific bullpen. This surprises you? And Cora is an idiot for using his ace closer with a 3 run lead and not his ace starter?

Indeed.

Agree Leon is good, but Cora was right to stay with Vazquez as events proved. You didn’t say Cora was dumb, but certainly implied it when he did not pinch hit for Vazquez. Not so?

Exactly the thing to do.

Jacksonianmarch is excellent.

Are you kidding? Talksox wanted to lynch him for letting Sale go anywhere near that mound.

Ask Cora. He’s the dummy according to you. Now that the game is over, did you count the number of wild pitches Vazquez prevented in the 9th?

No. Kimbrel is a great closer but tried hard to blow it tonight. He was by far the worst of four Sox relievers tonight but will expect a kings ransom to stick around.

FWIW, I think your hitting is fine, but your rotation is not.

If you check, I’m sure you will find that Cora never ever pinch hit for any catcher with a 3 run lead this year. Why? Because it’s just dumb.

Yeah. Poor Sale looked helpless out there without Leon. And tonight VaQuez had more hits than Beni and and Mookie combined.

What risk? That his shoulder would go bad? Better to find that out tonight than the first inning Saturday. This inning was great for his confidence and it helped the team. I saw no downside.

Nope. Vazquez has been great behind the plate. See what the Yankees have scored? He helped make that possible. Why change catchers when you don’t need to?

I’ll give the best excuse possible. He’s been great behind the plate tonight which is a big reason we are winning. Why change catchers when you don’t need to?

Why is it dumb when it worked perfectly? Win this, and Sale doesn’t start until Saturday, 8 days after his last start. So far Cora has been letter perfect in the ALDS.

That 3d strike was close enough to call a strike because the ump has been calling it all night. Beni looked foolish complaining about it. His 3d k tonight.

Yup.

The stadium, the announcers, and the umps are all pulling for the Yankees.

Kinsler and Nunez come thru big time. Great call by Cora, and I’m wrong again.

They both hate patient.

Since we are second guessing Cora. I think Nunez and Kinsler are both over the hill. Holt especially deserves 2b tonight. I also question Vazquez in for Leon because Porcello has pitched well (ERA 2.25) in 24 innings against the Yankees this year and I think Leon caught all 24 innings.

For the record: well done on the game thread last night. You were the right guy.

Completely agree. But in general terms I think most managers are evaluated on wins and losses and whether those exceed or fall short of what was reasonably (or unreasonably) expected. Specifically, if Boone had made better moves last night, the score might well have been closer, but a loss was a pretty sure thing. Severino stunk. Eovaldi was very much on his game. And once again the vaunted Yankees bullpen could not have turned the tide. See game 1 when they did 6 scoreless innings and the Yankees still lost. Going into this ALDS was I was sure the Yankee bullpen would make a difference because theirs is so much better than ours. But so far it hasn't. Granted, a small sample size, but that's the nature of the playoffs.

Interesting about last night and Vaz. I entirely agree all Sabathia needs to do is 4 good innings. But guess what? In games 1 and 3 neither Happ nor Severino could do that. Same goes for Price in game 2. So 4 good innings would seem to be a rather lofty goal. Porcello has pitched against the Yankees several times this year for a total of 24 innings and 6 earned runs--an ERA of 2.25. Not too shabby. Just one dinger, also not too shabby. But I think all 24 innings were with Leon behind the plate. So you could have a point.

This. Someone else said it too, but it's right. A win tonight means Sale leads off vs. the Astros. My goodness, but to me the the world just turned upside down. These huge wins are real hard on us pessimists. I will say again one more time. All three games have been won by one team's starting pitcher--Sale, Tanaka, and Eovaldi--who was each time much better than the other starter--Happ, Price, and now Severino. I think the Yankees have a much better bullpen, but so far they have not made a difference (but came close in game 1). I also think the Yankees have a better lineup, but it was the Sox who destroyed Happ and Severino who very recently shut our guys down. Stories about how dumb Boone was last night, but his team lost 16-1 so that's kind of hard for me to see. On the other hand, I really have to give Cora a ton of credit. Going into this series the Yankees had the hot bats and the world class bullpen. We should have had the edge in rotations, but I expected Happ to outduel Sale based on the evidence of September when Sale was struggling to recover from the shoulder or whatever and Happ was just great. On the other hand I hoped Price would outpitch Tanaka, which absolutely did not happen. So Eovaldi, who did pitch well against the Yankees is last 2 times--0 runs in 14 innings--needed to come thru against Severino. that he did so was a complete surprise to me. To me Cora has made the right moves, pure and simple. He changed the lineup for last night, but he won game 1 with the old lineup of Leon, Nunez, and Kinsler. In game 1 he brought in exactly the right guy, Brasier, who promptly gave up a single that led to 2 runs, both charged to Sale and made the score 5-2. From then on it was the perils of pauline, including that opposite field dinger by Judge off Kimbrel's knuckle curve to make the score 5-4 in the 9th.