Maxbialystock

Thank goodness you ain’t Cora. Bogie knows he screwed up.

Now if only Cora would let Swihart get some at bats. What a guy!

I don’t know this Porcello, but sure am happy he pitches for us.

Less Hanley, more Moreland. Ain’t it great?

I am the anti-Porcello, but that little sequence blew me away. Masterful.

Benintendi LF Bogaerts SS JD Martinez DH Moreland 1B Nunez 3B Bradley CF Holt 2B Swihart RF Leon C Against righty Morton, lefty Devers is out and Nunez in, but Sox still have six lefty bats, including the 6 thru 9 hitters. JBJ batting 6th.

Devers is a 21 year old project whose OPS has dropped from .821 in 2017 to .681 in 2018 and has made a lot of errors at 3B. He's the same guy who struck out on 96 mph fastballs near the center of the strike zone last night but who hit a dinger off a 103 mph fast ball by a Yankee closer last season. I back him because Cora does and because I see his potential, including as a third baseman. Last year he thrived near the bottom of the order. Maybe he needs to return there. Whatever. As for jacksonianmarch, of course he is a Yankee fan on a Sox site, but I don't consider him to be a troll. He loves what Cash has done in reducing the payroll while producing a great lineup, finally, and thinks this year's version is maybe on a par with the Yankees of 1949-53--five WS in a row. But I think he also acknowledges that the John Henry era has brought parity between two very different cities, NY and Boston, but now somewhat similar franchises. I consider him to be more balanced than many so-called Sox fans on talksox, but that doesn't mean that now and then he won't irritate me too. I am confident YOTN has no intention of banning jacksonianmarch who is a good addition to our discussions, even on his bad days.

Huge win against maybe the best starter in the AL, Verlander. Yes, Price had a quality start, but this one was won by the lineup which is missing Mookie Betts. Some said--on a game thread I think--that of course the Astros would be tough because we would be missing the best player on the team if not the best player in the history of MLB. But guess what? The Sox are now 7-3 without Mookie in the lineup. This does not mean he isn't enormously valuable to this team, but does mean that one lineup player can only do so much. I think moonslav pointed out that, should Betts and JDM OPS's come down from their astronomical highs, other players would likely get better, and that is what has happened with Mookie out. Beni is up. JDM has stayed up. JBJ has come alive. Leon/Vazquez have contributed. We won last night mostly on those two dingers (Vazquez to tie, Beni to win the game) and neither was by two of the best dinger-hitters in MLB this year to date. The downside is that our pitching has not risen to the occasion (defined as this series in Houston so well attended by the estimable moonslav). Pom was to be expected, but not Sale, who moonslave defends but not I. Yes, the first two runs were cheapies, but Sale needed 34 pitches to get thru the 1st, and you can't blame that all on bad luck. Moreover, he gave up 2 more in the 3d for 4 against a team with the best ERA in MLB. Last night Price was decent, granted, but he was going against the best starter in MLB whose ERA is 1.24 (thanks to the 2 runs the Sox scored off him in 6 innings) and left the game behind 3-2. The lineup won last night's game, pure and simple, with some help from Price and of course Kimbrel who got 2 k's and 3 outs on 11 pitches. Could we have an encore please for all the Swihart fans who have been enraged at Cora for not playing him more often? Take a bow, guys, because your man is now play more regularly and sinking fast with the team's lowest average and of course OPS. One supposes his mission these days is to make us like the other guys for what they have done. I would call out the Cora doubters, but suspect they are getting fewer in number although he does regularly get pinged on game threads whenever a player fails to hit or make an error--why is that guy playing? And I would be remiss if I didn't call out one maxbialystock who originally predicted 2-2 in this series, but early on this thread said basically that all is lost and this Sox ship is going down in Hurricane Astrodome. Good call, Max.

Suddenly Kelly looks like an ordinary reliever again. Two bad outings in a row.

Not it's his cutter--cut fastball--which hitters love almost as much as he does. Also, he seems to hate to throw anything low in the zone.

Let's fact it. Our rotation ain't up to par these days. Pom to be expected, but Sale and now Price?

Classic Natick to NC. I hope YOTN is keeping a trophy case of some of these brilliant insights you have.

Look up the word "fan," and see if you can find anything about calm and rational in there. It's actually a shortened form of fanatic. I agree losing two games isn't the end of the world or the season, but most of us saw this series vs. the Astros as an indicator of how this year's Sox might fare in the postseason. I was not that upset with the first game loss because with Pom starting I saw that game as a throwaway. But I expected better from Sale last night. In the first inning he needed 34 pitches, one of which was a WP that was costly. Pom can do the same thing except he takes a lot longer between pitches. As soon as the Sox scored a run to show this game could be competitive, Sale gave up 2 more runs and that to me was the ball game. So, yes, just two games lost, but at the same time a clear sign the rotation isn't quite what we expected or need, especially with Mookie on the DL. Two games to go in Houston with Price and then Porcello on the mound, but for me the goal now is to avoid being swept. And this. The Yankees caught the Sox on May 8/9, but since then the Sox have held them off and came into this series leading the AL East with the best won-lost record in MLB. Now we're second in the AL East, and could easily fall to 2 or 3 behind the Yankees who are playing the Orioles.

This loss is entirely on Sale and no one else.

Great 2d by Sale!!!! 2-1 after 2, so maybe I'll calm down a little on try to enjoy the game.

Come on. He's having a great year but before tonight the Sox were 6-3 with Mookie on the bench. Mookie was in the lineup when the Sox got that no-hitter thrown at them.

What I really love is that he swung on a 3-1 pitch because he was looking for a fastball down the middle. Last year's Holt would have taken any and all 3-1 pitches thanks to the Bill James rule: a walk is as good as a hit, which it most certainly is not.

Not to speak ill of the dead, but, if Hanley had been a 1b, he would have paused going to 2d and been out at the plate. Nunez hustled his ass off.

Wow. Way to go, Holt!!!!!!

Hilarious. Devers fights to get another chance so he can show his ass on two consecutive balls in the dirt.

It sure looked as though he was expecting a different location or a fastball instead of a slider. He waved at it.

Sox absolutely showing their ass in Houston. Two stinking games in a row.

It sure does. Nothing unfair about that.

30 pitch first inning so far.

Remember the espn article on how Trout is better than Mookie and talksox has an entire thread condemning that thought, especially because it's based on WAR? One thing WAR does is give credit for actual games played. Trout plays every day. Mookie doesn't. He has downright gaudy stats, especially OPS, but Beni has already passed in rbi's.