Maxbialystock

Unbelievable. Yankees have loaded the bases in the 5th on two walks and a pop fly behind the firstbaseman. One out on grounder to 1b, throw to home.

Thanks very much for the update.

Gio Gonzalez is a lot shorter, but a lot like POM. Both have slow fastballs, 88-89-90, and big curves breaking from left to right. But Gio has a usable changeup and better command of his pitches.

Tonight he is getting more pain than he is inflicting.Yankees out in the 3d after a walk to Judge, a GIDP by Stanton (he should have struck out to help the team), and a fly out by Sanchez. Now 3-2 in the 4th: Yanks got a 2 run error double by the CF who ran all the way over to the standing still LF to forced the dropped ball--followed by a dinger on a curve up in the zone.

I'm watching Yankees at the Nats which for me is a local game. Tanaka gave up a dinger on a sinker low in the zone. Top of second, the leadoff Yankees double and single on hard hit balls, men on 2d and 3d. Next three, Tanaka (batting 8th), torres, and Hicks all K and that big curve Gio Gonzalez throws. Nats lead off bottom of 2d with double by Howie Kendricks. He scores on a grounder to the left side. 2-0 Nats. Now 3-0 in the 2d off a double by Severino (not the pitcher of course).

A must win, sort of, to me. I hate giving into the Yankees. And yes I know it's only May. But right now we have about everyone we are supposed to have except Pedey and Thornberg. Long since time for the rotation and bullpen to man up. Last night the lineup score 4 runs off the same guy who no hit us last time, but Porcello gave up 5. To me that was the ball game in a nutshell. I have nothing against starting JBJ or anyone else because to me the lineup has been doing its job. Slasher9 is just the guy to get us this win.

That lineup worked against Manaea--way, way better than a month ago when he threw the no-hitter.

Of course he is, and by a good margin. But the whole idea of WAR is to measure the whole player. That's why I went through that exercise arguing that the average lineup player's bat is five times as important as his glove. By and large Cora has shown a willingness to play JBJ despite the weak hitting, but lately not so much because the bottom third of the lineup is struggling and the Sox aren't winning as much.

I'm arguing against 20-20 hindsight. On general principles, I want a hitter to hit the ball, preferably hard, which is close to what Swihart did in the 4th after Bogie walked and Nunez--wait for it--hit a grounder that got thru for a single to RF. Swihart's problem was he hit his grounder right to the SS.

His WAR is currently -.4, 2d worst in MLB among starting centerfielders.

Yup. It's why Ortiz liked having Manny Ramirez in the lineup--in his words, so he could get "a pitch to hit."

There are I think zero managers anywhere who will tell or want a batter to strike out, even with men on first and second and less than two outs. That's why NL managers want their pitchers to learn hot to bunt--to do something useful besides K with men on base.

Hanley was very good in 2016, OPS .866 and 111 rbi's, with Ortiz in the lineup. He was 32 then, 34 now, so my thought is you are probably right. Except for the baserunning gaffe--pause to watch what turned into a double when there were 2 outs--I think he has also played with enthusiasm.

Got it. When JBJ is in the lineup, the best thing he can do for his team at bat is to K. What a relief. We can stop complaining about those because JBJ is our best at denying GIDP's. What a guy.

You must mean me, so I'm delighted you put me on the same level as Alex Cora. Just so we know what we are arguing about, here again is what I wrote earlier. I think 80% of defense is the guy on the mound. This might explain why every MLB team without exception carries 12 pitchers on their 25 man rosters. That leaves 20% for the 9 guys, including the pitcher, defending against various flies, grounders, liners, bunts, etc. Divide 20% by 9 and you get a little over 2% of the defense depends on any given defender. The offense depends on the 9 guys in the lineup--100%. Divide that by 9 and you get something over 10% for each guy in the lineup. So a lineup player contributes 10% to the offense and 2% to the defense, so his bat is 5 times as important as his glove. You can probably make a case that some fielders, especially very good ones, are contributing more than 2%. In JBJ's case, maybe it's 3%, but I doubt seriously it's more than 4% because outfielders don't have as many total chances as infielders and catchers have more than anyone else. So best case for JBJ is that his bat is 2.5 times as important as his glove. This could explain why, season to date, he has played in the second most games of anyone on the team. Cora likes him in CF (occasionally RF, but not often). As for last night, JBJ in CF could have made that grab that Beni just missed. Beni is actually faster afoot--this is not arguable--and he had to come a long way from right center field (batter was a lefty) to left centerfield. We can assume JBJ would have gotten a better jump on the ball, but I'm not so sure about the better route. The real question is how much closer to the wall--the ball did hit it on the fly--was JBJ willing to go vs. Beni because he clearly slowed a little when he got close and in fact ran into the green monster, but not hard into it. Even assuming JBJ makes the grab, it saves one run. The score is still 5-5. So it's really hard for me to see how that missed grab cost the Sox the game. It did happen in the 4th inning, not the 8th or 9th. Me, I blame Porcello for having his 2d straight lousy start and for letting a really weak hitter like Fowler hit one off the wall in left center field. As for the lineup, Cora was clearly loading up with righty bats. The two lefties in the lineup, Beni and Devers, both scored and knocked in runs. Swihart was the only righty bat left on the bench besides Vazquez--Moreland and Holt are both lefty hitters. Is if fair for me to point out that this stupid, no good manager put in a lineup that scored 4 runs off the exact same pitcher who pitched a no-hitter against the Sox the last time he faced them? It seems to me you have a really weak case on the lineup because this one worked way better than I expected. The guy who didn't work was Porcello. I blame him and no one else. I don't even blame Smith because the bullpen went 3 innings and gave up just 1 run and were far better than Porcello.

Nonsense. Our problem last night was Porcello and nothing but Porcello. That triple you mock was by a guy hitting under .200 and it was into deep left centerfield and in fact hit the dadgum wall.

Me too.

It’s a game thread. We all vent at some point.

A good thought. Thanks.

The rotation is back to being a problem after that great start. This is two straight rotten starts by Porcello. Pom was horrible last time and has a lousy ERA. Price is anything but consistent this year. ERod is up and down. That leaves Sale. To me it is criminal when the lineup gets 4 off of the same guy who no-hit us last time and who is having a good year--and have Porcello get hammered the way he was. We don't need more JBJ or more Swihart or more whoever to improve this team. We need better starts from the rotation.

Really nice swing by Swihart. Simple fact is that Porcello gave up 5 runs and the bullpen one more. The lineup scored 4 off of Manaea, which should have been enough.

Who really gives a s*** whether Swihart starts as catcher when the Sox to date are tied for the best record in MLB? The Sox know his catching strengths and weaknesses far better than any of us.

The offense stinks? The offense stinks?????? They just got 3 runs off of the same guy who pitched a no-hitter the last time they faced him. It's the starting pitcher who stinks, pure and simple. Correction, the stinking offense has scored 4 runs of Manaea. You know very little about this team.

Funny thing, but I don't think I've seen Porcello throw a lot of fast pitches tonight. Yet a guy hit .153 hits a slider off the left center field wall. I have to wonder if Porcello is telegraphing his pitches because this is now two games in a row he has been pummeled after being our best starter this year. This year, unlike last year, he has been good at keeping the ball low and avoiding fat pitches.

BS. He started more games at catcher in 2014 than anyone else. This year, I agree, but where is it written that a sub, a utility guy, is supposed to play regularly on any team? Consider this simple rule. When a team is tied for the best freaking record in MLB while not playing one particularly guy regularly, maybe it's good idea to keep doing that.