Maxbialystock

Actually, you've been more on the money than most of the rest of us. You and Kimmi.

First two starters, Price and Porcello, killed us last year, simple as that.

Meh. Five per league means the top third of teams get to the postseason, no biggie. Better, playing that one wild card game puts those teams at a disadvantage as they should be. Then the Division Series can go on with 4 teams from each league and naturally progress to 2 teams from each league then 2 in the WS. To me the real point of adding the 5th team and second wild card team was to give the Division winners an advantage which is as i should be. Adding the first wild card team years ago was a necessity when each league went to three divisions.

Really a well played game all around. The 4 run rally in the 4th came from great hitting, not a bunch of walks. Some nice plays including the tag by Bogaerts on the overslide at 2b and the neat double play to end the game--very smart start to it by Moreland. Note to moonslav: did you notice how the distributed lineup did not hurt at all and just maybe did some good? I'm not saying Devers should never move up, only that he can do damage batting 7th.

Farrell managed the pitching beautifully tonight, leaving first Porcello in just long enough but not too long.

Good for you--tonight your confidence was completely justified despite the first inning. The Sox played tough the rest of the game and scored 4 big ones in the 4th to win 5-4. Great bullpen tonight led by Price.

Note the dearth of comments on Farrell leaving Porcello in to pitch three scoreless innings. Of course not. He deserves no positive comments because he is irremediably stupid.

I suspect that Porcello's at bat was entirely due to Devers 3 run dinger.

Devers very impressive with a double to left and a diner to right.

Romano bitten by the Porcello bug--can't keep the ball low.

Porcello K on a fastball down the middle.

Porcello now has thrown more balls than strikes. Putz.

Vaunted Sox lineup being mowed down by a rookie who actually got screwed on at least two strikes he threw in the first inning. Otherwise, no runs.

You are right. Not DD.

Whew. Great throw by Leon and better tag by Bogie. And Devers actually got the easy out.

All Porcello seems able to do now is throw that stupid 91 mph fastball.

Was Porcello a DD acquisition with that hefty contract?

Devers continues to play like a 20 year old over sliding 2b when he could see the throw and the base in his field of view.

The big difference between the experienced Porcello and the 23 year old Romano is the latter has figured out how to keep the ball low in the zone and Porcello simply prefers to keep all pitches up in the zone. And neither the pitching coach nor the manager seems able to change him.

first inning suggests you are over confident.

A nice reminder we are in a NL ballpark without our DH. The Reds have been fine without one all year long--hitting wise. NL pitchers and catchers are always aware of that "free out" down there at the bottom. Porcello/Vazquez may or may not be. Porcello looked pretty darn good is last time out, plus our bullpen is rested. Pitching advantage to us. I'm not sure our hitting will find Romano a pushover given that he just went 8 shutout innings against the Pirates six days ago. I think those are in fact our 8 best bats right now and the order seems fine. But .. . The Reds are 5-5 in their last ten and 39-39 at home this year. They only stink on the road. The good news is the Jays are also 5-5 in their last 10 and are 40-38 at home--vs. the Yankees tonight. Before the Orioles series I figured we and the Yankees would both go 2-1, but in fact both went 3-0. Good for us. Against the Red we are going with Porcello, ERod, and Fister, so I will be fine once again with 2-1 and hope the Jays can take one from the Yankees.

espn shows him 8th in MLB. Plus he's probably the youngest and is the only one who plays half his games in front of the green monster, which simultaneously limits his range factor and encourages misplays of caroms of the wall.

Why? An 85 game winner has a winning percentage of 52% and 96 game winner 59%. In a five game series between those teams the outcome is statistically pretty much of a toss-up.

Pitching is good, but not great. Hitting is too easily shut down. I said lose the ALDS but still hold out hope that we have played all three likely opponents--Guardians, Astros, and Yankees--and fared OK this season. Yankees killed us before the ASG but not after. Thus I have no problem with anything saying we could get to the WS.

Good points. I personally want my first four batters to include four of the following: Bogie, Beni, Betts, Pedey, and Nunez. If OldTimer is right and HanRam is fixed (see last night),maybe he can bat 4th. Remember, I also like the idea of a distributed lineup--good bats spread throughout--because of your other point that this season the OPS's have coalesced around .750 and even though Betts and Beni are at .798 and .791. Thus I also like Devers and JBJ in the bottom 3d.