Maxbialystock

Cora's lineup tonight has the 9 best Sox bats (OPS's) against righty pitchers. 5 are lefty bats and 4 righty.

Back to the OP, briefly. I hate it when Rafaela plays 2b, but understand why Cora does it. Tonight Cora can get all 4 outfielders--Duran, Rafaela, Abreu, and Anthony--in by DH'ing Anthony. In fact, tonight's 9 lineup players are ranked 1st, 2d, 3d, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, and 9th in OPS's against righty pitchers. Of equal interest is that 5 of those are lefty bats and 4 are righty bats.

Words of wisdom, especially "makes my head hurt."

Sure do. But, just like you, I will watch this game closely.

I'm Sox 85 and think your OP is much too complicated. This team is pretty good right now--or so I think--but could use 1 or 2 good arms (starter/reliever) and maybe (or maybe not) a first baseman and/or backup catcher. Much depends on the deal Breslow can get. Plus I think he wants to see more of how these Sox play at the Phillies and at Fenway against the Dodgers. The Cubs at Wrigley were tough, but couldn't sweep. If the other team/teams ask for too much, these Sox already have a pretty good lineup at the plate and on defense and 3 pretty decent starters, including All-Star Crochet.

That was his last start, July 12, @ San Diego, where he gave up 4 ER in 6 IP.

He's better at home than on the road.

Two new-old thoughts about this 9 game series: 1) when was the last time any team played 3 straight series, 2 on the road, against 3 division leaders? 2) these 9 games are a timely means of assessing these 2025 Sox before the July 31 trade deadline.

In the most relevant Sox era, the John Henry era of the four WS wins, the Sox right now are ranked 9th in MLB in dingers. In 2018, best Sox season ever, they were 8th. In 2007 they were 12. In 2004 they were 5th and in 2013 they were 6th. Earl Weaver, probably the best Orioles manager ever, believed in good pitching and the 3 run dinger.

Too true. Plus the Sox have a losing record on the road and the Phillies very much a winning record at home. The Cubs starters pretty much shut the Sox down, the Phillies starters are even better, and the Sox are going with Buehler, Fitts, and Giolito. That said, you gotta play the games. And against all odds I see these 4 hopeful notes: 1) we didn't see it much in Chicago, but right now the Sox have a deep lineup of both righty and lefty bats; 2) the Sox defense is good at SS, 3b, C, LF, CF, and RF--and at 2b when Mayer is there; 3) the Sox pitching overall is better than what we saw in the first two games at Wrigley; 4) these guys are a team that wants to win. As for the first 9 games after the ASG, when has any other team faced three division leaders in a row and two of them on their home fields? .

Meh. Bregman needs to ease back into playing every game. Narvaez can't catch more than about 2/3 of the games. Rafaela, Story, and Anthony already play every game. Except for being on the IL for 2 weeks, Abreu has played about 90% of the games.

Agree on Abreu, but Crochet showed a ton of heart today as well as 1 run in 6 IP.

Toughen up. I look forward to every game and have not given up on this team. Today was pretty much a payback after those first two miserable games at Wrigley. Crochet once again showed a ton of heart--plus 6 IP and 1 ER. And wham!!! 3 freaking dingers for 6 freaking runs. Gotta love Bregman pinch-hitting for Yoshida and getting his first dinger since returning. It took Abreu 2 dingers to bring in 3 runs. Also a shout out to Narvaez because I think he caught a heckuva game. There should have been at least 2 wild pitches.

Wong is not the problem tonight. In these first two games the Cubs have hit and pitched better than the entire Red Sox team. The Sox have five good righty hitters against lefty pitchers--Ref, Bregman, Gonzalez, Story, Rafaela--and they have 1 double in 10 at bats. Plus we had the same problem yesterday when Narvaez was the catcher and couldn't hit spit. Heck, Cora had to pinch hit for him--plus was called for catcher interference. I like Narvaez a lot. Great find by Breslow. And it didn't take Cora long to make him the primary catcher. I also think Wong has been kept because he is useful as the backup catcher.

Seriously? The top of the Sox order was absolutely and completely worthless after Refsnyder led off with a freaking double. Bregman grounded out weakly and Gonzalez and Anthony both struck out. At least Wong got the ball to the outfield.

This is a replay of yesterday--or worse. As said above, Ref gets a leadoff double and the Sox lineup is yet again unable to bring him home. Good pitching by Imanaga, but still . . . It seems that, at least at Wrigley Field, there are just two things the Sox don't do well--hit and pitch.

Agree. Bello must have a very good game and all those Sox righty bats need to deliver.

OPS vs lefties. Mayer and Duran are both out and there are 7 righty bats (including Toro) in tonight's lineup. The two lefty bats are Anthony and Yoshida. Duran and Abreu are both sitting. The surprises are Yoshida as the DH and Wong catching. I think Wong is catching Bello because he caught the last two Bello starts, both of which were excellent.

Tough starter for the Cubs. I've repeatedly read that the Sox have the toughest post-ASG schedule. Does anyone know where there pre-ASG schedule ranked?

Sox are ranked 5th in MLB in runs scored and 5th in team OPS.

Another tough starter from the Cubs, lefty Imanaga with 4 good pitches (fastball, slider, curve,and changeup) and command. The Sox hit lefties better than righties, .790 vs .744. Some OPS's: Gonzalez 1.409, Bregman 1.019, Ref .932, Narvaez .902, Rafaela .822, Story .740, Abreu .686, Toro .608, Anthony .591, Duran .564, Wong .533, Mayer .400, and Yoshida .000. I'm guessing Cora will go with the first nine above, which would mean no Duran and no Mayer.

It sure did. And I would have been fine with keeping Devers as DH, which meant no slot for Yoshida, which is why Breslow wanted Devers at 1b. Right now I'm not so sure Yoshida has a real role. Today once again we saw Anthony, a better hitter than Yoshida, as the DH so that Duran, Rafaela, and Rafaela could all start in the outfield. Yoshida was 3/4 in his first game and 1-10 in his next three starts. Plus he K'd today pinch-hitting for Narvaez.

Ian Browne has a very good write-up of the game on mlb.com. He points out that the first pitch to Suzuki in the 1st (with 2 on) was a fastball above the zone. Without that dinger, it's a ballgame. What's left out of the story on those 2 walks by Giolito in the first inning is both were on 3-2 counts. In the first BB, his 5th pitch was close enough to have been called strike 3. In the 2d BB, Tucker fouled off 4 pitches before getting the walk on pitch 8. Toro's baserunning mistake was bad, but I'm not confident the Sox would have scored if he had made it back to 2b. The next better walked, and Narvaez hit a perfect double play ball, which in reality was the 3d out so no relay 1b was necessary. The Sox had some hard hit balls that were caught, but so did the Cubs. Plus their bullpen was excellent, as was their defense, especially their right fielder. Duran made a terrific catch to prevent a double or worse. The Sox had 7 hits to Chicago's 6. Both pitching staffs gave up 4 BB's. So I agree this game was winnable against a very good team on their home field where they 31-16.

One of the most vitriolic posts this season and totally without merit. I myself complained about Narvaez being too high (4th) in the order and that Story and/or Rafaela should have been higher, but I did so in the context that I think Cora's lineups have been really good this year. In fact, one of the things I kind of like lately is not overloading the lineup with lefty bats against righty starters. Now it's more liked 5 lefty bats, including Toro's S bat, and 4 righty bats. The fact is that the Cubs had superb pitching today, which is why the 3 run dinger in the 1st proved to be the game winning hit. Rafaela has in fact flourished near or at the bottom of the order. Maybe he's comfortable there. He leads the Sox in runs scored with 58 and is 4th in rbi's with 48. Duran leads off but is 3d in rbi's with 50 and 2d in runs scored with 53.

Amen.