Maxbialystock

After two changeups, a cutter up in the zone--good. And a popup.

Nice. A slider, which is good, but not up in the zone.

Rod is not a serious pitcher. He's a thrower. That 3 run dinger came after something like 8 straight fast balls. Watching him makes me think of the scarecrow in the Wizard of Oz singing, "if I only had a brain." That should also apply to whoever is calling the pitches, Vazquez or the bench.

Unfortunately, prophetic. All the hits off his fastballs, of which he is throwing a lot.

Didn't I read somewhere that momentum is all about your next starter? We lost our last two games when our bonafide ace and last year's Cy Young winner completely bombed. Porcello, FWIW, getting a cool $20M for this very subpar season, Sale a bargain (for now) at $12M. So my take is that this is one more big game among so many, and we need ERod not to give away a bunch of early runs as he has been prone to do. His splits say in his first 30 pitches for the season he has given up 26 runs in 18 games, and in his next 30 pitches 14 runs. He's given up 8 dingers in those first 30 pitches and 4 in the next 30. In other words, when the game starts, he is not ready.

Nunez 2b Betts RF Benintendi CF Ramirez DH Devers 3b Bogaerts SS Moreland 1b Young LF Vazquez C Interesting. Nunez is back! No Rafai Davis or Holt. Just three lefty bats--Beni, Devers, and Moreland--against righty Gausman. Devers back in the 5 slot and HanRam back at cleanup, which I believe I forbade Farrell to do. Young in LF against a righty, but he also was 2 for 4 against righty Hellickson, who I thought pitched very well despite the ERA over 5. Yankees still 4.5 back, but the Guardians now just 1.5--2016 all over again. Last year home field advantage seemed decisive in the ALDS. Vazquez could be in there as much for his defense as offense. Leon is starting to look like Salty on throws to 2b--an adventure every time. Nevertheless, his DWAR is 1.0 vs. Vazquez's -0.2, so what do I know? Three--Devers, Beni, and Bogie--of last night's errant throwers are back today, but not Leon or Porcello. Wild applause for Moreland pitching the 9th last night and a good move by Farrell.

My box score says only 7 unearned runs. But five errors, all on bad throws. What did Casey Stengal say back in the early Mets years when Marvelous Marv Throneberry ("stone hands") played 1b? "Can't anybody out there play this game?" In his last 10 appearances, Kelly has given up 8 runs in 10 innings. His 100 mph fastball ain't enough when the other team can sit on it knowing he can't throw a curve or other breaking ball for a strike. The Sox team ERA has dropped back to 2d best in the AL maybe because of an over-reliance on fastballs along with an inability to hit spots, especially with breaking balls. At his best, Uehara couldn't throw a fast ball over 90 mph for love nor money. But he had that great splitter, terrific command of his pitches, and total confidence when he threw a pitch. Because of that he seemed to be able to throw that nothing fastball with impunity. That's pitching. Sale has a darn good slider and pretty good control of it too, but the problem is that like 80% of the guys he faces are righties, which reduces the effectiveness of that slider. He has a decent changeup, but my guess is that, even against righty batters, he uses it about 1/3 as often as the slider. And, of course, he has the terrific fastball that he still throw 50% of the time. Porcello's basic problem, I think (and will await someone else's analysis), is that he cannot consistently keep the ball low in the strike zone in an era when smarter pitchers have realized that that ability alone is more important than having great stuff which Porcello also does not have. Those shifts, which are having a pronounced effect on hitters, have caused some of them to want to get the ball in the air over the shifts. This in turn makes controlling the lower part of the strike zone ever more important to enable those shifts to be effective. I think the Sox pitching coach has done a good job this year, but not with Porcello. Or maybe Porcello is dumb as a post.

About Steven Wright, sox prospects summation is: potential for fringe fifth starter. He was better than that, but not as good as the hype last year on talksox. I mean, his knuckler would come and go. But, heck, control has been an issue for Porcello this year to a degree that is mind-boggling. Ditto ERod. Pomeranz gets away with basically 2 pitches--a 91 mph fast ball and an excellent knuckle curve--because they work well in tandem, because he works hard at hitting spots with steadily improving command, and because--contrary to what I have said much too often about him--he is very determined. His turnaround this year came after he publicly complained about Farrell taking him out too soon. I thought Farrell was right, but liked Pomeranz speaking up, especially when he backed the words up with deeds. ERod should have that determination, but that 95 mph fast ball of his makes him think that's all he really needs. I think Fister is similarly determined, and Sale the consummate professional baseball player who also happens to be a very good pitcher. He is that rare blend of hyper-competitive but also very focused.

Not all of Boyer's pitches are awful--the Orioles got at least two hits on little more than half swings to the opposite field, something the Sox have lost the skill to do.

Have I got got this right? The Sox are playing their absolutely worst game of the year on family day with all their relatives present?

Kelly needed 19 pitches to get 1 out.

Rajai is going to hit right in. He can't hit a breaking ball either.

Presto magico, drop Devers down just one slot in the batting order, and he can hit again.

FWIW, 7 of the 13 runs are unearned.

No problem hammering that precious 99 mph fastball of Kelly's. Heck, right now he is making Porcello look pretty darn good. Whoops, another single off a hanging curve.

Kelly seems no better than Porcello with that hanging curve.

Check the box score. 5 of the 9 runs are unearned. It's not just Porcello although he is certainly the biggest problem.

Porcello's pitches consistently fail to put the hitter off balance. Most of the time, they are ready for what he throws because they know he leans to heavily on his so-so fastball and he can't keep his pitches down. He threw plenty of strikes tonight, just not in the places and or the most effective sequence.

I'm thinking that Porcello simply cannot consistently throw good pitches low in the strike zone. That 3-2 pitch with the bases loaded was a fast ball very close to the geometric center. Porcello got very lucky on that comebacker. Had it been the Orioles pitcher doing that, our hitter would probably have popped out.

Most managers use the 7 run rule on a lousy starter, but a lot of the bullpen was used last night, and it sure does not look like the Sox will get back into this one. Those 2 runs came off an Orioles error and a very unusual dinger by Bogie.

4 errors by 4 different Sox players, all on bad throws. Is it possible they are tired from the late flight to Boston last night? Did Porcello fly back with the team? Are they just playing down to those stupid nicknames?

Amazing how strongly attracted to the middle of the zone Porcello. 1-2 count, and there's a hanging curve about waist high. Now a fast ball slightly below waist high, but otherwise in the middle--wham, a single to center and another run.

Pretty good pitch on that 3-2 count--on the corner with some break.

Two guys in this inning, Leon and Beni, got predictable pitches to hit--fast balls (not too fast) near the middle of the zone--and both popped up. What I'm saying is that the Orioles have gotten fat pitches, but so have we.

If anyone's interested, we just saw why Holt can't DH. If one of infielders is hurt, he is the only backup.