Maxbialystock

Game is postponed to August 14 from 2 sources.

NOAA says a big storm coming thru. Rainout?

I would like to add however that those five games have depended heavily (for hitting anyway) on Nunez, Devers, and (four games only) Vazquez. HanRam, Bogie, Beni, Moreland, and JBJ have done little. Betts has helped some, so has Holt. Of course it's also just a 5 game sample, as moonslav will remind us.

Actually, those are great stats moonslav has assembled--so wild applause for him. I personally am inclined to think of JBJ as more up and down than consistent. The four year picture is that he was handed the CF job in 2014 and ended up in the minors that season and in 2015 with periodic trips to Boston and which culminated in the August-Sep breakout which ensured he would stick. 2016 was easily his steadiest year--a very good first four months and so-so August and September but overall pretty good. This year, however, those numbers are almost back to 2015. April and July both below .600, and May-June .808 and 1.009. And so far August is looking like July for JBJ. Last night the Sox had 15 hits and scored 12 runs while JBJ was 0 for 4 with 3 of our 7 K's. In his early years Pedroia, especially his rookie year, tended to get off to a slow start, but by and large he has been the soul of consistency on this team. His career OPS is .810 and this year, despite the knee, the spiking, the hard block at 1b, etc, it's at .792. It is criminal to suggest in any way that JBJ is as consistent as Pedroia even though we might agree that his potential might--and I emphasize that word--have a bigger upside. All that said, I would like to add to the discussion by asking a simple question. We all know the hitting is down this year. I have attributed that to the absence of Ortiz. My question is: how much in our collective opinion do we think the weak hitting is the result of injuries, some of which guys are playing (and swinging the bat) with? Before you answer, consider this. In the five games both Nunez and Devers have played in--the last five games in fact--the Sox have scored 36 runs, an average of 7 runs per game. They currently have OPS's (I'm only counting Nunez's five games with the Sox) of 1.400 and 1.200, which are both higher than Ortiz's OPS last year. Maybe just one or two guys can energize a lineup. We all remember the two great 3 run dingers by Moreland and Vazquez last night, but Nunez had the most rbi's with 4.

By the way, that miracle GIDP Boyer got in the top of the 6th after loading the bases? It was on fast ball right down the middle about waist high. Talk about living right. Nunez had four more rbi's and Devers a couple more hits. Just maybe this lineup is coming together and not too soon with with the bullpen falling apart. I'm not absolutely sure Sale is telegraphing his pitches to the Guardians--tonight he wasn't exactly hitting spots especially with his breaking balls. Still, . . .

Congrats too to mvp78 who took on the challenge of starting the Fister thread and now has a double. And to Kimmi and all the others who have shown more faith and griped less than me.

I saw the whole darn thing and I still don't believe. Two three run dingers, including the gamewinner, in a game when both team had good starters out there and in our case the odds on favorite for the Cy Young this year. He gives up 7 after the Sox get 5 early runs. Meanwhile the Guardians took their starter out in that second inning Sox rally. Magnificent catch by the Guardians centerfielder saved them at least the dinger. Oh, and the Yankees lost so the Sox are back in 1st place in the AL East.

There's that killer slider again, against which Betts was helpless even though it was actually up in the zone and should have been hittable.

Cleveland gave him lots of trouble last year too, and maybe before that. There is little doubt in my mind that he has a "tell" in his setup that only they have figured out. My guess is that they try to not to use it too much to keep him from figuring it out.

Fister was incredible. Wild applause for starting him (and maybe fixing his delivery). I would have tossed him onto the ash heap of history. I loved the hitting of course, but it still amazes me what a difference the starter can make. However, I gotta give credit to DD for acquiring Nunez and bringing up Devers.

Well, apparently the DWAR compilers heard you because today Gardner is ranked higher than Benintendi. No question Gardner runs better routes, etc, but I am not down on Benintendi to the degree you are because of the reasons I gave. At the same age, 23, Gardner was still in the minors and didn't play his first full season with the Yankees until 2010, when he was 27. Ellsbury's first full season with the Sox was 2008 when he was 24 (he turned 25 that year). Benintendi was born in 1994 and has already turned 23 this year. So, you are absolutely right in slamming the DWAR, but I disagree that Benintendi is as bad as you (and others) say he is.

damme, but that Kimmi is tough with the numbers, on top of which she is invariably nice to everyone. Sadly, I must abandon my belief that the absence of Ortiz is the key to everything that has beset this year's lineup. FWIW, I was also sure Nunez could not possible help, and I've been wrong there too. Tonight against the Guardians' righty Clevenger, I'm hoping Beni, Moreland, Devers, and JBJ have a good night. Could be Vazquez will be out there again tonight because his bat seems to have heated up again, including against righties. Also FWIW, I don't see how Chili Davis can escape some blame for what has happened this year.

I have to agree with moonslav on this one. I too have raved about the absence of Ortiz and its effect on this team, but I honestly never thought it would be this bad. So of course I side with DD on going after Sale because our biggest problem by far last year and coming into this year was the rotation. Also, Ortiz had an incredible year, which DD was never going to be able to fill in for. There were literally no comparable bats available. Does no one else know that last year he had the highest OPS, 1.021 in MLB last year.

I was just quoting some facts that happen to reinforce my impressions of Benintendi. You seem to have forgotten a couple of things about him. 1. He has mostly played centerfield in the minors and before. 2. This is his first full season in MLB after skipping AAA last year. 3. The green monster has made things difficult for a lot of other leftfielders because it is tricky, as is the way the left field stands are almost in LF. 4. He has also made some very good plays, does have a pretty good arm, and has 6 assists to 3 errors, not too shabby. 5. He is hands down the best leftfielder the Sox have, certainly better than Young, for example. What's with the insults, by the way?

Since this is the Farrell thread, I have a couple of criticisms. Barnes isn't the only Sox pitcher who seems oblivious when it's time to play defense by covering first or backing up home plate or whatever. Sale is an exception, but of course he learned the basics in another system that didn't tolerate the bs. Here's one that just kills me. Our hitters generally can't came near a slider breaking away from them. Why? Partly because they are weak on pitch recognition and partly because the slider can be really effective if it has some break to it and is thrown in the right place, mostly low. Anyway, against us it's a killer pitch. On the other hand almost none of our 12 pitchers--or the others who come and go--has a good slider. I think Sale's is pretty good but even he doesn't consistently put it where it can do the most good. While my natural preference is to blame the pitchers when the bullpen screws up, today I thought Farrell was way too reticent on pulling Barnes, then later acted like bringing in a new arm was the most natural thing in the world and he does it of course after the horse is out of the barn. It sure looks as though Farrell is not the right guy for this team, at least not this year.

DWAR ratings rank Benintendi as the third best fielding leftfielder in the AL and better than Brett Gardner.

Tom Hanks says this guy Wilson is good in the tough times plus he's guaranteed not to get in pissing contest with Eck.

Tonight it's lefty vs. lefty--a pretty good Vargas vs. a so-so Johnson (in for Price). Plus KC is on a roll, 8-2, and the Sox are in the doldrums after a 2-4 road trip and before that 4-4 at Fenway--6-8 since the ASG break. But never fear because DD just made the deal of the century for a righty bat at 3b--Nunez.

One more small point. I'm tired of defending Farrell and so have taken to attacking him. On the other hand, this has to be the most pathetic Sox lineup I can remember and certainly in the John Henry era.

My bone to pick with Farrell is his continued use of Fister--last game at Fenway to start in a game we would have won if anyone else started and last night bringing him back to pitch a 3d inning when we had two other guys available, when we had a lead for crying out loud in the 13th inning, and when he is absolutely guaranteed to blow up by the 3d inning. As for the Price thing, I think Farrell is caught between a rock and hard place. He can do nothing about Eck because Eck ain't on the roster and is popular besides. On the other hand, he needs Price badly right now, plus Henry is paying him $31M/year. I seem to remember the Athletics back in the day won 3 WS in a row and were constantly fighting each other, verbally and otherwise. All due respect to Spudboy, but I just don't MLB as anything like the "real world."

My bad for forgetting that the great Hernandez is a righty..

Devers has 4 errors in 9 games at Pawtucket, and you think that's an improvement over 18 in 100 games?

Paxton and Hernandez are both lefties, so maybe Devers doesn't play tonight.

Sox now 1-2 on this road trip after going 4-4 at Fenway against the faltering Jays and competitive Yankees. Reportedly, Devers, who is 20 (21 in October) and has blown away AA and AAA (just 9 games) pitching, could well be at 3B tonight. In those 9 games, he committed 4 errors, but these days the Sox are desperate for hitting. Ironically and predictably, one of those 4 home losses was because Farrell insisted on starting Fister over Sales Thursday afternoon and the Sox lost 8-6. So tonight it's ERod, then Pomeranz, then Sale again. I think the Mariners Paxton (tonight) and Hernandez (tomorrow night) are more than a match for ERod and Pom, especially when it's a home game for Seattle and they hit as well as we do if not better in their own ballpark. My guess is that the Mariners hitters will be encouraged to hit the ball on the ground to the left side and the likes of Devers and Bogaerts, whose DWAR of -0.4 makes him the 24th best regular SS in MLB and comfortably the worst in the AL.

Betts Benintendi Pedroia Ramirez Jackson Bogaerts Moreland Vazquez Holt