Maxbialystock

That was a heckuva at bat by Betts his last time up--tough inside pitch and he smacked it hard into CF to drive in a run.

Bone-headed running by Beni, trying to score from 2d on an error at 1b. When will he learn you cannot be aggressive on the basepaths?

This ump has a liberal strike zone except on pitches low in the zone.

Let me tell you what an expert I am. I was confident that the acquisition of Nunez was a desperation move that would have zero value. This is why I read but avoid engaging in discussions about players on other teams--with a few exceptions of course. So far Nunez has impressed me with his ability to hit what the pitcher serves up, whatever it is. He is a smart batter who is hard to fool.

I believe managers should be evaluated solely on the W-L record and whether, in the judgment of the front office, the team over- or under-performed. Thus about a month ago or maybe less I unleashed a tirade against Farrell. All that said, I believe the manager can only do so much with the hitting. Clearly, Nunez and Devers, new last month, are making a difference. I think Farrell is doing a decent job of using those additions to improve the hitting overall, but truly believe most of it is up the players. The pitching, I think, is a little different. Managers have a whole lot of say on how long a starter stays in, what relievers to use and in what order, how long, etc. Again, Farrell was greatly helped when DD went out and got Sale. On the other hand, Price has been on and off and on the DL, so has ERod, who has also been inconsistent, Porcello has been awful, Fister was awful until he got better the last two games (but had already cost us some losses), etc. The bullpen, the manager's most important tool, has been pretty darn good this year, and this has certainly helped Farrell. Of course, just maybe--perish the thought--he gets a little credit for the way he uses his relievers. Back to my first point. I find it very difficult to climb on the "fire Farrell" bandwagon when the Sox are on a 7 game winning streak and 4 games up on the Yankees, 3 games on the Guardians, 6.5 on both the Rays and the Royals, etc. On the other hand, one thing that bothers me sometimes is weak fundamentals--are so they seem to me. My favorite is the number of times Sox pitchers have failed to cover first on a grounder to the right side. These guys are all veterans. More to the point, Sale is great on the fundamentals, and he sure as heck wasn't trained by Farrell or his coaching staff. I agree the baserunning can be bad, but, guess what, every other team in MLB does the same things. Last night JBJ ran all the way to 3b on a deep fly ball, caught easily, to left field and was doubled off of first base. Terrible. But at almost the same time Cleveland had a man on first and one man out. The batter hit a popup in the vicinity of the mound. The thirdbaseman and the pitcher let it drop between them onto the mound. The thirdbaseman grabbed it, fumbled it, and finally got the runner going to 2b. Then the SS threw the ball to first and beat the batter who had between 2 and 3 hours to get to first base safely and could not be bothered.

I'm sure you're right and I admit I was cheating (knowing Sale is 6'6").

Once again, the 7, 8, and 9 slots are lefty bats against a righty starter. But Devers is out, Moreland moved up to 5th, and Holt is back in at 2b and batting 7th. Nunez still 1st, Beni moved up to 2d and Mookie up to 3d, and HanRAm is back in the lineup as cleanup. Bogie still 6th. While I realize batting JBJ 9th is a travesty, a crime against nature, I kind of like that he gets rbi's way down there in the pit of despair. I checked his splits, and he has 230 at bats--almost two thirds of his 352--at the 7th and 8th positions, which are also where he hits the best, with the 7th being slightly better.

Oh, that's good.

You got it.

About Sale. My high point last night wasn't the 13 K's or the 8 innings of shutout ball. It was leaping to snare that high hopper to get an out. This guy comes to play and to win. I doubt that Pedro, Roger, or Cy would make that play. Sale is a complete player.

With 49 games to go and a 4 game lead, I'm only optimistic about and certainly not sure we will win the AL East. Once in the playoffs, I agree the Sox pitching staff is as good as any or better in the AL. The Dodgers staff is clearly better, but our pitching could well get us to the WS with just some hitting (and scoring of course). The Sox 2013 postseason is instructive on this point. Chris Sale is the 8th wonder of the world, but he is not invincible. More to the point, you want him pitching on short rest when the available evidence says he gets better with an extra day of rest. Nevertheless, I applaud your optimism and your use of stats, which is why this is a great thread.

And 6 1/2 over the Rays.

And I am glad to see Kimbrel nail down that save after I griped about him.

I don't. If you want to, blame it on Farrell because he wants his baserunners aggressive and I think that includes his 3d base coach. What happened to JBJ, however, was simple inattention or misjudgment.

Don't they have a lousy bullpen this year?

I have to be honest and say that right now I'm not as comfortable with Kimbrel getting the save as I once was. Lately he still gets the K's, but he is also hittable.

How do you know he didn't do that? I did not see a replay showing the 3d base coach.

My gosh our hitters have taken a lot of pitches tonight, including Leon looking at three straight strikes in his first at bat.

How can you be so sure there was no chatter from the first base coach? I mean, it's fundamental and a habit. You can't stop coaches from talking to every baserunner who sticks around their base. I'm not buying it. I think JBJ misjudged that fly ball, period.

That's a pretty good explanation if true. But how do we know he didn't remind JBJ how many outs?

What job? He was in foul territory down the 3d base line. Nothing he said or did would have made have made a difference because by the time JBJ would have seen him, he would be dead meat.

Bad as that was, the Guardians just topped it. Man on first, 1 out, pop fly that lands on the pitcher's mound because both the thirdbaseman and the pitcher thought the other would catch it. Finally, the thirdbaseman grabs it, fumbles and still has time to beat the runner going to 2d. But the bad part is they also still had time to throw out the hitter who must have decided he was out and didn't have to run it out. Double play, maybe a GIDP by and Indian.

No. This was all on JBJ. The play was right in front of him. He had simply made up his mind to score and nothing could dissuade him.

Did that really just happen? That fly to left wasn't even that deep, and JBJ thought he could score on it from 1b.

Fascinating, against a lefty pitcher our 7, 8, and 9 batters are all lefties (Leon switch hits). 5 lefties in this lineup. Also interesting that Pedroia is the DH, no doubt because of his knee. The the Sox Hitting thread, there has been ample discussion of the importance of different slots--that 2d is key, 3d not so key, 4th and 5th key, and 1st does not need to be a basestealer. But what is abundantly clear--to me, anyway--is that Farrell has thrown off the shackles of a set lineup and is trying a lot of different ones. And tonight's is exhibit 1. Betts is finally, finally batting cleanup, and Nunez has the mission of getting on base as the leadoff. Pedroia is probably a good choice for #2 even though he is rusty. Beni is OK at 3 especially when the stats guys say 3 is inconsequential. The last five--Devers, Bogaerts, Moreland, Leon, and Bradley is kind of like what he has already been doing recently. No Brock Holt, which is fine with me. Also no Ramirez, which is kind of a surprise.