Maxbialystock

Turns out I was wrong--someone else pointed out the Chisox are 4-26 in their last 30 games. Yankees have their game at Cleveland well in hand, so the margin should remain 3 games with us now going on the road.

Another good start for Fister and great hitting by a new/old contributor Young. Yesterday Beni and JBJ had the big dingers, today Young who had 5 of the Sox 6 rbi's. Let's hope Kimbrel comes thru in the 9th.

Actually, I like your stats and theories and have no complaints on general principles that Holt shouldn't bat 2d (if at all in my view). I was just saying that Farrell only did this once and it seems to have worked. I continue to be astounded at how much Holt gets to play and expect that to change when Pedroia returns. For Holt fans, I don't mind agreeing that sometimes he does good stuff and he sure is versatile. I could be wrong, but I think he takes more pitches, including strikes, than any other Sox player.

Interesting lineup with righty Pelfrey on the mound--Holt leading off at 2b, Young in RF and batting cleanup, Nunez 2d at DH, and Leon catching at 9th: Holt 2b Nunez DH Benintendi LF Young RF Devers 3b Bogaerts SS Moreland 1B Bradley CF Leon C These days Farrell seems determined not to repeat lineups.

Actually, Boston currently wins 56% of our games and Chicago 38%, which means the White Sox would normally be odds on to take at least 1 of the 4 games and not a bad bet (albeit odds against) to take 2 of 4. If Fister has turned a corner, I like the Red Sox today. If not, today will be a challenge.

In addition to which, last year the Sox got going with a nice 6 game win streak in August. However, they really won the division in September when the bullpen got very good.

Meh. Last night our two hottest hitters, Nunez and Devers, were 0 for 8. Throw in our next hottest Vazquez and the three of them were 0 for 10. But we still scored 4 runs, which 75% or more of the time is enough for us to win this year, and won. And Holt scored a run (thanks to an error when he hit to the opposite side of the field). This is really far-fetched, but Farrell rarely uses his lefty bats back to back high in the order. By putting Holt in front of Beni, he gave Beni a chance to see what Shields was throwing against lefties. The point is, it worked and worked on a night when nobody was hitting that much--just Beni and JBJ with those two huge 2-run dingers when we needed them. Besides, it's just 1 game, and there can be no question he has been tinkering with the lineups ever since Devers and Nunez joined the squad.

Short thread. Does this mean we prefer griping?

Sox stay hot, including Pomeranz. Not so Nunez and Devers, which is fine when Benintendi and Bradley come thru.

Showed up on mlb.com at 7:34 last night. He could not throw his 3d flat ground session because of soreness.

Pomeranz tonight and Fister tomorrow. Because of the day(s) off, Sale will pitch the first and last games of the total of 5 against the Rays and Yankees. I think it was spudboy who declaimed in last night's thread that ERod is borderline worthless and our 5th starter if not our 6th. I sure hope not because Price had another setback--pain while pitching--and we will need Fister, which means we darn sure will need ERod too.

The day after I now think ERod had a pretty good game last night, all things considered. As I look back at the mlb.com summary of the play by play, it's apparent that the White Sox did hit him hard, but most of them where caught. I think he did get better as the game went on. I also think that leadoff error by Bogaerts could have set him off but did not--he got out of that inning fine. Six innings and 2 runs is definitely a quality start. I also thought the Chicago pitcher Carlos Rodon pitched well --good stuff and good command of his pitches. Once again the killer b's--Betts, Beni, Bogie, and Bradley--struggled, 2 for 18 and no rbi's or runs scored. In the previous 9-5 win everyone in the starting lineup got a hit, but last night was clearly a struggle. I don't think that means the improved lineup isn't really improved. I'm down on Farrell but have to say I thought he managed the pitching well. Sending ERod back out for the 6th was a gamble especially after Moncada singled, but it worked and thereby limited the bullpen to 5 innings in an 11 inning game. And how about replacing HanRam with Moreland at just the right time? Of course, Ramirez made that a lot easier when he struck out three times in four at bats. Speaking of which, the Sox struck out 14 times last night while getting no free passes and they still won. Which leads me to the conclusion this was a very good win, 4th in a row, that has the Sox now 3 games up on the Yankees. Last year's team, which had a similar record about this time, had a 6 win streak that started on 12 August, but last year other teams were also winning and it took a great September to get the AL East title. Congrats again to mvp78 for getting this team going in the right direction.

I've seen ERod throw five different pitches tonight---4 seamer, 2 seamer, cut fastball, slider, and changeup. Not bad. The problem is that the only pitch he trusts when he absolutely needs a strike is that fast ball, and, just to be sure, he goes for the middles of the strike. He throws the slider and changeup very sparingly. The first inning, I think he one non-four-seamer (93 mph). And all three Chicago hitters in the first hit the ball hard but were outs. The error by Bogaerts didn't hurt except for elevating the pitch count.

Porcello gets a well deserved win. Sure can't complain about 5.1 big innings , 6 scorching k's, and just 5 runs and one measly dinger. Our cy younger ace is back! Well, maybe not. A porcello start is like a box of chocolates.

Yes he stinks tonight. He has decent stuff--two seam fastball, four seam, slider, curve, change up. None of them great but still a good arsenal. But he is dead meat when he can't hit the strike zone except right in the middle of it. His curve has been especially bad, but his slider not bad at all. Control is the sine qua non for any MLB pitcher, and great control will allow you to succeed when you really don't have good stuff. Great control gets the hitter to hit your pitch weakly.

3 sources: espn, twitter, and MLB.com

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.