Maxbialystock

None so blind as those who will not see. Sabathia is headed toward a shut out because he's pitching great--mixing up his pitches and hitting his spots. Oh, and he maybe prayed that Benintendi, the most feared hitter in MLB right now, wouldn't get into the lineup. Sabathia knows he would have been helpless against Beni because he owns lefty pitchers, even those he never batted against.

Michael Kay is so perceptive. All by himself he figured out Ortiz wasn't in the lineup. What an idiot.

Against righty batters Sabathia is hitting the outside corner with sliders, and that, ladies and gents, is simply great pitching. His lost a few mph on his fastball, but it's still 91mph. But time has improved his control and ability to use a variety of pitches and put them in tough places in the strike zone.

Who did you have in mind that isn't out there? Ortiz retired, in case no one told you. This team, with any lineup you want to pick, is going to be shut down by good pitching. Sabathia has a good repertoire and good control and I'm guessing pitching motion is deceptive. It is ridiculous to claim the manager can someone fix a dominant performance by the opposing pitcher by, for example, using Benintendi, who ain't they good against lefties and who has never seen Sabathia pitch before.

Oh, and a grounder to the right, he barely beat the runner to 1b. Come to think of it, that's actually way better than Pomeranz who simply can't be bothered. Sale, fortunately, didn't get the word and does a great job of getting to 1b.

OK. Porcello proves he is up to his 2017 standard. No way, no how can this be blamed on the defense. 5 earned runs on 7 hits, one of them a 3 run dinger.

Agree. Young has seen Sabathia before, but Beni has not. Plus the righty-lefty thing. Plus JBJ's OPS vs. lefties--small sample, granted--is an insane 1.200 or so.

Exactly. You beat me to it.

On the real D Day, the Brits referred to American soldiers as Yanks, not Sox. Fatty Sabathia's war is a so-so .8, but much better than fatty Sandoval's -.1 OWAR and -.6 DWAR. What will those Sox fans be wearing tonight in case the cameras pick them up?

Good call. Travis bats 5th tonight, which means Moreland will hit if the Yankees bring a righty in and the game is close.

I would have left Barnes in, but those numbers are compelling. Thanks.

All reasonable thoughts, but playing Travis and Young doesn't help much--unless the Sox score a bunch of runs vs. Sabathia--with the pitching issue. I think Pomeranz is the worst nibbler among the starters, but last night he was even worse than usual, but he also gave up only 1 earned run in 5 innings. Sale, Price, and Porcello all like to throw strikes. ERod too. As you say, the price for Pomeranz nibbling is the bullpen had to cover 4 innings in the first game of the series. The good news is that Monday was an off day. I thought the Sox defense was also lacking last night. Vazquez should have blocked that strikeout pitch by Kimbrel. Betts should not have thrown to 3B which led to an unearned run, and the announcers said he mistimed his jump on that double in I think the 7th inning.

I noticed the same things. Don't forget those 3 dingers, however.

Mostly true. However, Uehara actually threw a lot of fastballs even though they topped out at around 88 mph. What made him so effective was combining the splitter with the fastball and excellent control. Kimbrel is less effective when his curve (or slider) isn't working. I believe that final Judge K was with his slider.

Agree.

Nothing less than a GIDP miracle can save him.

It's amazing how Pomeranz seems to need to have a 3 ball count before he gets serious.

Pomeranz now at 90 pitches with 1 out in the 4th inning.

Pomeranz is worse--he made no attempt to cover 1b on a grounder to the right

Sorry, but I can't buy that. If JBJ had already stolen 24 of 26 bases, the odds were very high he would be successful in getting to 2b on his own, which would then mean a single would score him. I like those odds more than I do getting another hit or walk to get JBJ to 2d base before the single to bring him home. I also suspect that JBJ took off on his own because the batter did not swing.

If we have learned nothing else from this season, we have learned that our starters and probably the Yankee starters are so inconsistent that knowing who is on the mound--in our case, Pomeranz--tells us nothing about the game outcome. Neither team can even say, "Lopat and Sain and pray for rain." Heck, these days you can't even count on the rain stopping a game. I think it was almost ten decades ago when the great Al Schacht, the pitcher of record for a rainy game, went out to the mound with two bats, sat down, and began rowing. What worries me about any Yankees game these days is their doggone lineup. Ours can be shut down by good pitching, especially good breaking stuff, but the Yankees seem to be able to score against anyone. Also, the Yankees are especially good at home and the Sox still have a losing record on the road. But what I like about tonight is that I will get it on the MLB channel, 586. I also like our chances because of the last two games, taking 2 of 3 in Chicago, the apparent resurgence of Benintendi, and the fact that Pomeranz's last outing was his best this season. Sandoval's OPS vs. righties this year so far is .813 with--count em--4 dingers. Vazquez's is .823. However, the price for Sandoval's .813 is Marrero @ 2b and batting last, to say nothing of the terrifying prospect of Sandoval at 3b. Play ball!

Too true

Meh. Remember, odds are you used your best available starter--maybe your best starter--to win the wild card game, and you have to start the Division Series almost immediately. But you are probably right.

I gotta go with Kimmi--both are good and a 3-2 split on games, either way, is fine with me. The real point is that it's rare to have two decent catchers with Swihart at Pawtucket.

Pomeranz too: 10 starts, 4 quality starts. But his last three, in order were: decent, good, best this year (7 innings, 1 run, and 8 K's). Tanaka is better when both are on.