Maxbialystock

Wright, however, still lacks consistency.

Offense looks good today because Lackey still seems to have at least three good pitches.

A fair critique except the bunt also puts a man in scoring position--which of course a hit and run does as well.

I really want to disagree with that but cannot. Great start, then steady deterioration.

nice 19 pitch 3 out save by kimbrel. how many if he has to get 5 outs as recommended by all the cognescenti? farrell can always get fired if the sox go south, but no doubt in my mind he knows more than any of us and makes better decisions in real time as opposed to hindsight. dismaying that the sox lineup was held scoreless for 7 innings after that outburst in the 1st. I'm not so sure the slump is over. plus those two errors weren't so hot either.

i just saw lackey and lester, the same two who were big in the 2013 playoffs

that knuckle curve by kimbrel goes awfully fast--88 mph is more like a slider.

i can't agree because of the two k's which to me show abad deserved farrell's confidence. dodging a bullet would be if a cubbie hits it hard but into a double play. or they hit deep liners that are caught. there's nothing lucky about two k's.

in my mlb channel feed, they show cubs highlights at the end of every inning.

bad call on the third strike to bradley, but a merciful one--he was headed for a K one way or the other.

exactly

of course it was a great call when abad gets two k's. no other interpretation is reasonable.

i am no fan of abad, but it was obvious hembree had nothing tonight and needed to be gone. some credit also goes to vazquez for his pitch calling.

great two k's by abad and great decision by farrell

abad does seem to have a nice changeup

is that the great abad I see warming up?

hembree sucks tonight. three straight batters have hit the ball hard.

i'm getting the mlb channel, and I think they simply favor the cubbies.

suddenly a very interesting game. kelly first throw a slider over the geometric center of the strike zone, then throws the next one in the dirt or on the plate for a another run. now all those unscoring innings have some importance. can the sox score again if they need to?

Completely agree.

cubs saved by another GIDP. Sox now scoreless 5 straight innings.

So far Pomeranz is a hero. Not a lot of clean innings, but 6 big ones with just 2 runs. Those 5 runs in the 1st look bigger and bigger.

Sox scored 5 in the first and zip in 2 thru 5, including bases loaded and no one out in the 4th. I love the 1st inning, but right now these guys look like the same old Sox to me.

HanRam certainly does, but in this case it took an incredible throw to get him and it was still close.

Let's put this current situation on a personal basis. Right now Chris Sale is ranked #3 in all of MLB in ERA and #2 in WAR for a pitcher. He has having a fantastic season. And his W-L record is 1-2 because this team cannot--so far, anyway--hit a lick. This in my judgment is criminal, and Sale should hire a lawyer to take this entire franchise to court and sue them for failure to support. The subject of this thread is "A realistic View of 2017." To me it is realistic to say the hitting will likely improve, but not realistic to say, "things are going to be fine" because fine this year should mean running away with the AL East given that the Sox have the 4th best ERA in MLB right now. Speaking of which, the Orioles and Yankees both have lower ERA's than the Sox and are both comfortably ahead of the Sox in the AL East race. So whether and by how much the Sox hitting improves, the whole point of this exercise is not only to win games, but to win more games than the Orioles and Yankees. Remember too that in the off season just about everyone was worried about the pitching this year even with the acquisition of Chris Sale. Then Price--who sure as heck hasn't been worth $30M/year anyway--got hurt in ST and the concern grew. But it turns out the other guys, especially Sale, have stepped up, but largely to no avail because the hitting, so far, anyway, stinks. To me nothing defines the Sox current situation better than that Sale is the 2d best pitcher in MLB and has won one lousy game in 5 great starts. It's entirely appropriate, I might add, that Sale just happens to be tied for the team lead in wins--among starters, that is.