Maxbialystock

Best Sox owner ever and it isn't even close. With 30 teams and long playoffs, winning it all is much harder than during most of the 86 year drought and the Sox have won 3 WS in the John Henry era. My guess is he isn't that personable or close to the players, which is fine with me. His brain seems to work pretty good.

I'm fine with whatever the FO decides because they made the call on Benintendi and were right. If they wait on Moncada, it will be for good reasons.

As much as I would love to see Benintendi back this year, I hope the Sox will be conservative because the combo of Holt/Young ain't that bad and Benintendi has many good seasons ahead of him.

Thanks very much for the update. I was wondering.

I'm not a Dombrowski fan by any means, but I have to admit his moves have stabilized the rotation and not prevented the emergence of a pretty darn good lineup. He let Farrell bench Sandoval. He failed to fix the bullpen, but it wasn't for lack of trying. As for selling the farm--trading away prospects--I honestly am not worried. Espinoza might turn out to be an ace, but to me that is very much a long shot and I'll settle for Pomeranz now if he can keep it up. We kept Betts, JBJ, Benintendi, Moncada, Leon, Vazquez, and some others, which is plenty in my eyes. I remember our great angst at losing the greatest SS ever named Iglesias and now think he was no loss at all, especially when he is so injury-prone and something of a prima donna (something we signs of before he was traded). We lost HanRam to Miami after the 2005 season, but got Josh Beckett, who was key to the 2007 WS win. We lost Rizzo, now a star with the Cubs, but we got AGon, who was and still is very, very good. I do think giving Price the 3d or 4th largest annual salary in the history of MLB is absurd, but it seems to fit the Sox budget. Isn't he getting more per year than ARod ever did and close to what Stanton is getting?

Wild applause for those who stuck by JBJ. I was definitely down on him even though I did not think he was headed back to where he was early last year and all of 2014.

I would be ecstatic with 5 or 6 wins out west. I even agree they are doable. But every time our team gets in a winning groove, something seems to happen to throw them off. Despite a solid job today, the bullpen is a worry. Sometimes the hitting, as you say, struggles against a good starter. Of the five current starters, I think ERod and especially Wright right now are suspect.

Trash away. As the occasion arises, now and then I will probably defend his decisions. But early trashing by you is now a must.

Complete hindsight. I didn't like seeing Tazawa at all, but in the event he threw strikes to both batters which is something Sox relievers haven't done a lot of lately. His only problem was not using the forkball on the first batter when he had an 0-2 count or when he had the 1-2 count. Instead he kept throwing fastballs and the last one right over the geometric center of the strike zone, which resulted in a score-tying single to CF. He got the second guy out on two straight forkballs. By leaving Tazawa in to finish the 8th, Farrell gave Kimbrel a clean 9th to pitch--as it turned out, for the save. As for last night, Kimbrel pitched the 9th in a winnable game--the Sox were down just 4-3 and Farrell hadn't used Kimbrel before that all the way back to August 24. Given how lousy the bullpen has been recently, I would characterize Farrell's reliever decisions in this game as just about perfect.

He threw nothing but fastballs to that guy and waited until the next guy to throw two forkballs to get an out. He had an 0-2 and 1-2 count on the first batter and should have throw the fork ball either time instead of fastball after fastball. Wins aren't stupid, per se, but obviously can sometimes be misleading.

Sox win despite another bad start by Wright who gave up 4 in 4 innings. This time our bullpen gave up 2 in 5, but the Rays' gave up 3 in 4. HanRam's grand slam was the big blow, which might just have been the hit of the season to date because this win was badly needed. But Pedey had 3 hits, Bogie had the dinger, Holt had a nice hit, as did Hill, and Bradley had a super game with 3 hits and 2 rbi's. Is it possible the magnificent Tazawa got the win? What an irony.

Ziegler is reportedly out with the flu.

No way, no how can Kimbrel get an ace like Longoria out.

What a disaster this game is. Farrell has unaccountably left himself with some guy named Kimbrel to close a 2 run lead. Now is when we need a Ross or a Barnes or even an Abad. What the hell was he thinking?

Someone said Ziegler has the flu. One presumes the closer was being save to close the 9th. What were the two mistakes?

Maybe, but Abad had been pitching reasonably well.

I hear you, but also wonder why Tazawa threw nothing but fastballs to Forsythe, including the last one in the dead center of the strike zone, then threw two forkballs to Kiermaier to get the final out. Where was the forkball when the count was 0-2 and 1-2 to Forsythe?

If Tazawa is going in to pitch with 2 outs and the bases loaded in the 8th, Farrell either can't use Ziegler or doesn't trust him with men on base.

Can I pick them? Except for blasting Bradley, I was right about the top 5 in our lineup, and I could not be happier about being wrong about Bradley. Heck, I'd love being wrong about the bullpen too. This game ain't over, but that was one huge grand slam by Ramirez, reminiscent of the one Ortiz hit I think in the 2013 ALCS against Detroit.

I haven't watched much because I'm at the office, but the numbers suggest the Sox are in trouble on this one. The Rays have a good bullpen to protect their lead, and Wright looks to be gone by the 5th, which brings in our terrible bullpen. Two on, 1 out. Time for our patented GIDP by Ortiz.

Last of 23 straight days/games without a break and with a fair amount of traveling. With tomorrow off, the whole bullpen should be available today--more's the pity. Then 3 at Oakland, 3 at San Diego, and 3 at Toronto. Sox at 4-6 over last 10 games need this win today. Still only 2 back of the Jays, but also only 1 ahead of the Orioles, 2 ahead of the Tigers, 3 ahead of the Astros, and 4 ahead of the Royals for a wild card slot. Right now I like the first 5 in our lineup but not so much the last 4. Leon is cooling, Young could be OK, Hill is cold, and Bradley is colder.

I see two lefty bats--Ortiz and Bradley--which means Smyly must be a lefty. If Wright gets thru the first unscathed, is there hope? Maybe, but then there's the bullpen whose job seems to be to freely dispense hope to the other team.

If it works, I'm signing up.

That final at bat with Ramirez on 2B with the tying run and two men out was laden with symbolism. Leon is OK as a catcher, but now starts 3/4 games (or more) because of his bat and was pinch-hitting for Holaday because of the fact that he is better batting from the left side against a righty. Leon looked at three straight strikes without even starting a swing. Three excellent strikes, I might add, all on the outside corner. Earlier in the 9th the Rays reliever was having success with breaking balls down, but couldn't quite control them. so now he was throwing heat but not upper 90's heat. What he did have, however, was exquisite control, something none of our pitchers have although sometimes Price comes close. Contrast this at bat with the earlier one in the 8th, Buchholz against Longoria, who only pole-axed one pitch out of the park for a game-winner. Did someone quote Whitey Herzog as saying that the difference between a good manager and a bad one is a great bullpen?

He pisses me off, but I'm wrong. He's a plus at bat, on the bases, and in the field and especially compared the $154M man the Yankees have in CF. The point on the upper cut swing could be dead on.