Maxbialystock

Just a helluva game. Kimbrel threw strikes! Ross got his man. Great plays by Bogaerts to start the double play and by Holt to end the game. Betts needs to start wearing a cape. Huge win.

This is one lousy bullpen. Ziegler gets the GIDP, then hits a guy. Plus he didn't help in the 7th.

No credit for Betts on that one. It was Farrell's lineup. Not.

No credit for Betts on that one. It was Farrell's lineup. Not.

Too true.

Huge home run by Betts. Huge. If the Sox win this game, the biggest so far this season. Good thing Mookie doesn't read my comments. Barnes so far has been just perfect.

Nice try. It was putting that lefty in there to break up three straight righties that allowed even the possibility of some offense. All Betts needed was a little single to bring home two--Pedroia and Bogaerts--and Ortiz was the one who gave him the opportunity by getting walked.

Gallardo is pitching well, keeping his pitches down and mixing them up. But the Sox are also missing opportunities. Betts especially. It is borderline criminal how the lineup is so far wasting a great start by ERod.

Orioles have twice walked Ortiz to get to Betts and it worked both times. Betts has left 4 men on. This is all Farrell's fault of course. He is supposed to put players in position to excel.

Betts blew it, pure and simple. That first pitch was so fat, but he let it go by. Gallardo clearly had his number, but he also made some good pitches.

Actually, you speak up during or after almost every game because you believe that managers in general but especially Farrell do not meet your standard of logic. The upside of your approach is that it almost invariably leads to a discussion or argument, which is good for a discussion board. If everyone agreed with me, this would be a pretty dull blog site. Contrary is good.

Actually, I would expect Leon to be kept in a game when Kimbrel was closing if only because he would not be "cold." Plus he has the good bat in case Kimbrel gets hit and the Sox need to come back. Plus there is additional risk anytime you sub for your catcher.

I like the use of the word "right" because it underscores where we disagree. To me almost all managerial decisions are "right" because they have logic, experience, stats, and timely advice behind them regardless of the outcome.

My goodness. Looks like Leon has issues catching Kimbrel, and we can be sure Holiday has not because he did a great job catching him in the 9th. For all we know Leon would have had another PB or maybe failed to get someone stealing 3B. Leon would appear to be the wrong guy to insert into a close game in which the Sox have a narrow lead and need to preserve it. Let's not forget that Leon was also not warmed up, which made him even more likely to make a costly mistake. He also would have been "cold" pinch-hitting. Meanwhile, the sagacious Farrell knew that, even if Holiday K'd, he still had too good shots at at driving guys home with Benintendi and Pedroia coming to bat. Were I Farrell's lawyer, I think I would move to have the case thrown out for lack of evidence. Keeping Holiday in was the only sensible move.

Orioles have been tough, but are only 6-4 so far this year. They have a losing record on the road, which means they are especially tough at Camden Yards. But I like our chances and see these two games as a great opportunity. I think the Orioles starter is a righty, so I see this lineup (which I like a lot): Pedroia, Bogaerts, Betts, Ortiz, Ramirez, JBJ, Leon, Shaw, Benintendi. ERod on the mound. a700hitter and I don't agree on much, but we do agree on Showalter. As stated in the OP, a Dbag.

It was definitely painful, but I watched almost all of it.

I personally don't care and think it's borderline silly to argue whether Benintendi was/is ready to play LF or CF. He is here to hit, and we know he has outfield skills and only lacks Fenway experience. I didn't think he was ready to hit MLB pitching and was clearly wrong. His fielding should not be an issue.

You sure don't need mvp78 to defend you. Those two paragraphs are the clearest possible explanation of where you are coming from and why we disagree. You say you have a low opinion of managers, but in fact you expect managers to make just the right move--unfettered by statistics or advice from the bench coach--to overcome any and all shortcomings by the players. And I think most managers make reasonable decisions in almost every circumstance and that it is up to the players to make things happen. I think you are also on record as saying that umpires are too imperfect to be allowed to call balls and strikes. My belief is that they are good enough and that they rarely prevent good teams from winning and bad teams from losing. On another thread I wrote that, while managers and umpires are necessary, they are only the framework for a game that is all about the players. For example, I would not have brought in Abad yesterday, so there I agree with you. But, unlike you, I love the fact that he came through and maybe even turned a corner. To me Abad's success is something to celebrate but to you it's just another chance to excoriate the manager. It is clear you would have been even happier if he gave up a hit or even a dinger. About Holiday. You argue strenuously that there was no downside to pinch-hitting for him but ignore the glaring fact, not surmise, that the downside was that we could have lost the game which in fact was won with Holiday staying in. Here again I celebrate the fact that a newbie, a catcher, contributed to an important win even though he couldn't hit spit.

This all makes a lot of sense to me, especially the behind the scenes stuff which I am usually and blissfully unaware of. I think your rating of Farrell is right on target and could not agree more that he in fact out-managed two good managers in the 2013 ALCS and WS in large part because he had a really good bullpen and some guy named Big Papi. You could also be right about Francona even though, when he was here, there were lots of guys on websites calling him Francoma. Where I disagree with almost everyone is in my preference that managers should not be the keys to winning and losing, the players should. I am fine with the notion that good managers today are good mostly because of the behind the scenes stuff. I am also fine with discussions about in-game managerial decisions as long as they are tempered by the realization that managers have vastly more experience, data, and real-time expert advice than any of us.

Welcome to the discussion. The reason you don't replace Holiday in those circumstances are because he is a good defensive catcher who was doing a very good job in a close game when catcher mistakes could be costly, because the Sox were ahead, and because, even if Holiday strikes out, Farrell could be sure that two very good bats--Benintendi and Pedroia--would have a shot at bringing those guys on 2d and 3d home. Oh, and leaving Holiday in proved to be the winning move. You can't really think that any old player can catch, can you? Are you unaware that catcher is the only position (not including pitchers) where MLB and MILB team always has a fully qualified spare?

Goodness me, why didn't I see that? All words should be seen as equal as in love=hate, good=bad, imbecilic=reasonable. It that is what you are saying, I wholeheartedly disagree. Words, including their meanings, not only cover a very wide range, but darn near define us as human beings. Word choice is everything.

That's only part of it. The other parts are that the Sox were ahead, you don't normally replace the catcher when ahead and he is calling a good game and threw out an attempted steal of 3b, and you have two sure at bats--after Holiday--by good hitters Benintendi and Pedroia. But the biggest part is that our critic wants us to believe that not pinch-hitting for Holiday was imbecilic. I could accept what others have said, "I would have pinch-hit with Leon," but the claim that Farrell's choice was dead wrong is indefensible. There were demonstrably several good reasons for Farrell's choice, only one of which was that it proved to be right.

Back to the thread topic. Sox now go to Baltimore for two big ones, both of which are winnable.

I'm not sure it's a truism as just common sense. Leave your starting catcher in when you are ahead. Leon is hitting up a storm, I agree, but not as a pinch hitter. Plus he could use a full day off.