illinoisredsox

Just goes to show that ANY pitcher at the major league level can shut any team down. It's how often they can do it that separates the good from the average from the poor. Would anyone have predicted Johnson's shutout a few weeks ago?

Right on cue, as soon as the Sox fall behind, d-money shows up.

He is actually ahead of Benintendi. At the same age (20), Beni had played 2 years of SEC baseball and was in A and A+ ball. He started his age 21 season at A+ Carolina before heading to Portland and then Boston. And there may very well be something he needs to work on that professional scouts see and the average fan does not.

Saw something that Moreland is banged up a little after being hit by a pitch in the toe on Tuesday. I guess it swelled up overnight so they kept him out as a precaution. Better to miss a couple games now than to have it linger for weeks.

Problem is so has everybody else.

So do you use Kimbrel since he's warmed up?

Probably up for long relief in case Johnson doesn't go too far tonight. The bullpen has amassed 27 innings over the last 7 games (11 the last 2 nights and 15 2/3 the last 3).

What were the circumstances? Had the pen pitched a lot of innings the game before. The prior 2 games? 3 games? Was anyone not available for some reason? If the pen has had to make numerous long appearances, maybe the starter has to take one for the team. Sometimes you have to let a guy figure it out on the mound, and maybe that means sacrificing a game once in a while. (I'm not saying that was the case with Wright or in the Detroit game last year.) Tonight, Brian Johnson goes. Are they going to get the 9 inning shutout performance or the 4 to 5 inning starts he's had the other 2 times out? That means 4-5 innings of pen on top of the 11 innings they've pitched the last 2 nights. The season is a marathon, not a sprint, and must be managed accordingly. An NFL game is equivalent to 10 MLB games relative to the season. Average 6-4 every 10 games and you've got 97-98 wins.

I'm sure Elias has it somewhere (or can conjure it up), but IMO it is as much a product of opportunity as anything. How often has he been in a position to have a walk-off play. I know he has scored several walk-off runs. If the guy was on first and he got a hit to send him to second or third, is he not "clutch"? Or, since he has hit near the top of the line-up most of them time, had a slow footed catcher as the winning run who would be unable to score from second on a normal base hit?

Moon, we were there at the same time; I'm class of '80. My younger son just finished up (class of '17) Somewhere in a box I have my MVP shirt from the San Francisco game my freshman year (29 clap clap and 1 clap clap). The Dons came in undefeated and left otherwise. NBC named the student body the MVP of that game and somebody made up tee shirts to commemorate the occasion. My class can also say we never lost a game at Pauley Pavilion, going 4-0 there against UCLA. Also remember wins over #1 Marquette and DePaul. Kleine got there the year after I graduated, but I did see Billy Paterno and Toby Knight. Digger sure did squander a lot of talent (that 1978 final 4 team had 8 guys who would play in the NBA plus 2 more who were drafted but didn't make it). He had a knack for building a moment, but over-coached way too often. Never played inter-hall football (I wasn't even all school in high school, so trying to play with all conference types would have been futile) or basketball (lousy would not describe my ability in that sport), but I did play inter-hall baseball. For those who don't know, inter-hall football at ND is full contact with pads; the championship game is played in ND stadium. Have you been to campus lately (say in the last 20 years)? If not, you will not recognize anything east of Juniper Road nor south of the South Quad.

Calc was okay (well, semesters 1, 2 and 4 were okay) but I liked Differential Equations better.

Pete Abraham had a pretty decent take on the whole Price-media situation, basically saying both sides bear some culpability, but laying a lot of the blame on the media side and social media: I can’t recall the year, but it was a hot day in St. Louis at old Busch Stadium and the Mets got beat. Al Leiter took the loss, and a perfunctory postgame interview ended up with us yelling at each other about something. It was embarrassing, unprofessional, and I regretted it immediately. But Al was a smart-ass when he wanted to be, and I was, too. We glared at each other across the clubhouse the next day and then finally shook hands and decided that was enough. I’ve since had a few run-ins with other players over the years because of something I wrote or said on television. It’s sort of inevitable and it’s usually pretty healthy because it clears the air and everybody moves on. This happens across the game and has forever. What David Price did last week in New York, shouting at a reporter from Comcast, was a tea party compared with Jim Rice once tearing a shirt off the back of the Globe’s Steve Fainaru in the 1980s. The problem now is Twitter and our obsession with our phones and social media. It has become a professional responsibility for reporters to build a social media following, and one way to do that is by being snarky. Players read the tweets instantly or are told about them by friends and family, and in time resentment builds. John Farrell was right when he said Twitter is an unaccountable medium. I know I write dumb stuff on Twitter I wouldn’t think of writing for the Globe. That’s the case for many reporters, and we should be held accountable. Price should have handled the situation better, and he certainly needs more help than he’s getting. There have been too many needless missteps. But consider his side, too. The lefty has become an easy target for media members eager to curry favor with disaffected members of the fan base or raise their own profile. Price cuts back on his media availability and it’s a story. With rare exceptions, Chris Sale also speaks to reporters only after he starts, and that’s considered fine. Why is that? There was even faux outrage over the fact that Price cursed during the incident in New York. Oh heavens, a baseball player cursed in the clubhouse when he was upset. Hopefully everybody will have access to counseling and earmuffs. Price is an adult and he can handle his business as he sees fit. But Farrell could build some goodwill in the clubhouse by being even more aggressive on Price’s behalf. https://www.bostonglobe.com/sports/redsox/2017/06/12/five-realistic-moves-red-sox-ought-make/zaZNMzEvhenG3NqYRB61lN/story.html

Hopefully Xander isn't going into one of his funks. He has looked awful the last couple days.

This one wasn't as bad as a lot of his adventures this year. Ball towards the corner and you force the outfielder to make a good throw, which Upton did. Got to read the throw though. Slide to the third base side or the old hook slide to that side and he's safe.

True but on that one he was trying to get hit with the throw. Pretty standard to try and get in the way of a throw from first or at least make it a tougher throw. Not in the same league as Hanley's really dumb play.

Johnson was going to pitch either today or tomorrow; really doesn't matter.

Oh, I'm pretty sure the Boston media is already probing ways to make him snap. Probably started contacting their colleagues at the Sun-Times and Tribune as soon as the trade was made. He'll be safe this season, as they will now gang up on Price. But at some point, they will come after Sale. It's what they do, and it will have little to do with handling adversity.

Okay, I'll do it. You're fired.

I think people are overlooking this one. They have had their projected starting line-up on the field for exactly one game this season, opening day. Starting with Betts going out with the flu in game 2, they have had one regular or another unavailable every game since. With Pedroia's return tonight and barring some other oddness today, tonight will mark the second time every regular has been available. Losing Holt has not helped either. While not great, he is still a very competent back-up and better than anyone else they have had to throw out there.

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Frankly, I just became a huge David Price fan. The media needs to told to bleep off once in a while. They are piranhas. In my limited exposure to local media types here in small town Illinois, I have found most to be very arrogant and condescending in person. I can only imagine how much worse it is in large cities. Most media would wilt in a nanosecond if they were subjected to what they put players (or anyone else) through.

This is where they miss Ortiz. Yes, his presence in the line-up would have meant something (although expecting him to repeat last year would be a pipe dream). But he had a way of getting to players. He could get on them if they needed to be gotten on. Relax them with something goofy if that needed to be done. I don't see that type of player on this club. They need a Millar or a Damon, somebody who can loosen things up a little. They have too many of the same type player, quiet types. You need a mixture of both on a team.

Hey, don't forget the defense sucked as well.

Porcello allowed his 9th unearned run of the season tonight. I was curious, so I checked on something: The Red Sox have been charged with 43 errors this season (including tonight and Bradley could have been charged with one on the triple). 17 of them have come in games pitched by Porcello. Now, I don't know if he's been on the mound for all of them, but that is absolutely ridiculous. He's not pitching well, but between the lack of offense and lack of defense in games he's pitched, no wonder they have a lousy record in his starts.

Amazing what location and changing speeds can do, isn't it. CC has learned how to pitch.