illinoisredsox

You know, maybe that need to switch up the catcher and use Vazquez with Porcello. Got to try something with him.

Chances are now he settles down, gets through the next 5 innings unscathed and keeps the Sox close. But since the aren't scoring for him this season, that won't be good enough. He is actually on a pace to lose 20 games. Sad thing is, you generally have to be a pretty decent pitcher to lose 20.

True, but I posted that as McCann came to the plate.

I fixed it for you.

Doesn't look good but only Springer hit the ball well; the other 2 were not exactly roped.

If you read his signature, you will see the answer.

So long as the ump is consistent with the call.

Xander looks like he is not seeing the ball at all right now. He really looks like he could use a day off.

Kelly doesn't get that because he's all over the place with his pitches. Luckily, it didn't cost him. Kelly would do well to dial it down to 95 and get some movement on those fastballs; everything is straight as an arrow. Reminds me of Bard a little (when Bard could still find the plate). Mookie. Mookie.

I'd be more impressed if you had said it before the 7th inning. And the score aside, I'll take that effort from any starting pitcher any day of the week.

When did we trade Butterfield to the Astros? (although that one reminded me more of Wendell Kim).

Who, and at more importantly, at what price?

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.