illinoisredsox

IF everything holds up, Orioles would be 1 game up on Toronto and 1 1/2 up on Detroit. O's and Jays have 2 games left; if Detroit is ahead or behind the second wild card spot by 1/2 game on Sunday night they will have to play a make-up game with Cleveland on Monday

You're one of those people who's not happy unless they aren't happy, right? With their play the past 3-4 games, you must be ecstatic.

So how many times are you going to make this same post? I realize you treat every game like it's an NFL game (realize that the baseball equivalent is 10 games). That being said, you don't know what the plans are line-up wise for this weekend. We do know the Sox announcers last night said that the plan is at least MOST of the regulars will play tonight (assuming there is a game tonight). The Boston weather forecast for the weekend absolutely sucks, so they easily could be playing 2 on Sunday or even 1 or 2 on Monday, and all kinds of plans get thrown out of kilter.

Well, per the Sox announcers last night, you will see most of the regulars tonight (I could see Bogaerts and Bradley getting the night off since they played last night). With the forecast for tomorrow (50s and rain), there is no way I would send any regulars out there if they even manage to play. And if they don't play, that means a doubleheader on Sunday, and you aren't sending the regulars out there to play 18 innings. I also think you will see Buchholz in a relief role on Sunday to get some action in before his playoff start and avoid 10 days between games. EDIT - Now that I look at the weekend forecast for Boston, they will be lucky to not to have to finish the season on Monday.

Well, we don't have that guy this year. Do I wish we did? Yeah. But aside from the O's and Britton (who I showed is not always 1-2-3), who really does?

This is where reality trumps perception. In September, he has made 10 appearances. He has 6 saves in 7 attempts (Wednesday night was a save attempt in my mind, but since he was taken out, he technically didn't get a blown save). For what it's worth (admittedly not much for a reliever), his ERA at the start of September was 2.86. Going into Wednesday night, it had gone down to 2.65. If one assumes that the the unearned run he allowed in Oakland on the Holt error as earned, his ERA rises to all the way to 2.82 before Wednesday). In his 9 appearances up to Wednesday, he was perfect 4 times and allowed 1 runner 4 other times (1 H (albeit a home run), 2 BB, 1 HBP). While Britton seemingly hasn't been scored on since Yaz was a rookie, this month in 11 appearances he has allowed (gasp) 10 runners in 11 innings (he's been perfect 4 times). Do I wish Kimbrel would be more efficient? Absolutely. But looking at his record, he has always walked his share of batters (not as badly as this year I will grant you). And I think that knee has something to do with it. If a reliever is going to allow 6 runs in a month, I would rather it be the way Kimbrel has done it (1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 4) than something like 1, 0, 1, 0, 1, 0, 1,, 0, 1, 1. As for Koji closing, do we know if his shoulder would stand up to back to back or back to back to back appearances? I doubt it.

Nothing you can do about that. The team I really don't want to see is Detroit as they have really bad the Sox number this year. 3-3 vs. Texas, 4-2 vs. Cleveland, 11-8 vs. the O's, 8-8 vs. the Jays. 1-5 against Detroit.

I know you don't, which is why any team you would manage would be toast by mid-July.

Close. First seed plays the winner of the wild card game, which will probably be 2 of Toronto, Detroit and Baltimore.

Would you rather they do that starting next Thursday? Getting the bad games out of the way is the way to look at this. they look tired; they are tired. They've been on the road seemingly non-stop since mid.August. A few nights in their own beds should do wonders.

Sounds like you'll get your wish tomorrow night. The forecast for Saturday sucks; cold and rainy. No way I want to send any regulars out in that. I just hope they play; otherwise they may have to play 2 on Sunday which would really suck.

They are going to have 3 days off starting Monday. That's enough to blunt any momentum, positive or negative, that may or may not build up over the weekend.

Not sure what more they could have expected, considering he hasn't thrown a meaningful pitch since Labor Day. 4 2/3. 4 hits and 2 walks is a marked improvment over what he was doing with Boston earlier this year.

Kimbrel is going to remain as (primary) closer, he done the job 90% of the time and style points aren't going to count. My point is most of the closers aren't as perfect as some here seem to think they think they are.

I took a look at the MLB save leaders. A weak stat I know, but they are Kimbrel's peers. The Met's Familia leads the majors with 50 saves. He has allowed runs in 16 of his 76 appearances. The Dodgers Jansen? 10 of 71. Melancon 12 of 71. KRod 11 of 60. Robertson 11/62. All have had 2-3 games where they gave up 3+ runs. They happen. And they've all blown 3 or 4 games this year. Much as we'd all like to have Britton or Chapman (who seemingly never allow any runs), the fact is most of these guys do give up some runs occasionally. Usually a couple times a month. He didn't have it last night. It happens. No need to alert the Tobin Bridge police.

Price is slated to pitch Sunday on regular rest. He won't go deep in the game, 4-5 innings. They aren't going to skip him and have him pitch game 1 after 8 days off. Porcello will go Friday which sets him up for Game 1 on 5 days rest. ERod pitches Saturday. Playoff rotation sets up as: 10/6 Porcello 10/7 Price 10/9 ERod or Buchholz 10/10 ERod or Buchholz 10/11 Porcello Also, should the Sox have home field in the ALDS, Porcello has been virtually unbeatable at home, so having him in games 1 and 5 at home is a plus. I would look for Buchholz to tag team with Price on Sunday to get him a little work. Again, otherwise he has 10-11 days between starts.

And the first one wasn't even a good pitch to swing at. Had it been a BP, get me over fastball down the middle, fine, but the first one was nowhere near that. The second one was a much better pitch to hit, he just didn't do it.

Yeah, but he's also a guy who's hit 400+ homers in a pretty good career. Bucky "Bleeping" Dent he ain't.

I'm not blaming Kelly; Kimbrel made that entire mess. I would have left him in the s*** in it.

And vip loses the effing feed? You"ve got to be kidding me.

Didn't he screw up in Yankee Stadium earlier this year as well? Barnes had to come im and bail his ass out IIRC.

He's over throwing; missing up and away to lefties.

Get Ross or Barnes up in the pen; Kimbrel screws around much longer, yank him.

Who cares. A clinch is a clinch.

Two out in Toronto, O's up by 1.