illinoisredsox

Wright will not be part of the postseason rotation. At this point, he's been out what, 7 weeks? If he were ready to go today (which by all I've seen he isn't), he would have at most 2 starts to get back to form. I know building arm strength isn't exactly a requirement for a knuckleball pitcher, but you do have to build a little to go 6-7 innings and he would have to regain the touch. At this point, it's ERod, Buchholz and Pomeranz for 2 spots in the postseason rotation. ERod has never relieved (okay, once in the Gulf Coast League 5 years ago), so you almost have to pencil him into the rotation. Whoever is better between Buch and Pomeranz the next 2 weeks will get the other slot. It could even come down to a team match-up thing (I think I heard last night that Cleveland has a really good record against lefties, so do you want 2 of them (Price being the other) in the rotation against them?

Magic number is now 8 over Trornto and 7 over the O's.

Oh for crying out loud, it was his first major league hit and homer and the home crowd acknowledged it. It wasn't Machado or Trumbo with whatever number they're on right now.

Small bit of advice for you (without wanting to know anything about your family's financial situation): discount no school based on sticker price, especially private ones. I paid far more for my older son to go to public Purdue than I did for my younger one to go to Notre Dame, even though ND's sticker price is much higher. Now, admittedly, Purdue was out of state, but with the academic scholarship he received, it was comparable in price to what it would have cost to go in-state to the University of Illinois (which gave no non-loan aid whatsoever). The younger one applied to a mixture of private and public, the privates all gave generous financial aid offers, the publics gave squat. If you have your heart set on state U, fine. Go for it and good luck. But as I said, do not rule out any school until the all aid packages come in. You never know.

Yaz was the only AL player over .300 in 1968 (he hit .301). IIf I remember correctly, Danny Cater of the A's was 2nd around .293. There were 4-5 players in the NL who did it (I think Pete Rose led the pack; he was up around .330). I remember looking up the team batting averages that year once. I think Oakland led the AL with a .240 team average and the league overall hit something like .231. That was the year Gibson posted that 1.12 ERA, going 22-9 in 34 starts (28 complete games). With that ERA, one of the great mysteries for me has always been how in the world did he lose 9 games. I've heard he was never taken out of a game during an inning that season. Denny McLain went 31-6 for the Tigers that year (starting 41 games) with a 1.96 ERA. Gibson bested him in games 1 and 4 of the World Series. He came back on 2 days rest and won game 6. Mickey Lolich won games 2 and 5 for the Tigers, and came back on 2 days rest to beat Gibson in game 7. The NL won the All-Star game 1-0 on an unearned run scored by Willie Mays. As A700 said below, they did indeed lower the mound after the 1968 season.

Probably seeing how it reacted after playing a game. It would 't surprise me to see another play one sit one before they go to 2/3 etc. and then more full time duty if it's holding up. The last thing you want to do is lose him completely by overdoing it.

You two do realize tonight's mess was made by Abad and Kimbrel cleaed it up by striking out the only 2 guys he faced, right?

When are you talking about when you mean clutch? He missed most of September that year when he broke his foot after fouling a ball off of it. When he came back, he hit .500 against the Rays in the ALDS, and over .300 against the Tigers in the ALCS. He hit .250 in the World Series. He was on base 29 times in 71 PAs that postseason, scoring 14 runs in 16 games and driving in another 6. Not sure what more you would want your leadoff hitter to do.

So what would you have done differently bullpen wise? You don't use your top guys once you are 4 runs behind early. If you don't have a true long man i.e., a guy who can pitch 4-5 innings (and nobody does anymore), you use the back end and hope they come through. Last night they did. Also keep in mind Clay goes tonight. Even if he pitches well, he probably isn't going more than 6, so you'll need the front end of the pen to close it out.

You know the score, its Sofa Manager Logic 101. That's on the players. If they do their jobs, it's despite Farrell. If they fail to do so, it's because of him. That being said, the bullpen has been nothing short of spectacular Tuesday and last night. 13 innings, 2 runs, 1 earned.

So when the other manager makes a move and it doesn't work, Farrell is being schooled? And when Farrell makes a move and it doesn't work, he is still being schooled? How many times has Farrell seen his bull pen pitchers fall apart this year? Is it Farrell's fault or did the other team get lucky because the Red Sox players didn't do their job. I'll agree Farrell is no great tactician. He is an average manager, nothing more and nothing less. Like any manager, he makes some headscratching moves. We just notice his because we follow this team. Girardi f@#$ked up last night by taking Tanaka out of the game at 93 pitches and 7 innings. In the middle of a pennant race, you take out your best starter who has been dominant all night against the lower part of the batting order? Now that's a headscratching move. Earlier in the year, when he had Betances, Miller and Chapman it would be totally understandable. With only Betances, much less so.

Happy Birthday to me. Thank you Hanley. Great present.

Moncada has been buried deep. Hernandez running for Ortiz.

Definitely. Hill's only value is as a defensive replacement. He serves no other purpose at this point.

Hill hit for Bradley.

No. Only issue I had was he took 3 strikes. Got to swing there.

Having a righty hit Young works.

Young makes more sense, he's actually been playing.

Don't like this move with Hill

Bullpen has come up big both Tuesday and tonight. 13 innings 2 runs (and tonight's was unearned)

Well Kelly is going to put this game out of reach (as if he wasn't already with Betances pitching the 9th)

Unfortunately you are right but it could hardly be unexpected. No one could keep up the pace he had. But even when he was hitting well he struck out a lot.

WTF are you taking that for Leon?

Bogaerts getting out of whatever his funk is would go a long way to helping the cause. I'm not worried about Betts, his slump is a coupe weeks, that happens. Bogies has been going for 2+ months.

Let's also face it, they have seen some damn good pitching the past 2 nights. There have been very few pitches tha have been cookies. Location and change of speeds. 0 strike outs for Tanaka tonight.