oldtimer

Absolutely a key hit with the bases loaded and two outs.Love to see him have positive AB's. Now with a 6-0 lead and Sale on the mound we should be good.

It is interesting and indicates what we can see about Chavis having troubles, mainly hitting high heat but his confidence may also be shaken. We get Moreland back and Chavis can get a rest. By the way, I noticed Kimbrel got a multiyear contract offer from the Cubs provided he meets the physical.

Or was it the lower part of the order he faced.

All the players experience slumps during the year for various reasons, whether it be caused by nagging injuries, lack of confidence or having to adjust to different pitching patterns. Beni has been off for a while and really so has Betts. Chavis has issues that have been discovered and he too needs to make adjustments. The bottom of our order had a terrible start this year and showed some signs of life but went 0 fr 12 ast night with 4 strikeouts so they may not be that solid yet. Cora was with the Astros and saw the impact that George Springer had and is still having, hitting first. Betts was successful in a similar role last year but has yet to get it going this year and the experiment with Beni as leadoff wasn't working so here we are. Bat your fast, high on base percentage guys up front where they will get more opportunities. This year Beni hasn't fit that mold as well but I still like to give him more time to show what he can do. My preferred likeup is: 1. Betts 2. Beni 3. Bogie 3. Matinez 5. Devers 6. Moreland 7. Vazquez 8.Chavis 9. JBJ When Moreland sits, I would move Chavis to first and Nunez to 2nd (neither Chavis of Nunez are long term 2nd basemen). I would then bat Nunez in the 6th slot. The back end of our lineup is weak and they puts a lot of pressure on our top 6 to produce.

I don't see us acquiring a second baseman this season, so Chavis will play 2nd, 1st and DH. When Moreland comes back, he can share time with him until Pearce comes back and maybe longer. I would think we have a valuable hitting coach in JDM and maybe he can guide Chavis with respect to hitting the high heat. That big swing makes it hard for him to handle 95 up in the zone.

The kid got a couple of tough called strikes on one definitiely off the plate and the other marginal. Give him a break. Cora's move worked out and with a 4 run leave and 6 outs to get we look good for making a game up on both the NYY and TB. Good night for Cora and the Sox.

ba;b As good as the AB's were in the previous inning were, last inning they were mostly bad. Vaz swung out of the and compounded it by taking a called third strike, JBJ rolled over the first pitch for a weak groundout, Betts did well to get walked but then Beni struck out on 3 sub 90 mph fastballs that a major leaguer need to be able to get solid contact on. Not good.

Red Sox put together some really good at bats. The triple by JDM, Devers drawing a walk rather than swing outside the zone, Xanders flying to right was a textbook way to bring a run in. Holt then doubled. Even Chavis lineout was a good attempt. Love to see the Sox put together a string of good AB's like those.

What makes me think the lackluster performance could continue is the first two months performance. To dismiss it out of hand in my opinion is overly optimistic. Our BP is shaky and our hitters are more average this year. Could they perform better? Certainly they could but also they could continue as they have for the last couple of months which would mean trouble.

No place that I see to comment on the draft, but in some ways it might facilitate making alterations to the team, perhaps in 2020 but more likely further along. Watching the draft is like watching grass grow. Very boring and in the Red Sox case I see the rules as particularly harmful. First ick at 43 aand 2nd at 69. No shot at top talent unless one thinks other teams are foolishly passing on such talent. Competitive balance still isn't being achieved, with a lot of clubs essentially packing it in by the AS break.

We'll see if your optimistic thinking is justified. At what point would you believe the Sox are out of it in 2019, should we continue to play lackluster ball? Ten games back in the loss column with 3 teams ahead in the wild card race? I am not saying it will happen just would be interested in how long your optimism would hold up?

No excuse for Barnes. Two walks and a balk. Awful stuff. I will add that we have no range at SS. Of the 3 hits through there tonight, a quicker SS gets two of those.

I agree totally with what you say. If there is a solution, then it is for our existing players to pull out of their malaise and try to perform closer to last years standards. We have a little money for BP help so that is not by itself going to save the season. Maybe getting guys healthy could help. JDM in particular is fighting a sore back and he is a key hitter in the lineup. If we can't make the playoffs, I would play some of our hopefuls late in the year and hope to find a gem in that way. I would not trade away our keystone players just in the hope of winning a couple of more games this year. In my view we need to keep, Bogaerts, Beni, Devers, Vasquez and Betts. I would also think hard before parting with a young inexpensive player like Chavis. I would be careful not to jettison other existing field players unless we could find better but our utility capability is getting old and find themselves on the IL all too often.

I don't see the Sox making any moves until the break and only then if we still have a significant chance of making the playoffs. What can we do other than add a reliever if we have a shot? Depends a great deal on how we perform in that period. If we are out of it, then it would be reasonable to call up our best prospects and see what they can do. Even with a playoff hope, I believe we will need to make major changes going in to 2020. Time for Pearce, Nunez, JBJ, half the BP, E-Rod, Leon at least to go. Pedroia is not coming back. Time for the front office to strenghten our prospect list and to avoid harmful long term contracts to players going past their prime. Pedroia's 8 year being the poster child of recent bad ones. We have the highest payroll in the league and the resullts are not reflecting it. It's hard to justify that position with a 500 team.

I think you have been overly optimistic. Look at our table setters and what they have done of late. Look at JDM. We relied on those guys last year to produce and they are way off their games so far . We know we have problems in other areas but to have problems scoring with runners in scoring poosition, striking out at a high rate, and only having a couple guys producing at any time is a major weakness. This season is close to a lost cause and we are only in June. There aren't any easy answers other than the club seems to need motivation and it isn't happening. Where will it come from, Cora?

Men on first and second and one out, in the old days hitters might choke up to put the ball in play and score a run. Holt couldn't make contact. Chavis is a diffeent story as he is not haqandling heat at this point.

Both Betts and Beni need to do more. At least eni hit a hard line drive.

When your up to your ass in alligators, its too late to drain the swamp.

Our hitting is fairly solid with Chavis going through the first year of needing to make adjustments and JDM with a sore back. When our team faces top notch pitching, like the Yankee bullpen, they all have trouble and we are no different in that respect. Our pitching has been strained due to injuries to starters and the need to find a BP or Minors starter every 5th day out. Eovaldi will be back and should help with that. Our weakest area is our BP and that has been heavily used. We traded away a lot to get last years national championship and we are carrying Panda's and Pedey's contracts which limit our financial capability to maybe one BP acquisition. The decision to do more than that would mean further consequences to the team and might not even get us a wild card. I'm for just limiting to a BP acquisition and accepting whatever that can bring us. If we don't get to the wild card level then so be it.

Behind 3 and having to face the Yankee bullpen is no bargain. Not to mention, keeping them from scoring more will be a challenge. Tough start to the series.

I think there are signs that the Sox can play better. The hitting seems to be picking up of late and when healthy our starters are quite effective. Our main bugaboo is the BP that has looked bad recently. If that can't be rectified, we could well be a 500 club. With the Pen doing a better job, we could get a wild card berth. I doubt we catch the Yankees this year.

The short stints for starting pitchers these days mean that a hitter often will not have more than 2 AB's against the same pitcher in a game. Hitters don't get to see a pitcher often enough to get as comfortable as when starters were in for 7 to 9 innings. I think it is harder today to use the lefty righty idea effectively because of it. I am an advocate of deciding on a set lineup and staying with it, barring injury or needs for rest.

Red Sox pitching and especially the pen, seems to be breaking down. Two big losses in a row to Cleveland when we need to go on a run. We are scoring and that is not the problem.

Pretty sad for the pen to give the game away last night. No leaqd was safe.

Came in tryiing to nibble and instead blew 2 runs without registering and out.