oldtimer

It could have been much worse.

Fister typically has a rocky first. Hope he can get out of this mess.

Not much talk of Devers of late. His bat has cooled off and he had a tough spell at third base. It appears Farrell got down on him as well. What I see is the kid is struggling at 3rd although has a good arm and does react to the ball well but his throws are slow to develop and inaccurate. He still is one of our true power guys and has a good swing so I would like to see him get back into the lineup and do some damage. Next year, someone has suggested he might do better as a 1st baseman. That thought may just prove to be the best place for him and perhaps we look to a rookie or we go out and get a third baseman. I predict a lot of changes coming for next year anyway and this would jut be one more.

Being old, I decided to quit at the end of the 11th.

The Sox are playing like an exhausted team with little belief in themselves. Beni was 0-7 last night. Bradley didn't hit. Guys who you wouldn't expect to disappear seem to be doing just that. The pitching against them wasn't that good. So what can be done? Beats me at this point.

Scratch Donaldson from the list. His bat hasn't looked good this year. Cozart looks like a player we could use, especially if we do any significant rearranging of our team. Trouble is that he is getting toward the back end of his career. I would look for some younger players in a trade package.

And Bogaerts takes a fastball down the middle and strikes out on a curveball away. I'm going to bed.

I agee that we have some hitting talent on the team and it is a little mysterious why we are doing so poorly. Kind of a collective depressive atmosphere going on. I give up trying to name it, but it is what it is, very poor performance.

Hanley takes a called third strike on a four seam fastball over the plate (less than 90 mph to boot) What else is new.

The Diamondbacks are going great guns.

Maybe they can tie Belichich into this. He probably advised the Red Sox coaches on the latest methodology. Seriously, if they are stealing signs, it isn't helping the hitters much.

I agree. The Sox will not and should not fire JF during this season. However the season turns out, the Sox should then rationalize the strengths and weaknesses of our manager and decide if we should start a search for someone who can lead us more effectively. I suspect not only JF is in question, but also a number of players and coaches (hitting coach(es)). I would do the whole thing together in the off season and also decide how much money will be made available with our reset of the luxury tax limit. In other words, take a holistic approach to the team for 2018 and go after improvement, especially in key areas of weakness we have shown this season.

He seldom pulls the ball, perhaps because they pitch him mainly outside. Lots of pop ups, lots of weakly hit ground balls and balls hit to right and center stay in the park. His one well hit ball last night went to left. That is where he has some power.

I had problems with JF's game plan and substitutions tonight. I didn't like his putting in so many slumping players when we have such difficulty scoring runs. The idea of putting in righties sounds good but not when they are slumping so badly. The way he handled Porcello was bad. He obviously didn't have his good stuff and was getting hit around pretty consistently. When he got up to nearly 100 pitches and he sent him out again in the 6th, with all the BP arms available I had a bad feeling. After the first hit, he should have pulled him, but no JF hung in there until the game was out of reach. Finally, JF's substitution pattern in the inning where we get a guy one and he subs Moreland in for a hot hitting Travis. I know he wanted a lefty to come in but he could have saved Moreland for later PHing. When Moreland goes out he lets Bogey hit when he had a lefty on the bench and could move Nunez to short and Devers to third. Finally he did substiture JBJ for Young. His good moves didn't work out but his lack of moves were what troubled me. I don't understand how JF thinks but the evidence is that he isn't getting it done.

I wouldn't have him on my roster in the post season. Since we are going to lose this game anyway, at least we have learned that he shouldn't be on our PO roster.

Yes, Barnes left it up and down the middle. Smoak is too good to miss one of those.

Shame they couldn't get him in from second with one our and two of our leadoff men up. A run there would have made it tight. Their pitcher was throwing 97 MPH sinking fastballs so he wasn't easy to hit.

Don't understand a couple of Farrell moves. Moreland PH for a guy that is hitting well in Travis. Save Moreland to PH later. No pinch hitter for Bogaerts who is in a bad slump when we have Devers avaialbe with Devers to third and Nunez to short. Bradley I understand, it just didn't work.

Nunez jumped on the first pitch. Too bad that Betts couldn't get the bat on the fast ball. At least he has one good hit tonight.

Yes and it is compounded with poor management decisions. A pitcher struggling, a real need to win a game and a very deep BP. So what does Farrell do? He leaves Porcello in after it is totally obvious that he is done and now the game goes out of reach. Sometimes what is being done is inexplicable. Yes, we have young players who make mistakes from time to time. Yes, the Luxury tax limits have tied our hands somewhat but still we are not playing up to our potential, or at least I think t we have more potential. Maybe Betts gets going and we get some help from guys like Travis and Lin but it is hardly enough and we appear to be going into a swoom again.

The home run is on Farrell. Very deep bullpen and the pitcher struggling. Why leave him in? Poor managing.

Maybe we get Happ out of the game and can get some of our left handed batters in for our weaker players. Encouraging to see Travis hitting.

Tough we score two to get baack in and Porcello gives up a dinger.

Encouraging double by Travis and we know Nunez can hit.

Yeah but how unusual is this? Do the Sox have stretches like this all the time? Only on bad teams th that srruggle? Do all teams have stretches like this? These numbers need some relevant perspective. ... Bad figures for us. Have to look up Cleveland for comparison. We may have to play them if we can hang on.