oldtimer

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.

Hard to make changes with 25 games left. A shakeup in who goes on the field or the batter order is a good idea as maybe something can be awakened with this team. If not, I would clearly look to make some significant changes next season. That includes players coaches and the manager. Produce or vamoose.

I had hoped Pedey would be available. Cross your fingers with this lineup. Defensively we are giving up a little as well. Four question marks in the lineup.

We face a lefty tonight in Happ that has given us trouble (who hasn't). We need to get it going so I suggest as I have in the past, that we shake up the lineup. I know Kimmi has provided information that says the lineup is unimportant, so why not shake things up and send a message to the guys that they need to get it going. First of all, despite his weak showing for quite a while, we go nowhere in the playoffs unless Mookie starts to hit. I look for him to pull the ball more and be more aggressive early in the count. I would move him out of the rally killing position and put him up 1st so that if he does get on we can use his speed. I don't know if they will play Pedey two days in a row but if he can we need him against a lefty. My idea of the lineup is as follows: Betts Rf Pedey 2nd Beni LF Nunez DH Hanley 1st Devers 3rd Vaz C JBJ CF Marrero SS I hate to leaves Moreland out so hope he can get in as a PH. We would 4 good hitters in to lead off with a power hitter who needs to deliver. I want Beni to pull the ball more .Going off field or directly to center is not whereeither Beni or Betts should live. Putting Hanley back up is a gamble but no worse than having Betts in a key slot hitting the way he is. Maybe he can respond. He also has to swing with a 2 strike count and a pitch over the plate.

I am with you in this thinking and while I try to offer constructive suggestions at times, it is hard to see us changing in the ensuing 25 games. Farrell really tried to be competitive last night but the players weren't coming through. Sale looked tired, Kelly and Ross were wild, Reed was unlucky and then appeared to get flustered. Our hitting: I had mentioned my growing frustration as they took called third strikes time and again with runners in scoring position. The players should hear that it is not okay to have those kind of plate appearances but I wonder what is happpening in the locker room. Farrell may just go back to Bogaerts again soon and weaken the team in doing so. We need some things to fall into play so as not to lose our lead on the pennant but our chances in the PO's seem worse than that of our top competitors. If we don't get it done we need to look hard at the reasons why and make changes in both coaching and players. We should have some additional flexibility for that with the Luxury Tax Cap reset.

I expect a couple of additional call ups when Pawtuckets season is finally finished. Brentz can be called up but he wouldn't be eligible for the post season based on my reading of the rules.

Farrell typified our offense as wasted opportunities last night. We would get runners into scoring position and they would stall. I counted 4 times where we had runners in scoring position and our hitters took called 3rd strikes and there were others but we didn't have guys in scorring position. To me that idicates this grind them out style of hitting, guessing at what you might be thrown and trying for the walk on close pitches doesn't work very well against the kind of pitching we will face in the playoffs. I prefer a guy to take his cuts on close pitches and try to put the ball in play. Generally last night, we just weren't hitting Severino and the Yankees do have a tough BP to call upon. To me, Devers, Nunez and Pedey will get their cuts while often Hanley, Betts and Bogey will not. The others are in between. Is it coaching or is it the players? lets hope we can get it together better against the lesser clubs we face and at least break even with Baltimore. The Yankees still have some tough games ahead so may stumble a bit so a 3 1/2 game lead is a good place to be now but we are vulnerable due to our weak hitting and what looks like tired pitching. Thankfully, Fister has come on to give us some really excellent starts or we could be in more serious straights.

Sale was put into tough situations in the first couple of innings and looked like he began to tire. JF left him in a little long for my liking as he was spent and we had a rested BP. We are going to need a rested Sale as we move on and he is accumulating a lot of innings.

Two more call third strikes with runners on. Why do our guys take so many with runners in scoring position?

He missed a slider on the outside that was on the plate before that.

Totally agree that bad umpiring on two separate strikes caused what followed.

Thars three to end the inning with runners in scoring position. I get that it fooled him but still tough. The other two were fast balls.

Still three guys with a chance to do some damage kept the bat on their shoulders. Hanley, Nunez and now Beni.

Back to hitting. I am an old guy now and haven't faced live pitching in so many years it is hard to remember what a difficult thing it is to hit a ball coming in and I never faced anywhere near the velocity and movement that they face today. Our guys have a high degree of difficulty now in that you may see the starting pitcher for 6 innings and get a look no more than 3 times and then it is on to relief pitcher after relief pitcher. Curve, slider, 2 seamer, 4 seamer, cutter, splitter, changeup, 100 mph. Not only that but these guys nibble at the corners and they have endless digital takes on your weaknesses. The hitters may have good coaching and they can look digitally at what the pitchers do and they may have access to better conditioning tools but they still have a hard time. Since a lot of hitting is looking at release points and timing and being able to pitckup spin on the ball, small wonder the hitters take a pitch or two during the first AB. So they need to make adjustments on the fly. The ones that have great eyesight, reflexes and bat speed have an advantage and there is probably something to be said for the approach where a zen like calmness by the batter can be attained so they can react without having to think much. Pedey, Nunez, Beni, Betts when he is right are those kind of hitters. Hanley can be and so can Moreland, JBJ and even Vaz. Lets hope they can do it against a tough pitcher tonight. The really great hitters are unique individuals. We have some with excellent mechanics that are pretty good hitters and those guys are special indeed and we need to hold onto them as they are hard to find.

I think it is a mental error to take a call third strike with men on base in meaningful situations when the ball is clearly right on the plate. Hanley has done that many times this year. Most guys will be fooled at times but guys like Nunez will swing where hanley just stands and looks.

I tend to agree with you since I think Bogey needs to make fundamental changes, something very hard to do on the fly. On the other hand, Farrell seems to be saying he will try Bogaerts back in the lineup in a couple of days. Hard to expect any change without something happening to Bogaerts with his swing mechanics and plate approach. Hasn't happened in two months so it is hard to believe it can happen with a couple of days of sitting out. Maybe Farrell knows something that makes a difference in the equations, but our primary goal needs to be to win the pennant.