oldtimer

Beni make a bad read trying to stretch a single to a double. Betts was to blame for the second time he was caught stealing. It was a 3 and 2 count with one out. Betts stood and let strike three be called. He has to swing and hopefully make contact. Tough to criticize Beni for that.

The idea of using Nunez as a backup shortstop and thirdbaseman should be shelved. We need to bring up Lin/Marrero for the sept call up and get Bogie some rest.

I think our lineup has hurt us tonight. Bogaerts just shouldn't be in behind Betts. Young is another weak hitter. I would have moved Mookie to bat first and move Bogaerts way down in the order. To me, Young is just so cold at the plate you would be better going with MOreland and taking your chance.

What bonehead play are you talking about? Beni was running on a 3 and 2 count. Beni has to swing at a strike. In fact he never swung at any of the 3 strikes. Was it his lack of swinging you thought was a bonehead play?

Robbie Ross is scheduled for back surgery so one would hope he can fully recover and be back next year.

My understanding is that if we sustain an injury in the Playoffs then that injured player can be temporarily taken off the team and can't come back until the series end, and we can replace him from the 40 man roster. I haven't found that in writing, but I think I read it last year.

Don't want to put a hex on us but was just reading an article written about how to construct a playoff team and thought i would share it. http://www.foxsports.com/mlb/just-a-bit-outside/story/building-the-perfect-playoff-roster-090115 Should we be so fortunate I would think its clear that barring injury we would take at least the following guys onto the 25 man roster into the playoffs Beni JBJ Betts Devers Bogaerts Pedey Moreland Rameriz Leon Vaz Nunez Sale Pomeranz Porcello Kimbrel Reed Kelly Scott Workman Fister E-Rod (possible) Smith (looking very possible) Who the other 3 are remains to be seen. Davis (If we go for speed and a decent defensive outfielder) Brentz (will he even be added to the 40 man today) Lin/Marrero (we have Nunez, would we go for another defensive infielder?) Hembree (If rested is he dependable) Young (another experienced outfielder that needs to show something at the plate) Holt (can't see the need for versatility and not much else) Price ( will he be recovered enough and should we use him this late)

Last night JF stuck with Young in a close game with Moreland sitting. I was afraid JF would do the same tonight. I say go with the hot bat.

Moreland got a hit against a lefty tonight as well as a home run earlier. The night before, JF stuck with Young in a close game. I was afraid he might do that again tonight. Young isn't getting much done. Go with the hot bats.

Once we got Happ out of there, we were up against relatively inferior pitching and our guys came through. Moreland gets it done and Hanley did his job as well. Talk about aggressive base running, we have no respect for the Jays stolen base defense.

Hanley has awoken after being moved to the 7th slot and JF pinch hit for Young, unlike last night and put Morelands hot bat in. He delivered on cue making JF look good.

Happ got another 3 ground balls, all on his 2 seamer. We did get him well over 100 pitchers so he may be gone. We shall see.

One other thing. Happ is inducing ground balls with his two seamer. He was up to 86 pitches and this will probably be his last inning if the sox can grind here.

Too bad as we might have had two on for Hanley. Oh what might have been. Hanley seems to be thriving in the 7th spot.

He stuck him out to get out of a big jam. Good for him.

Too bad, but we have to make some threat to counter that. Fortunately the Yankees are losing both games today so we can really put them far behind us with a win and at least 4.5 games back even with a loss. Our lineup isn't strong tonight and we are hitting into tough luck like whenDevers gets a single but Bogey, who walked is hit by the batted ball. What looked promising turned sour.

My tendency is to advocate going with the hot bats at the current time. Just because Bogey has roughly a 750 ops for the year doesn't mean he is doing that in the second half split. In fact, his performance every year of his career but one had a worse performance in the second half. This year his injury hampered him but it appears to be more than that, so why bat him 5th in the lineup tonight following another underperforming hitter in Betts. Believe me when I say I would love for both of them to turn it around but evidence indicates they are off right now. Both taking early strikes and swinging at balls out of the zone. If they both act as rally killers tonight it won't help us. I don't understand JFs thinking. I prefer to group hitters who at least make solid contact so they can get more runs across the plate. Now Young is being used to take Moreland out of the second game in a row when he has been one of our hottest hitters. Young has been pathetic of late and consistently so. Quoting when he has done in the past doesn't mean much when you have to win a game tonight. Heres hoping that this lineup idea will work but I am hiighly skeptical and also believe lineups do matter.

You make some good points, but one I question is whether taking a 750 OPS for an entire season and applying it for a stretch of time toward the end of the season is a valid approach. If you look at Bogey for instance, his OPS in the second half has gone down in every year but one during the second half and perhaps even more than normal this year. He has suffered and injury, but his plate apprach has not been good in the second half either. He takes good strikes early and swings at balls out of the zone later. He only makes solid contact once in a while. Betts swing doesn't seem as flawed, but he takes a lot of first pitch strikes and swings at a lot of sliders down and away. That means to me he isn't seeing the ball very well, but I don't really understand why. I do prefer to group the hitters who are making hard contact on a fairly regular basis in order to maximize run scoring. No one does it all of the time. Guys like Bogey isn't one of tthe hard contact hitters currently and neither is Betts regularly. Because of his speed and versatility I would still bat Betts 1st and then the group of hitters who are currently making solid contact sequentially after. I would go Beni, Nunez, Moreland , Devers, Vaz, Hanley, Davis and Bogey. Hanley seems to be responding to being moved down so I would keep him there for now. The situation will change when JBJ gets back or when we face a lefty, but I would avoid using Holt and Young in the lineup unless forced to, preferring a bad L on L matchup to helplessness. Two days to go before things change for the better. More subs and a deeper bench.

Wouldn't I love it if Yaz could be in tomorrow.

That is true about Bogey who appears not to be making much of a case for arbitration or major contract going forward. Too bad as he has shown flashes of being a lead off 300 hitter. He just doesn't seem able to maintain his performance in the second half.

Sorry to break away from the storm situation, but this is the place also too talk about the Sox going forwward this year. As a division leader, I see the Sox as vulnerable for now and maybe going forward and heres why. Starting pitching is our strength with Fister stepping up as he has ( DD accolades). Perhaps the only point is we have a couple of guys who typical go 5 or 6 innings and need to be covered by the BP The BP is strong at the top with Kimbrel, Reed (more DD accolades), Kelly and to a lesser extent Workman and Scott. Abad, Henbree and Boyer are specialty or longer relievers who aren't particularly trustworthy. We can't go with Reed and Kimbrel every day without quickly wearing them out which puts a lot of work into Kelly, Workman and Scott. We need another quality reliever to help and perhaps Smith will be up on Sept 1st (now only two days away). We are going with 12 field players and we have some strength in Nunez (DD again), Beni, Moreland, Devers, Vaz and Rameriz. Davis (DD again) looks like a decent utility outfielder. Beyond those, we have Betts who is underperforming at the plate, Bogaerts slumping wih an occasional decent night and very little depth with Holt, Young and Leon all weak at the plate. JF continues to play those guys in the righty/lefty scenario because Moreland doesn't hit leftyies well and Leon catches Sale at least. Help is on the way which should make us less vulnerable. Smith might be what we need to shore up the BP. JBJ is expected back on Saturday and Pedey might make it back soon. No expected date as yet identified. With our full team, we are more competitive but with Betts and Bogey off we are no juggernaut. And we should remember that Devers is still a real green rookie. Our main competition in a playoff situation appears to be Cleveland, who has a very scary good lineup and decent pitching. When they get their returning players they will be even better and maybe World Series good. That is lookiing ahead and for now, we need to secure our pennant and that is still a reasonable expectation.

I wonder about Nunez defense. He can play 2nd well enough but SS is a tough position.

I think the answer is that Sale feels more comfortable with Leon behind the plate. Young put up another stinker, so I am looking forward to Sept 1st. Bogey looked bad again tonight and Betts little better. Food for thought. Yaz should be in tomorrow. Moreland instead of Young and Hanley as DH. Davis did a nice job and should play CF until JBJ is back. Front load the offense except keep Hanley and Vaz back at 7th and 8th. Move Bogey to 9th.

Great pitching thoughout. Timely hitting by a few and aggressive base running. Good win and with the Yankees going against Cleveland in a DH tomorrow, weather permitting, I;ll bet they lose at least one. We are back to a 4 game divisional lead.

I thought JF did the right job at the right time to take Sale out with 107 pitches after a fairly long sitdown where the Sox were up for a while. Reed came in with two men on and none out and got two strikeouts and finally got a tough hitter in Pearse. I was surprised that he threw him 8 straight 4 seam FBs. Wonder why he didn't trust his slider? Anyway, he got him.