vegasbob

Here's Paxton's chance to make a real contribution with a strong effort. Yesterday was a "need to win" game. Today is more of a must win. Not shocked Devers needs a day off. A few swings yesterday probably aggravated his sore shoulder. All to no avail . His double in the 9th should have triggered a walk off rally, but Hader got the better of everyone else AC could run out there

The real issue in the Betts trade should be what did Bloom get in return for a generational player ? Even if JH said, I will not pay him a premium on a long term deal, Bloom should have extracted a real star off a loaded team like LAD. What we have from that deal is Conor Wong . Downs was a dud and to some extent so was Verdugo , certainly not a star OF'er. The pitchers received from NYY for Dugo have yet to prove out and may not at all. The icing on the cake for Bloom and JH was offloading half of David Price's salary. It was the 1st step in the reshaping of the Sox to what we see today. Lower budgets, no lux tax, young players under control.

One major key to the run prevention scheme is having the pitchers find a better gear when they have 2 outs, and especially 2 strikes on the batters. A lot of the recent damage, and it is noted by Bailey & Cora, comes with 2 outs and 2 strikes. They just can't close the door. They also give up HR's to some of the more obvious hitters in the opposing lineup. Indicates a few things: limited skill pitchers who don't have another pitch available, lack of control/command with the ball, fatigue late in innings after already throwing 20 other pitches, and/or lack of focus . This thoughts apply both to starters and relievers.

That is a terrible loss. Keep giving away winnable opportunities and you can forget WC city

Jansen had 1 job. get Devers to 3rd. Instead fouls out on ball 4.

Let's not lose this one by a single run. 4 HR's given up.

Yoshi homers but Devers K's. The approaches could not be more different. It doesn't take long to exit the Devers bandwagon.

Not sure why Keller was used to try and get 4 innings . The 4-1 score is surely surmountable but it is getting late . The HR barrage continues vs Boston

Add all Sox LH batters to the chaser list. Either Arrighetti is really good or our guys are sleepwalking again.

And there goes Killer Keller letting Alvarez create a wonderful souvenir

Imagine if Wink and Keller had been on duty last night in the BP , the game would have been won, theoretically. The fact that Boston is pushed into a BP game falls on the FO last March.

Want a chaser with cold Narragansett ? Just watch Raffy, Rafaela and Abreu

Wink turns in 3 legit innings with 1 run, BUT Other than D Ham's walk and SB, Arrighetti is turning Sox bats to Spaghetti

If our guys 1-2-3 in the first, I'll give you the final score today via my proprietary algorithm Sure enough 1-2-3 against a rookie with a 1.52 WHIP. Computer says final score is 7-2 , Astros 1-2-3 in the 2nd. Being No-Hit by a jabroni as Denny says.

Don't be trashing Josh that way Denny. He is trying hard and people like him

Winckowski follows the HR trend to an obvious candidate, Alvarez with 2 outs. ALWAYS playing from behind in the 1st inning. Just being consistent.

My point is that i agree with you that the case for the Sox making the WC is weak given the status of pitching. I don't see them making it either. BUT, to Moon's point, it is certainly possible . It may happen because the other AL contenders are not super powers in any way. Biggest concern is losing games in which a win is very obtainable. That has happened multiple times since A-S break, generally in the 7th-8th inning.

Just to throw a little gas on the fire, note that no team has played to a .600 win ratio in either league. Phillies are close at .595. O's are in the park at .590. If the Red Sox closed out the final 48 at .600 ( or very close), they would add 28-29 wins, finishing the year at 89-90 wins, fair chance at WC. If they close out at their current win rate of .535, you would see a 86 win team. Yankees, Twins and Royals project out higher at current paces. Red Sox need a 8-10 game win streak, which has not happened this year. 5 W streak is the best so far Don't discount the Mariners either, right on Astros heels. Oh, ok , discount them it's the Mariners

Yeah, I think there's an Old Timer's game coming up and Rich has faced most of them. In seriousness , maybe he could steal a game here and there or mop up a big loss rather than Dom Smith.

Spencer Arrighetti vs Josh Winckowski. A veritable matchup of modestly talented pitchers working for two teams who both need the win Arrighetti's stats are not good ( 4-10; 5.33 ERA ; 1.52 WHIP ), so the somnolent Sox bats , with RISP Friday night, should come alive . Wink will likely lead a parade of 5-6 Sox pitchers who should combine their abilities for a shutout. It is not a must win situation as much as a need to win by Boston to have a shot at this 3 game series, the key to earning a WC place. Slightly odd stat , the Red Sox have had 2 win streaks of 5 games this year, but nothing longer. OTH, they have only lost 4 in a row a couple times, never 5. So as some say, it is not a streaky team, good or bad, but rather more like a red rubber ball bouncing through 2024 , up and down for short bursts. These numbers could be off by 1 but after looking at 114 data points over a 4 month period, I'm not going to recheck. Sorry for the 7/10 date post. I was looking at July's results and didn't clear my internal cache.

#2 Abreu/Ref through Dom Smit, a combined 0-18, 9 LOBs, 1-10 w/RISP. Nice work dudes but it would take 9 runs to win this one.

Twins win, as noted by Moon, and KC leading Cardinals in the 7th. This could be the beginning of the end .

Booser shows the Sox FO what happens when you disrespect him by sending to WooLand

How many LOBsters are in the Back Bay/Fens ?

Max, our favorite hitter is up with the sacks full. Bet he doesn't even touch the ball