5GoldGlovesOF,75

Thirty-six year-old hamstring. He'll never be the same... ... but he will have his good days and bad months. And then he'll bend to pick up a pencil in his office and the whole thing will seize up on him. But that won't compare to the night he rolls over in bed and wakes up screaming when the tissue feels like it's tearing off the bone. Screwed.

Love the fake bunt two-run single.

Ceddanne touched the ball!

This has seemed like a must-lose for Cora all game. He knows if he gets fired, he still gets paid.

Red Sox pinch-bunt for a guy who was the All-Star Game MVP for hitting a homer. And he strikes out. I coulda done that.

Now the Sox are getting blown out, 2-2. Remember, some relievers half asleep and freezing still have to get 15 more outs before Detroit scores a run... because that's all it will take to win the series.

I saw what I saw when I saw it. Bos 2, Det 1 but the Sox actually trail 1 to 2. Doesn't it feel like that?

Has any club that ever stressed "run prevention" this much not played its best possible defense? If you mean it, Front Office, show us you mean it! ... or is the team maybe run by the Back Office?

Sox trailing, 1-2. Try to keep in mind this Red Sox team is never as good as they look when they're bad. There's still time for a Boston batter to actually drive in a run in this game.

So glad the owners were there yesterday to see in person the putrid fruits of their impotence. The Sox did finally score their first run of the entire series on a swing resulting in an initial bounce greater than 70 feet. It came on a home run by a guy who also hit the last Fenway Park HR back on April 6: Willson Contreras (rhymes with rarest). But the Tigers won again because they hit three times as many homers off Boston's ace. That was the difference, and it will be all year when the Sox lose. No more excuses about running into tough pitching -- the Red Sox turn every starter they face into Cyanide Young. When NESN noted Crochet had the second-worst stats of any MLB starter, they didn't tell us who was worse -- my first thought was Dustin May, who completely shut down his old club by exposing their weakest link: weaklings.

Anthony guns down a runner at the plate. NESN had no choice but to show that throw -- a one-hop liner to erase a baserunner that touched 3rd when Roman had the ball (total disrespect by Detroit). On every other ball hit to Anthony, the NESN camera shot was changed right when he released the ball on throws to the cut-offs... seriously, guys, are President Sammy and his CBO that insecure they ordered you to deny paying viewers from seeing something they're actually interested in?

I listed all the MVPs in the championship years. Barrett was great that whole postseason in '86 and led in total hits, and Bruce Hurst was going to be awarded WS MVP if his staff mates didn't choke in Game 6. But if the Red Sox did win '86, is there any doubt who'd be remembered as THE HERO of their first ring in "68 years!" Dave Hendu Henderson RIP saved the pennant with a home run in the LCS and then blasted what should've been a bigger HR in extra innings in WS Gm 6 with the trophy on the line... ... and now we're back to home runs.

The problem is that changes clearly need to be made -- but "this is the roster" is the reality. The main changes needed to be made in the offseason unless a new manager -- and pray to the baseball gods, a new coaching staff -- comes in without any relationship to the players and immediately switch Mayer and Story. They're committed to giving Durbin half a season to get straightened out, so aren't replacing him with IKF or Monasterio yet. Who knows when Romy returns or how long it takes him to contribute. The only move that could help right now -- and this is going to freak some fans -- is to trade Duran for any asset like a decent reliever and make Yoshida a full-timer in the batting order. This current starting line-up just isn't going to strike out less unless Masa the Punching Bag gets to punch pitches regularly. He should be the DH every day and not Anthony, who needs to play left field every day so he doesn't sit in the dugout and think too much. Young guys need to run on and off the diamond all game long to get into and stay into a groove on both O and D.

I loved the way Barrett played baseball, but my post was intended to reference World Series champion Red Sox teams. Thus, bell a ring. Here's an exchange I overheard in 1986 in pregame batting practice before a September game with Toronto... Red Sox hitters were asking recent call-up Pat Dodson what it was like to face Blue Jays' hard-throwing prospect Duane Ward. Dodson mentioned a fastball that tailed inside to righties. "Oh, great," said Barrett, "90 miles an hour right at my hands." NINETY was considered really fast back then, 40 years ago when Mason Miller was negative-12.

Agree, and I hate to say it, but maybe other clubs just view him as too -- I want to say unreliable, but inconsistent to give up major assets (in a way, that may be why Giolito is still unsigned). And I know it's easy for posters to look at crappy current stats for all the big names we didn't sign or trade for, but I personally don't think all those numbers automatically transfer to a different home park, line-up, fan base, media market etc. Bogaerts may be an example, since he thrived more in Fenway than Petco: ..312/870 to .272/.747. Of course, age is also one of the many other factors -- but we just don't know which ones really count... Machado .297/.890 at Camden Yards, .274/.832 at Petco. Maybe perfect weather every day of the year makes it just too hard to focus on any job in San Diego?

Doesn't bell a ring.

Ground ball back to Foulke... David Ortiz-David Ortiz-David Ortiz!!! All this reminiscing reminds me of Red Sox champions, especially those who won postseason MVPS: Papi, Manny, Beckett, Lowell, Koji, Ortiz again, Jackie Bradley and Steve Pearce. Besides a few lights-out pitchers who are always essential to winning, all the position players who were voted Most Valuable in Boston Octobers hit pivotal home runs. Ol Brez sure wasn't fooling at the Winter Meetings when he said, "Home runs are a foolproof way to put runs on the board."

Tomorrow someone stupid that's me will propose yet another new batting order -- but in the end, it will always be from the same roster. And all summer long, the major league Red Sox will be facing "tough pitchers."

2025 Tame Card Series in the Bronx

40 to nothing.

I just wanted to sit down on a Saturday afternoon with a beer and watch the ballgame... ... but instead in the very first inning, we get Bello, The King of inKonsistency: Rip, K, Rip, BB, K, BB, GO. He's literally killing me -- forget the brew, I'm chain corn-chipping.

Roman Anthony is just not a leadoff hitter. He doesn't work pitchers, is always down in the count and supplies little instant offense that Cora fantasizes about like true power guys in Schwarber and Ohtani. Roman is also no speed demon -- not a requirement, but certainly helpful when an offensively-challenged club tries to manufacture runs. Anthony doesn't even have a good On Base % (you know he's struggling when Rafaela is ahead of him in that stat) and is currently 7th on the team in OBP and Slugging. Therefore, that's where he should now hit in the batting order: 7th.

Hopefully, Skubal will bail out early today to protect his future gazillions like he did on his USA teammates in the WBC. It's past time anyway for the Red Sox to wake up the dumb Green Monster from hibernation. Why are our batters so afraid to hit baseballs off his big green kisser this year? With all their power muscles, it'll just feel like mosquito bites.

What Can Brown Do For You? is a question no Boston fan should ever ask. Instead, show some disrespect for Kevin Brown, who lost the most crucial game in Red Sox fandom in my lifetime... (at least it was for the fans I knew, and the ones I never had to listen to again) -- 2004 Game 7 ALCS in the Bronx. Brown actually made two starts that series, and was so good he couldn't even get the W in the Yankees last victory when they edged the Sox, 19-8. Here's Brown's stats in the '04 ALCS: 2 GS, 3.1 IP (not a typo), 9 H, 4 BB, 8 ER, 21.60 ERA (not a typo).

If Arias keeps hitting, he may be the SS going forward. Then Mayer would wind up at 3B or 2B, depending on where the home run hitter they have to acquire plays in the infield.