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5/31-6/3 Red Sox @ Astros Series Thread
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Post by pedrofanforever45 on Jun 2, 2018 22:15:51 GMT -5
I don't get the irony here. It's not good to keep losing to Houston, no matter how you put it. Winning builds confidence. Coming from behind like this exudes it and pushes it even further.
Keep showing fight and keep showing the league that this team is a force to be reckoned with in the season and going into the playoffs and not some first round exit anymore.
Edit- These games are really fun to get up for, no matter if it's negative or positive. Two juggernauts. The rest of the league is crap for the most part. Can't wait for the playoffs.
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Post by pedrofanforever45 on Jun 2, 2018 22:30:43 GMT -5
Anyways, Cafardo was repeorting that the Sox are scouting Herrera.
Yeah no sh*t Cafardo. So is everyone else. Do the Sox have enough to get him? Most likely not.
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Post by soxfansince67 on Jun 2, 2018 22:31:24 GMT -5
Not quite yet - I was at the Pawtucket/Durham game tonight - Lind took an 0-4. Even worse, though, was Austin Maddox - low velocity, poor control, 5 hits and 3 runs and got nobody out. How’d Brandon Workman look? Almost ready to help our bullpen? Workman looked great - one inning, 3K- so did starter Chandler Shepherd. Robby Scott looked OK but did let in a late run. The offense is, not surprisingly, quite anemic....the whole system is crying for some good bats (and some power, with just a few exceptions)
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Post by Oregon Norm on Jun 2, 2018 22:58:10 GMT -5
The bottom half of our lineup is just to easy outs right now. Especially with Devers struggling Not quite. The home run and the walk setup the winning run. Nice win by Price. He made the mistake to Bregman with room service but recovered well. Benintendi really heating up at this point, finding the power stroke. Big test tomorrow. Morton has been really tough so far.
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Post by marrcus on Jun 2, 2018 23:10:49 GMT -5
My guess is he's dropped 5-10 lbs. If it's helped, I like the leaner Andrew.
I was counting on one win this weekend with a split being best case scenario. Nice that we have a chance at that Sun.
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Post by dirtdog on Jun 2, 2018 23:13:16 GMT -5
Devers bob sledding to the Mendoza line.
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Post by pedrofanforever45 on Jun 2, 2018 23:14:32 GMT -5
My guess is he's dropped 5-10 lbs. If it's helped, I like the leaner Andrew. I was counting on one win this weekend with a split being best case scenario. Nice that we have a chance at that Sun. Benintendi added 20 pounds this past off-season.
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Post by wildsox on Jun 2, 2018 23:17:16 GMT -5
The bottom half of our lineup is just to easy outs right now. Especially with Devers struggling Not quite. The home run and the walk setup the winning run. Nice win by Price. He made the mistake to Bregman with room service but recovered well. Benintendi really heating up at this point, finding the power stroke. Big test tomorrow. Morton has been really tough so far. I agree that the Vazquez homer and the Bradley walk were the most important plays of the game but they went combined 2-18 otherwise. I’m just saying without Mookie and with Devers struggling mightily our lineup from the 5 spot down isn’t very scary.
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Post by marrcus on Jun 2, 2018 23:20:04 GMT -5
added 20 pounds " -------------------- Yes. I think he down ten two months in. Cause/effect I don't know but he's over the slow start.
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Post by Oregon Norm on Jun 2, 2018 23:30:21 GMT -5
Devers bob sledding to the Mendoza line. Devers is doing OJT. People expecting a finished product are naive. He's as kid and he acts like one. But he has lots of players and coaches around him to help him refine his act over time. He reminds me of a lefthanded Javier Baez, another guy who has light tower power and never wanted to be short changed, always swinging as if it was the last at bat he'd ever have. The light came on for him. He figured out how to bring it under control and he still hits with a lot of power. Devers can do the same if he listens to those voices around him.
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Post by redsox04071318champs on Jun 2, 2018 23:31:20 GMT -5
I doubt that there's any pitcher on the Red Sox pitching staff that Pedro won't help. And for the record Ramon Martinez was an excellent pitcher. Some remember him at the end of his career helping the Sox out down the stretch in 1999, but he was trying to come back from an injury from which he never recovered. Prior to that he was the Dodgers ace (after Hershiser). He was really good. At the time it would have been hard to imagine that his skinny little brother who was much smaller could be better, but Pedro wound up being the best. Ted Williams was similar to Pedro. He would even actually give some of the Yankees batters tips because he couldn't stand pitchers. The Astros are a concern but lesser than the Yankees in my opinion because I really think whoever finishes first in the East will probably have the best record in the league. I hope to be wrong but I honestly think the Yankees will have the best record and that the Sox will be in the Wild Card game and that if they win that they will be facing the Yankees so ultimately I think the Yankees are the bigger priority. If I'm wrong and the Sox finish first (great) then the odds are the Sox will have the best record and will wind up playing the Wild Card winner, which most likely would be NY. Either way it's likely NY in the ALDS. If they get past the ALDS, then odds are they'd play Houston in the ALCS, but that's further away and if they get past the Yankees, then it's all gravy anyways. I think if the Sox were to be able to beat NY the momentum could build up as they play Houston (Cleveland wouldn't beat Houston, would they?). You know what? I give the Red Sox the exact same chance in the playoffs whether they swept the Astros or if the Astros swept us for the entire season. It’s totally meaningless. This woe is us crap should stop. With neutral BABIP luck they probably won the last two games. I don’t even care if the Red Sox have to win the Wild Card game. I’m not going to spend 162 games whining about the Yankees and thinking the world will end if the Red Sox miss winning the division after winning 102 games. Life is too short to not enjoy an excellent Red Sox team. I'm enjoying this excellent team just fine thank you. I'm able to be concerned about any issues that pop up during the season, hate the fact that the team I loathe the most are either almost good, as good, or perhaps even better (opinions may reasonably vary), and still enjoy the team at the same time. It's like walking and chewing gum. Not really that impossible to do. You can choose to whine about bad umpiring calls, AL office conspiracies, opposition bloop hits or bad BABIP luck or Red Sox 400 foot smashes that wind up outs, things that are simply all just part of the game. We all "whine" about something. Doesn't take away from the pure enjoyment of the game. If it did, we wouldn't be going on 40 something years of fandom, living and dying on just about every pitch, giving a damn so much about something that really truly doesn't affect our real lives.
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Post by redsox04071318champs on Jun 2, 2018 23:39:16 GMT -5
That was an excellent win. That bullpen is definitely how you beat the Astros. Hinch managed Houston very well last post-season and was able to use his starters to get key outs in the post-season games. His rotation is the best in baseball.
I think he'll gave to do some more of that this post-season. Harris, Devenski, Rondon, and even Giles are good pitchers, but for some reason combined they're an adventure waiting to happen, and I still wouldn't trust Giles if I were a Houston fan.
I'm glad the Sox were able to take advantage. The one big difference between last season and this season is that the Red Sox can come back in one swing, which they couldn't do last year - last year it would take several hits strung together which is tougher to do. That's why this team will most likely win between 95 - 100 games rather than the 93 they won last year - the ability to hit HRs.
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Post by redsox04071318champs on Jun 2, 2018 23:44:08 GMT -5
Anyways, Cafardo was repeorting that the Sox are scouting Herrera. Yeah no sh*t Cafardo. So is everyone else. Do the Sox have enough to get him? Most likely not. Not surprising. They'll go after Herrera. We'll hear Brach, perhaps Britton if he can be healthy. Somebody did an interesting article on a bunch of Cincinnati and San Diego relievers, mostly guys I had never really heard of, but some with interesting numbers, but I'm not sure they'd be guys you'd want in high leverage situations. Like Herrera, I'm sure somebody will go after Iglesias of Cincy. He'd be a high leverage option, but more expensive to obtain than free agent to be Herrera. I can see the Dombrowski dealing away a guy like Darwinzon Hernandez in a deal for a reliever. I would think that he'd keep Beeks around? I would guess that Shawaryn might be vulnerable to a deal? I know Hernandez has an electric arm but I like Shawaryn better.
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Post by Oregon Norm on Jun 2, 2018 23:44:17 GMT -5
...I agree that the Vazquez homer and the Bradley walk were the most important plays of the game but they went combined 2-18 otherwise. I’m just saying without Mookie and with Devers struggling mightily our lineup from the 5 spot down isn’t very scary. Not to beat this one to death, but the entire team went 5 for 27 32. That was the nature of the beast. It was Verlander vs. Price and hits on both sides were at a premium. The bottom of the lineup came through at the right time so today they helped lead the team to a win. Baseball has always been this way. It looks bad at the start, there's blood all over the posts, the winds change, and the healing starts. Till the next game, of course.
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Post by redsox04071318champs on Jun 2, 2018 23:47:47 GMT -5
I'm ready to see Adam Lind in a Sox uniform over Swihart when Mookie comes back from the DL. You're the king of hot takes, I got to give you that! I mean the guy didn't even reached 50 PAs and just started to have regular ABs to shake of the rust, shown a good eye at the plate, a willingness to go the other way and you want a guy that no MLB team took a flyer on? Your takes are HAWT! How is that a hot take? Do you know of a ton of people who think that Swihart's bat carries well as a 1b/lf/dh? I'd personally love to see him get consistent ABs - as a catcher. His bat plays there. I'd love to see what he could become if the Sox let him continue his progression without the move to LF and all that followed. What part of wanting a guy with an .800 OPS on your bench versus a guy who never had an OPS that high even when he was playing well 3 years ago is a HAWT take? Especially when you really would like the guy to get ABs regularly at the position his bat make sense for? Just curious.
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radiohix
Veteran
'At the end of the day, we bang. We bang. We're going to swing.' Alex Verdugo
Posts: 6,585
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Post by radiohix on Jun 3, 2018 0:39:14 GMT -5
You're the king of hot takes, I got to give you that! I mean the guy didn't even reached 50 PAs and just started to have regular ABs to shake of the rust, shown a good eye at the plate, a willingness to go the other way and you want a guy that no MLB team took a flyer on? Your takes are HAWT! How is that a hot take? Do you know of a ton of people who think that Swihart's bat carries well as a 1b/lf/dh? I'd personally love to see him get consistent ABs - as a catcher. His bat plays there. I'd love to see what he could become if the Sox let him continue his progression without the move to LF and all that followed. What part of wanting a guy with an .800 OPS on your bench versus a guy who never had an OPS that high even when he was playing well 3 years ago is a HAWT take? Especially when you really would like the guy to get ABs regularly at the position his bat make sense for? Just curious. Quite frankly it's not even a hot take, it's just an "ill advised" take. You dump a young talent who's athletic, plays a bunch of position at a decent level, runs the bases well and is a switch hitter with years of control left for a 35 years old base clogger who can't play any defensive position (he can't even play first base, that's how bad his glove is) and should be strickly platooned just so you can maybe, just maybe, use him in a hypothetical pinch-hit situation (if the other manager brings his LOOGY, we're screwed)? There's reasons Adam Lind is out of a major league job, he offers you no flexibility. I'll take the upside of Swihart and give him as much at bats as I can, give my guys rest, they're gonna need it in a heated summer to get his timing back over the unemployed stiff. It's a no-brainer and I can't believe I even have to explain it.
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ericmvan
Veteran
Supposed to be working on something more important
Posts: 9,018
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Post by ericmvan on Jun 3, 2018 2:27:01 GMT -5
Hey, they have a chance to win for the 2nd time in 7 games. Progress. Who is "they"? "They" on this board usually means the Boston Red Sox.
The Red Sox had won 3 of their previous 6 games, not 1, so obviously you're not talking about them. Especially since all 3 losses were to first-place clubs and before that they'd won 8 of 10.
In fact, going back 6 games is meaningless cherry-picking. They came into Houston having won 11 of 14, including 3 of 4 without the best player in MLB. They started a struggling SP in game 1, went 5/10 on line drives and "fliners" and 1/10 on GB while Houston went 3/5 and 4/10 (including 3 infield hits) and lost 4-2. That's close to 4 runs of BABIP luck. They went into the bottom of the 8th of the next game trailing 4-3 despite having a 12 to 8 edge in total bases on balls that left the infield.
I think they've narrowly outplayed the Astros over the three games, in Houston, without Betts and Pedroia.
And if there's any question about how much better they played than it seems from the scores over the first two games, Nick Cafardo wrote a long article about how much they struggled.
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Post by pedrofanforever45 on Jun 3, 2018 6:04:25 GMT -5
Hey, they have a chance to win for the 2nd time in 7 games. Progress. Who is "they"? "They" on this board usually means the Boston Red Sox.
The Red Sox had won 3 of their previous 6 games, not 1, so obviously you're not talking about them. Especially since all 3 losses were to first-place clubs and before that they'd won 8 of 10.
In fact, going back 6 games is meaningless cherry-picking. They came into Houston having won 11 of 14, including 3 of 4 without the best player in MLB. They started a struggling SP in game 1, went 5/10 on line drives and "fliners" and 1/10 on GB while Houston went 3/5 and 4/10 (including 3 infield hits) and lost 4-2. That's close to 4 runs of BABIP luck. They went into the bottom of the 8th of the next game trailing 4-3 despite having a 12 to 8 edge in total bases on balls that left the infield.
I think they've narrowly outplayed the Astros over the three games, in Houston, without Betts and Pedroia.
And if there's any question about how much better they played than it seems from the scores over the first two games, Nick Cafardo wrote a long article about how much they struggled.
Yes the Sox was "they." The Sox have lost 5 of the last 7 games to the Astros, if you include the playoffs. 4 of the regular season games last year in Houston shouldn't be conted towards anything. It was the last 4 games of the season and Houston was resting all their great players because they won the division 2 weeks prior.
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Post by pedrofanforever45 on Jun 3, 2018 6:11:09 GMT -5
How is that a hot take? Do you know of a ton of people who think that Swihart's bat carries well as a 1b/lf/dh? I'd personally love to see him get consistent ABs - as a catcher. His bat plays there. I'd love to see what he could become if the Sox let him continue his progression without the move to LF and all that followed. What part of wanting a guy with an .800 OPS on your bench versus a guy who never had an OPS that high even when he was playing well 3 years ago is a HAWT take? Especially when you really would like the guy to get ABs regularly at the position his bat make sense for? Just curious. Quite frankly it's not even a hot take, it's just an "ill advised" take. You dump a young talent who's athletic, plays a bunch of position at a decent level, runs the bases well and is a switch hitter with years of control left for a 35 years old base clogger who can't play any defensive position (he can't even play first base, that's how bad his glove is) and should be strickly platooned just so you can maybe, just maybe, use him in a hypothetical pinch-hit situation (if the other manager brings his LOOGY, we're screwed)? There's reasons Adam Lind is out of a major league job, he offers you no flexibility. I'll take the upside of Swihart and give him as much at bats as I can, give my guys rest, they're gonna need it in a heated summer to get his timing back over the unemployed stiff. It's a no-brainer and I can't believe I even have to explain it. The Sox would only need Lind's bat in the DH spot to give players days off. He also provides a great pinch hitting option. Lind is a skilled hitter against RHP. I have no clue what Swihart is in this utility role. Maybe he's Brock Holt offensively with less versatility defensively? That isn't a great bench player. I'll give everyone this though, Nunez should be the first to go. Maybe the Sox could trade him to go get Lowrie with a marginal prospect (maybe Swihart).
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Post by Oregon Norm on Jun 3, 2018 7:19:45 GMT -5
...Yes the Sox was "they." The Sox have lost 5 of the last 7 games to the Astros, if you include the playoffs. 4 of the regular season games last year in Houston shouldn't be conted towards anything. It was the last 4 games of the season and Houston was resting all their great players because they won the division 2 weeks prior. It's sample size bs, pure and simple. Last regular season, the Sox were 3-4 against Houston and Detroit, 9-10 vs. Baltimore, 2-4 with KC and LA. That variability is what makes the playoffs such a crapshoot. Is Houston tough? You bet. But the notion that they have done sort of hex over the Sox is laughable.
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Post by patford on Jun 3, 2018 7:33:23 GMT -5
Tremendous performance by Kimbrel, eleven pitches, nine strikes.
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Post by pedrofanforever45 on Jun 3, 2018 8:14:29 GMT -5
...Yes the Sox was "they." The Sox have lost 5 of the last 7 games to the Astros, if you include the playoffs. 4 of the regular season games last year in Houston shouldn't be conted towards anything. It was the last 4 games of the season and Houston was resting all their great players because they won the division 2 weeks prior. It's sample size bs, pure and simple. Last regular season, the Sox were 3-4 against Houston and Detroit, 9-10 vs. Baltimore, 2-4 with KC and LA. That variability is what makes the playoffs such a crapshoot. Is Houston tough? You bet. But the notion that they have done sort of hex over the Sox is laughable. There is no hex. The Astros have been a better team convincingly until this point the past year and a half. It's up to the Sox to beat the champs in Houston and prove otherwise.
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Post by Guidas on Jun 3, 2018 9:11:50 GMT -5
I wonder if Benintendi’s success from the leadoff spot will convince Cora to move Mookie to the two.
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Post by soxfansince67 on Jun 3, 2018 9:18:24 GMT -5
Let's look at records -
#1 Boston 40-19 .678 #2 MFY 37-17 .685 (or flip flop them if you want to go with pct) - so many games at hand! #3 Milwaukee 37-22 .627 #4 Seattle 36-22 .621 #5 Houston 37-23 .617 (or flip flop them)
then there is the rest
For the flaws of our team - shaky recent starting pitching, holes in the offense, a few really key injuries - can't nitpick this team. Cora has them playing like a team. I am loving this season.
Editing to add this - we Boston fans are spoiled. Pats on an incredible stretch - Celtics a whisker away, so young and promising - Bruins surprised in a good way. I'll take it!
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Post by jimed14 on Jun 3, 2018 9:29:04 GMT -5
Given that the Red Sox beat the Yankees 14-1 in one game earlier this year, they should have no problem beating them in the playoffs. *hot take*
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