Look at Ray Ray Run

Are you watching the same game I am? Pitching is dominating for both teams with a bigger zone. Sox need to stop chasing balls - imagine a little bit of pressing. Someone needs to relieve the pressure from the balloon.

Fact is, umpire has a big zone away and low. Plesac has lived there. Sox haven't laid off and have been forced to chase things slightly off. A recipe for good pitching performances... as we are seeing.

When Grandal goes bad he goes really bad; it's been the story of his career.

LOL at career high. This was Zack Plesac's 12th career start and Civales 22nd? I believe. So yes, it's been their "career highs" in less than 2/3 of a regular season.

Good teams simply have more opportunities to drive in runs because they get more people on base and have a higher team OBP and OPS'.

They had a man on second base and hit a ball 105 and 108. What do you think the expected outcome in that scenario is 0 runs? Yesterday they left 10000 runs on base. Do you think driving in runs is a skill and not luck?

It's almost like luck and sequencing can really influence small samples in baseball.

Lol he was 4 for 9 yesterday.

It's been weird that the Indians have attacked Tim with off speed stuff away. He killed that last year and has hit it this year. Whats even more odd is how bad he looked on it there.

Why do so many think swinging at first pitch is a bad AB? He got a pitch up, and he was late. He was clearly looking for it. Shit happens.

That was so dumb even though it wasn't an out. My God leury.

What I find odd and it's an observation I've seen in many righties; why does a right handed starter with a big curve and ++ fastball start to lose the effectiveness of that off-speed pitch as his change up becomes better? I've seen this in so many fB/CB or slider guys who develop a + change.

But the Sox don't walk... hard to walk when ball four has been missed about 5 times already this year.

They also have a top 5 OPS despite facing pretty good pitching, and despite playing a guy with a wRC+ of 1 every game.

I wrote a little something small about Lambert in a random blog piece today and he went on the IL like 3 minutes later. I'm sorry Jimmy, I mushed you: https://www.ecopolibbling.com/post/five-games-is-still-just-five-games " While I am a fan of their arm talent, they (being Lambert and Dunning) are both coming off Tommy John surgery and neither one has thrown 100 innings at AA combined. Lambert’s repertoire plays really well in the modern MLB game – he lives up in the zone with a + fastball that doesn’t have elite spin (2205 RPM) but has enough deception and velocity to get swinging strikes (17% Whiff Rate), and pairs it with an average to average+ curve ball that he keeps down, mostly away, in the zone and a change up that he has done a nice job keeping away from righties."

I was surprised we didn't see more arms opt out honestly.

Yeah, awful. This blows. Hope it's the one out of 100 shot that it's just barking a bit because he was throwing more often.

forearm strain is bad.

Sox have a top 5 OPS in baseball; their offense/plate discipline has been fine. Sequencing hasn't been on their side so far, but there offense has been great.

Agreed; Ozzie would rightfully be pissed and say you're not in the clubhouse so STFU. That said, it's his job to now do things like this so while I agree with you 100%, I don't think he's wrong for doing his job. I like Ozzie, but I feel like a lot of Sox fans have very rosey memory of his time as manager at the end. Ozzie was unprofessional and couldn't have left on a more sour note.

This just isn't how statistics work and I've seen it cited 100's of times so it's not you. You can't extrapolate out wins and losses in the same way you'd do with counting stats. Reason being, those 5 games are still decided by the exact same amount of small outcomes as they would be in a 162 game season. The reason you play 162 is to work out a lot of the noise that can come in smaller baseball samples. This is good news though, because these 5 games have taught us nothing more about a team or season than 5 games would in a 162 game season. It's practically meaningless when trying to determine the true talent level of a team. It's no different than any other random 5 game series throughout a season, it's merely been amplified due to the timing (first of the year) and the season being shortened. That means the Sox are still the same team you thought before the season started, they just haven't had sequencing work in their favor. Also, in addition, due to the playoff structure, the Sox really need to just beat the teams that they are supposed to and they likely get in. They could struggle with good teams and beat bad ones and they would like eek out a playoff spot. I hate watching bad baseball - which is really where my anger lies here - and that's why I've been frustrate. The same overthrows, errors, lack of execution and etc that we've seen under this regime for a while are happening. When Madrigal gets up and Mazara back this weekendish, I think everyone will feel a lot better. It would be better to not be 1-4, but at the same time it hasn't changed a whole lot.

whitlock is an awful person.

My number one thought and concern in this; because becoming comfortable to open up about your issues is not easy for anyone. He appeared to find comfort in her partnership and become more comfortable with who he was and his personal demons/struggles. It sucks to lose that anchor regardless of the reason or duration of that attachment. I hope he's OK.

BUT REYLO WAS FAKING IT!