hogan873

Banuelos looked good. The comparison to Quintana isn't far off as least at first glance. The most important thing about the start was that he looked confident and relaxed. Even when the defense committed TWO errors on the same play, he kept his demeanor and bailed his team out. I jokingly said before the season started that McCann would outperform Castillo. I know it's still early, but he's looked pretty good both at the plate and behind the plate. He's obviously not going to bat .340 all year, but he's certainly trending to be better (much better) than his career average. After a very slow start, Abreu looks really good. He's hitting the ball hard, and the ball is often falling for a base hit. He's raised his batting average a hundred points over the last week or so. It's not a stretch to assume he'll end up near his career average. Nice win against a bad team. The Sox have struggled over the past few years when they play bad teams. They seem to sometimes play down to the competition. They did that in Baltimore last week. So far on this home stand they're playing like they should against these bad teams.

I'm surprised there hasn't been more conversations about yesterday's game. Friday's come back win was awesome, but what Lopez and the bullpen accomplished was something special. The Sox tied the all time MLB record for strikeouts in a 9 inning game. Lopez set a career high with 14 strikeouts. He's only the third pitcher in history to strikeout at least 14 and give up no earned runs in 6 or more innings. What we saw from Lopez is very encouraging. I obviously don't expect him to come out start after start and pitch like that, but it's got a be a huge confidence builder for him. He certainly has the stuff to be an ace. He had his best stuff along with excellent control yesterday. 70 fastballs thrown, 34 swung at, and only 3 times was the ball put in play. That's pretty damn remarkable.

No. Lopez’s stuff was good enough to strike out anyone from any team. Let’s not diminish his accomplishment.

What a performance by Lopez. His fastball was electric. His off-speed stuff was good. But together, it was masterful. Loved that he reached back and finished with a strikeout.

Thank god.

I'm usually more tolerant of veterans signed or traded for. I'd typically be willing to give them more rope. But I'm absolutely done with seeing Santana pitch. He has nothing out there. I'm getting close to being done with Nova, too. He showed a couple times that he might be serviceable, but that's about it. At this point, I'd rather see Banuelos, Fulmer, or Covey.

He could have had a bat made from Valyrian steel. Doesn't matter if he can't make contact.

Adam Engel will NEVER be a .275 hitter. If he were given an entire season to start, he'd be exactly what we see. Very good defender with little hitting ability. He wouldn't get on base enough to steal 50 bases. Regardless, the Sox do not need him moving forward. They have plenty of prospects that deserve a chance. Engel has had his chance.

Cordell looks pretty good. Definitely better than Palka, and is so far a better hitter than Engel. It'll be interesting how he does with constant playing time.

It seems like Castillo and McCann are getting equal playing time. So far McCann has performed much better. I doubt he keeps it up, but I still think he'll end up better than Castillo.

Great episode this week. Nice set up for the ensuing battle. I have a feeling many of the series regulars will be killed. Some of the deaths are going to surprise us, I'm sure. It's going to interesting to see who is left standing. I would agree, after seeing some other posts, that Brienne, Grey Worm, and Lyanna will bite it soon. Seemed like some pretty blatant foreshadowing.

There’s some exciting talent to watch. Most games have been at least somewhat fun.

*looks at Castillo’s numbers* They’ll probably both suck.

My “out there” prediction was that McCann would outperform Castillo. Doesn’t seem so out there now.

J-Mac. I bet he’d like to play the O’s everyday.

Two bad base running plays. They got lucky there.

Nice AB.

Lopez needs to work on consistency with location, but his pitches are lively today. A promising start considering how poorly the season started for him.

Took his eye off the ball at the last second.

Lopez has looked better his last two starts. Hopefully keeps improving.

Rodon looks sharp.

Holy shit, Yoan.

Cussed, threw his helmet, and started charging the ump.

Tim suspended one game for language. Keller suspended 5 games

Indeed. My son and I talk a lot about how much better Anderson is. He's made some great adjustments, and he's smoking the baseball. That homerun WAS an absolute bomb. I saw it on Twitter and sent the link to my son (in school) and said "Anderson just put a baseball on the moon." He is a very exciting player to watch right now, and the energy he brings makes it even better.