hogan873

The Hernandez play was close. I think he was safe, but it might not have gotten overturned. The second one was blatant. The first baseman's foot was clearly off the bag. Plus, there was nothing to lose by challenging it there. A really bad miss by whoever was supposed to make that decision. Steve Stone didn't help by saying over and over again how Hernandez was out and how great a play it was. He even said a few times one the second play that it was "too close" until Mike Monaco said something about his foot clearly being off the bag.

I'm not worried about the division. The Sox can play around .500 ball the rest of the way and easily win the division. What concerns me is the playoffs. The Sox haven't shown to be consistent against good teams. They have looked good at times, but when they look bad, they look really bad. Hendriks will get his shit together and so will Kimbrel. They both have great stuff, and I think the slip-ups we're seeing are all mental. The rest of the bullpen has looked pretty good lately. Tepera is as-advertised. Crochet has stepped up and been really good lately. Kopech continues to be great. Bummer is returning to form. The offense concerns me more. The inconsistency is maddening. Good hitting is contagious, and so is bad hitting. Too often we're seeing the team go into the late innings down by a few runs, and then we'll see a spark and score a run or two. But it's not enough. I have been feeling good about only a few guys' at bats: Abreu, Eloy, Robert, Vaughn, TA (lately). The rest of them...I get very nervous when the game's on the line when they come up. This is the stretch when we'll see what this team is made of. So far it's concerning, but there's time for adjustments, and Grandal will be back soon. Here's my "get your shit together" list: - Moncada - Hernandez (has looked pretty bad lately) - Hendriks - Kimbrel (he seems to have caught long-ballitis from Hendriks) - Keuchel (throw strikes for god's sake) - All hitters who love the double play - TLR and his lack of willingness to review close plays - The entire offense when they shit their pants facing bad pitching

Clearly safe and no challenge. What the hell?

At least 20-25 times. I went to bed after the game and tried to read on my iPad, but I kept going back to Twitter to watch the replay again and again.

Still get chills watching the HR from last night. It would have been awesome to hear Jason call that. Joe Buck actually called it pretty well; much more enthusiasm than Konerko's slam or Pods' walk-off. But Kasper's call is superb.

Although Kopech shouldn't have shown up the umpire on the (blatant) strike three missed call, I loved seeing his passion last night. That was the most animated I've seen him on the mound. He was definitely rattled after the bad call, and Cairo made the right decision to pull him. But the dude has absolutely filthy stuff, and he's going to be a star. Aside from Liam blowing the save, it was cool to see guys like Abreu, Eloy, Kopech, Bummer, Kimbrel, and TA get the national spotlight. This team is dynamic and will be a force to be reckoned with for a few years.

4D chess by Miguel Cairo, having Liam dramatically blow the save just to have Seby "I'm The New Backup" Zavala walk ahead of the Tim "I'm The New Face of MLB" Anderson home run? He is learning from TLR!

I would like to hear it as well.

I can’t stop watching TA’s home run.

I was just saying that to my wife. It’s like it was written to end that way.

Literally jumped out of my chair yelling

Holy fucking shit!!

Terrible way to ruin a great game.

Fucking kidding me

Ha. They’re muting Liam

Sit the fuck down

That’ll pay a portion of Leury’s salary to ensure he sticks around.

Nice

Nice pitch.

True. But that’s the most emotion he’s shown.

Everyone but the ump knew that was a strike. Love Kopech’s passion.

That's actually Ving Rhames.

I was happy when the trade happened mainly because it would limit Leury's presence. Although Leury still plays too much, he's not playing at 2B. Now, I'm very happy about the trade because Cesar is a huge upgrade defensively and has so far shown to be a dramatic upgrade offensively. He's fit in so well, I don't even think about anyone else playing 2B each day other than him. When he was traded, there was a lot of talk about where he would hit. Most, if I recall, believed he should be near the bottom to help rid of the essentially dead 1/3 of the lineup. There were comments that it would be "so TLR" to have him bat 2nd. I think what we're seeing is that he can bat anywhere and improve the lineup. He's been getting on base a lot, and that helps when he's in the 2 spot...unless the #3 hitter rolls lazily into double play after double play. He can hit and has nice power, which helps when he's in the bottom third. Regardless, Cesar is the type of player the Sox needed down the stretch. And having him controlled through next year is a nice bonus.

Yikes.

YouTube's camera work is much better than ESPN's was the other day.