fathom

Lots of rumors Dunn's going to try and play tomorrow. I hope he's not rushing his return again. With that said, you have to stack the lineup with as many lefties as possible. I'm not optimistic about Gavin tomorrow, as you have to wonder how he'll have any feel for his curve. Hopefully there's not too big of a meltdown on here if the Sox lose tomorrow, as the match-up is clearly in the Tigers favor. If they lose tomorrow and go on to win Thursday, it's a successful series.

QUOTE (Jake @ Sep 12, 2012 -> 04:30 AM) Not choking = If he would have gone 7 innings, 2 runs tonight like Fister, no one would have said he pitched poorly.

QUOTE (kitekrazy @ Sep 12, 2012 -> 04:28 AM) ERA 4.00 against division rival = choking. This would apply to Chris Sale as well. The Peavy Kool-Aid should be empty by now. He would have made a better Cub. Also momentum doesn't exist in Sox vocabulary. Sox have lost 5 straight starts by Peavy against the Tigers. He didn't pitch terrible against them tonight, but just once, you'd like to see him just dominate in a big game and not pitch just poorly enough to lose.

QUOTE (kitekrazy @ Sep 12, 2012 -> 05:11 AM) The pen is so inconsistent that playing for a tie is playing to lose. Couldn't agree more

QUOTE (Jake @ Sep 12, 2012 -> 03:59 AM) That was a bunt situation and Youk isn't going to try to do it unless he thinks he can. YOUK failed, not the manager. I will add that the umpire didn't do us any favors in that AB either. Bunting is very easy to do and I'm sure Youk said he was able to. Unfortunately he tried to bunt a difficult pitch to bunt and then took a strike. That was Youk's fault. He hasn't been hitting that well and we needed to get out of the double play and get two men in scoring position. You don't ask your players to do something that they're not good/comfortable at. And why is it a bunt situation? You still need at least one hit to score 2 runs in that situation even if the sac bunt is successful. With how awful the Sox have been hitting with RISP lately, you're better off hoping for the 3 run homer (against a pitcher that gives up just about as many home runs of late as singles).

QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Sep 12, 2012 -> 03:52 AM) Ventura was playing for the tie, or basically, NOT to lose. Kinda like when he asked De Aza to squeeze on Sunday. All season, he was doing a good job of not using the bunt too much. However, it seems the pressure of the pennant race has caused him to go overboard with the bunt.

QUOTE (Jake @ Sep 12, 2012 -> 03:52 AM) Javy had one of the top 5 fWAR for pitchers from 2000-2010 IIRC As far as managing, the only thing that bothers me is the Liriano move as that was clearly a failed experiment. I know why we used him there but it doesn't look good when it goes that poorly. So you were fine with bunting with Youk? And as for Javy, he's probably the most notorious big game choker in the last two decades in the majors.

QUOTE (iamshack @ Sep 12, 2012 -> 03:46 AM) The hell with that. I'd put Liriano in and make him pitch Liriano should be starting against the Twins, IMO. Good match-up against them with their lefties.

QUOTE (Jake @ Sep 12, 2012 -> 03:38 AM) I was fine with Peavy's effort. He more or less dominated with the exception of their two best hitters getting to him once each. I would have hoped for about one more inning, but that wasn't in the cards. He really has turned into Javy Vazquez, hasn't he I swear the same few sentences used to be written about Javy on here.

QUOTE (chw42 @ Sep 12, 2012 -> 03:36 AM) Robin basically just said Youk did not bunt on his own. Ugh

QUOTE (Chisoxfn @ Sep 12, 2012 -> 03:29 AM) Liriano is there to get outs. Just cause he starts doesn't mean he can't come out of the pen. He's a power pitcher with a hard slider. He sucked, blame him, not Robin. I realize they lost and I'm pissed about the loss, but I had zero problem with the bunt decision (other then Hudson should have been the one doing it). And I think they should have had Dan Johnson in. However, all of that is a moot point since some of you are acting like it was the dumbest thing ever to use Liriano. It isn't like we are talking about some scrub that never pitches. The dude is in our rotation and is paid to get guys out. He's handled pressure situations plenty of times, he just wet the bed, plain and simple. My personal belief is you play for the win if you're the Sox in the 8th. You had already used a lot of your "trusted" relievers earlier in the game, and you had Benoit on the ropes. Something that will be overshadowed by the bunt call is Konerko failing to do anything with a hanging slider that he would have crushed in April and May.

QUOTE (Harry Chappas @ Sep 12, 2012 -> 04:27 AM) 2-0 and over swinging pop up on the infield which followed the overswinging attempt from Dyan that was some real bad baseball tonight I'm all for shuffling the lineup. Hell, put Beckham 2nd and move Youk to around 6th. His batting average is around .235 with the Sox now and he's not drawing a lot of walks.

QUOTE (Cerbaho-WG @ Sep 12, 2012 -> 03:23 AM) LH hitting 75 points higher than righties against Valverde. Predictable K. 0-4 3 Ks. Good job, Robin. Dumbs***. It's insane

Well, gave them that out. Sox have got to stop playing him against righties.

So glad we're letting Viciedo try and work his way out of his slump vs RHP in a pennant race

QUOTE (chw42 @ Sep 12, 2012 -> 04:20 AM) Wow...that was a hit. Damn it Alex. Bad timing. If you look where Peralta was playing before the pitch, he was easily going to make that play.

That was a routine DP if Rios wasn't running

QUOTE (kitekrazy @ Sep 12, 2012 -> 04:18 AM) Am I the only one that thinks Youk decided to bunt on his own? Unless I'm wrong I didn't see him square around until after the 1st strike. He was bunting from the very first pitch

QUOTE (RZZZA @ Sep 12, 2012 -> 04:16 AM) Robin makes his mistakes, but Youk bunting didn't cause the next two guys to fail. This 'momentum' stuff is hogwash. Do your jobs, get on base, get guys out, end of story. Robin can only be blamed for so much. You don't think after allowing 3 guys to reach that basically being given a gift out doesn't completely settle down the pitcher?

QUOTE (RZZZA @ Sep 12, 2012 -> 03:14 AM) Robin makes his mistakes but there's also a lot of monday morning quarterbacking going on here. When something doesn't work out it's easy to say we should have done something different. I'm pretty confident there wasn't a single person on this board that wanted Youk bunting.

Viciedo better not be batting here vs Valverde

Thing is, if you want to bunt with 2 men on, then have Hudson or someone else on the bench good at bunting come in for Youk. You absolutely can't put him in the situation of trying to bunt there.

QUOTE (Noonskadoodle @ Sep 12, 2012 -> 03:05 AM) Does his average agree with you this month? Im gonna go with a NO As the #4 hitter, you hope from more at the plate than a couple of flares to right field that drop in. Even when he's had hits of late, they've been extremely soft (been that way for about 3 months it seem).

Konerko couldn't have gotten a better pitch to hit. He's just awful to watch at the plate these days. Ventura's decision to have Youk bunt was just a gigantic rally killer that inning.

QUOTE (Cerbaho-WG @ Sep 12, 2012 -> 02:59 AM) He's in way over his head. Utterly f***ing pathetic. Ozzie was never close to being this bad with the in-game moves