Jake

Oof that's a tough read for Sam. May regret not getting that second run.

Hope Gonzo can do the job here, he hasn't always looked comfortable executing these situational hitting spots.

Interesting to see what we get from Murphy. His stuff is great but the strike throwing has been questionable. If he pitches well he might get the Tyler Schweitzer treatment.

Will with a quick hook today. We've seen before that he's pretty much toast if he has a really long inning. No use wringing him dry when the game isn't out of hand and you want him to bounce back for the next one.

The good news: you have a chance to knock in runs. Bad news: the first two pitches are like this

Funniest thing about Colson's game is he produces a lot of those perfectly mis-hit balls that end up as very high probability hits. Some of you might remember that the first 2 or 3 weeks after his call-up, he produced fairly good numbers on the back of those kinds of balls before he finally started hitting for power.

When Davis got the extra rest a few weeks back, he said afterwards that he realized his body was really starting to break down a bit and he benefited from the extra days off. I got the impression that it wasn't his arm so much as the whole package. My guess is he's fighting the dog days right now.

I think Teel may have just used the wrong signal and had to eat it

That's a real questionable out of the baseline call

Man how could you miss that with sunglasses I thought those prevented any problems with the sun!!

Davis not sharp and lacking a little bit of velo so far. Hope he reels it in.

Tall left field wall covered in ads gives me a minor league vibe. Especially with the late afternoon lighting.

I continue to think that opposing teams try to bait us into running leads based on timing like that. Or else the Sox have a team philosophy of being very aggressive in stealing on a pitcher's cadence and it causes them to get burned more than I've ever seen.

Also despite what I said about Braden's arm looking weaker than expected, his defense overall has been way above expectation as he's catching everything and making it look easy as he does it. His jumps as measured by Statcast would rank #5 or #2 in MLB depending on which version of it you prefer. That's not the "he's raw but will get better later" guy we were told he would be. Offense for him isn't perfect but I'm very comfortable that he's the best RF option in the organization and he clearly isn't overwhelmed so I think you can reasonably believe he's getting good developmental reps in MLB as he currently posts league averageish production.

Just for the record, despite this talk about Romo, I don't think he was at fault for that wild pitch run. That was a really bad pitch and I think it hit home plate which made the bounce even more unpredictable.

I think what fathom means by salvaging is consistent with what you're saying. They see signs of life and want to give him a chance to play every day so he might get himself back to a competent level. I think the Sox don't have high hopes for Romo so they don't really mind if his low usage makes him worse.

Statcast data on Braden's arm has him averaging about 91mph on competitive throws, which is very good. And FWIW, those same metrics say he's holding runners better than the average RF. But the hardest throw has been 93mph, which is pretty unimpressive and certainly low for a player with a reputed 60-70 grade arm. On the showcase circuit he hit 100 on outfield throws which is more in line with what you'd expect to see on occasion from a guy with a gun out there. But you look at him throwing and it doesn't look like he's throwing it as hard as he can basically ever. He makes some throws that look impressive, especially on plays where there's no time to get momentum behind the throws — the ball comes out like a strong-armed 3B would throw it on a ball to his backhand side. But then on the few plays like that sac fly, it looks like he throws it with more concern about making it accurate. There's worse things you can do, but it has just left me wondering whether he's nursing some soreness or something.

As rotten as Romo has been, I just don't see them doing anything with him yet. Quero hasn't done anything to get called back up. They're not going to use a 40-man spot on Lee who is playing like crap in AAA. I don't know about Michael Turner's defense but his nice hitting stats in AAA look like a mirage per the Statcast data. I think the Sox are probably going to ride it out and hope Edgar shows some life down there.

I feel like Braden didn't get everything on that throw. In general, while he gets easy velocity on his throws, it feels like he just doesn't totally let it rip. I was hopeful he'd air it out there and get him but it's a tall ask. Hope Richards can end the rally here and the Sox won't be in too bad of shape. Teams are really playing about evenly in this one so far but the O's have been lucky enough to get all their production into one inning.

Dominant inning

Threw 3 pitches in the zone in the leadoff AB, ump missed two of them

Amazing that Drew Romo has already screwed Noah Schultz

Joe Rock is a giant left-hander with a funky throwing motion, I think it's obvious why the Sox were interested in him. It's like asking what somebody sees in Sydney Sweeney since she says dumb things sometimes.

I haven't really been a Peoples believer, so in principle trading him is fine by me. But I am definitely a little confused about the return. Even if you saw something in this kid you traded for, well, you probably could have had him for a small cash fee. I almost wonder if that's how the conversation between the teams started.

FWIW, yesterday Braden dove for a bloop off the bat of Isaac Collins and came up just short. Some folks thought he might have misplayed it since the ball hung up in the air for a long time. Statcast data is in: 5% catch probability, the first time Statcast has classified a ball hit to him as potentially catchable without him catching it. That's basically at the "only PCA can catch it" tier. So ultimately I'm fairly impressed that he was only a step from catching it and his ability to run down fly balls continues to impress, especially when you consider the scouting reports usually suggested that he didn't know what he was doing out there and would have to develop in order to be a good overall outfield defender. Interestingly, this is his highest difficulty catch so far: https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/sporty-videos?playId=2131e45a-c7a0-33f5-bc02-8a31eccd7a58 Such a good jump and speed that it looks like a routine out.