Jake

The people are asking for Jordan Hicks to be closer. Grant their wish!

All according to plan

Pinch hit Gonzo here?

Sox catching play has been terrible, I'm happy for Kyle to take some lumps in the majors where we get a chance at a little upside and he's surrounded by our best training staff and facilities.

The good news is these games are all winnable. Just haven't been winning them. No obvious talent difference between the teams. Sox have the disadvantage that they were not constructed to win games and the one little thing they did to win now has not worked at all (referring to Seranthony of course).

Well, you can see why we thought Murphy would be covering late innings for us at the beginning of the season. His stuff is excellent.

Not normally a big factor but Peters has a very weak throwing arm

Kyle didn't remotely expect the runner to go in standing up

Don't think we got the tag there

The modern MLB GM is very much hands on about these kinds of decisions. Manager gets to have an opinion and share it with his GM, but manager is going to do what the GM wants. Will doesn't even set the batting order, per his comments this past offseason.

Not setting Seranthony up for success using him with those batters coming up either. Really need to find him spots where he has platoon advantage. FWIW, I'm not sure that Will really has authority to remove Seranthony from the closer role.

Not an ideal start

Another game where Grant tries to make the save extra difficult for Seranthony, lol

I think this move shows the Sox are not giving up on using this as an important development season. Quero, IMO, is the better MLBer today than Drew Romo. But as long as Teel is ready for the workload, Teel is going to get 80%+ of the reps behind the plate. And the difference between Quero and Romo isn't really that big, regardless. But Quero is unlike Romo in that he's young and has shown more offensive potential. Moreover, he didn't spend much time in the high minors. So there's a reasonable expectation that he could actually get better by playing every day in Charlotte, again unlike Romo who has shown you who he is both at AAA and MLB. Believe it or not, once upon a time in the minors Edgar hit for some power! Maybe he can get his swagger back a little bit against pitchers who aren't overwhelming him.

Any type of decision you see on a regular basis — bunting, pinch hitting, player positioning, bullpen usage — you should assume that they are coming from Getz. Front office is deciding on the philosophy of these things, hopefully based on some kind of careful analysis, and then Venable is asked to execute the philosophy in the games (and make sure the players buy in).

I'm not really feeling it. Sox had terrible pitching matchups in the first two games. Each game ended up being not far from a coin flip. And it helps that this year's team has made it clear that a loss today doesn't mean anything about how tomorrow will go. Plus, soon it will be Teel day.

I think the evaluation is "did the plane to Chicago land safely?"

Forgot about Gameday 3D being a thing. Yeah I think he might have been toast with an accurate throw. Was close to the base and moving the wrong way. Not to say I think Braden did anything wrong.

I wonder where the runner on third base was on that final play. Any chance if Braden just fielded the ball on a short hop that he might have been able to get the force at home?

One thing with Seranthony is I've primarily thought of his issues this season as being about command. And maybe that is all it is. But I'm surprised to see that the whiff rate on his sweeper has been cut in half year over year. That's been his bread and butter pitch that is basically unhittable. It's not getting bombed or anything but it's not the reliable whiff machine it was in the past. I'm not really sure why either because the pitch's shape and speed is basically identical relative to last year — it's got plus-plus break.

Splitter is nasty (are there any bad splitters?) but he usually has serious issues commanding it and it's not a great option to righties for the most part IMO. That said he did throw one to Lee on an 0-1 count I think it was. Don't remember seeing it again though.

Peoples might be part of the solution in the long run but I think you're wasting your mental energy if you're thinking there would be many different win-loss outcomes if he was on the Sox.

Well, Davis Martin isn't dead is the message I take away from this one. Sox were a few bounces of the ball away from winning each of these games. Won't be surprised at all if they roll through the Guards. (Won't be surprised if they don't, either)

A fitting end there

Yeah Taylor looked bad and has generally struggled with multi-inning appearances.