Jake

This is what the Sox tried to protect him from

Mune needs to catch that

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I for one don't think Hudson giving up runs has anything to do with Luis Castillo or Trevor Richards giving up runs.

I don't care that much about him giving up runs specifically. Fedde doesn't match up well against these guys and was ludicrously lucky in his last start. What I don't like is that now you've used Hudson in a game that you're losing big early. This means a worse pitcher may have to pitch later if the Sox come back.

Maybe we can put this opener stuff to bed now, Getzy.

IMO, best not to overthink it. Yeah, I think the Rangers seem like a worse team than the Astros. But let's just get in and enjoy the ride. Anybody can get lucky in a 3, 5, or 7 game series so I'll be hopeful but this team isn't built for the playoffs. I'm not inclined to game it out too far ahead as if it is going to matter a whole lot who the Sox play. If they are worthy, they'll beat any of those clowns.

I don't really understand what rooting interest the Sox should have. Why would we care who wins the AL West? I'd just prefer the second place team fall out of wildcard contention.

Castillo will 100% be on the team next season unless something blows up in spring training. This guy was just a little bad a couple months ago so we'll see what he might or might not be able to do to straighten things out. Pitchers can have a lot more longevity than hitters but age isn't nice to anybody. He ain't that old though. I'm curious where Castillo is mentally and whether letting him get his ass whooped is going to be helpful or unhelpful on that front. When you're just running a 5.00 ERA there's a lot of room for finger pointing and what if's. Not as much when you're barely able to pitch a single scoreless inning.

Saved the big guns for the rest of the series

Yep

No chance he makes it

With all this rest and making an appearance out of the pen, Castillo should not be averaging high 94/low 95 on his fastball. He's either not healthy or his mechanics are profoundly out of whack

Might have clipped the line, not sure if they will overturn it

FanGraphs wrote a nice little piece about the unusual season that Meidroth is having: https://blogs.fangraphs.com/chase-meidroth-is-swinging-even-softer-and-carrying-a-bigger-stick

It's crazy how that can be true and yet from what I read here, everybody except for Vargas and Grichuk sucks

Main thing I care about is developing the Sox core and not accidentally ruining the vibes of a great season by choking away a playoff berth. Sox are pretty well on their way to having the good ending. Overtaking Cleveland would be nice but not that important.

I'm going to have to ban you guys from scoreboard watching

Get Mune hot and not much else will matter

They traded Marcelo Mayer for Miller, has Miller's stock gone down post-trade?

Dick move by Isbel to not let that get past him

Noah's footwork on these throws to first makes me nervous

Cleveland brings in the pitcher who only walks and strikes guys out. Everybody is surprised the opponent strikes out after a walk

Was looking at some stuff on Noah. His stuff grades took a dive when he went on the IL with the knee issue. I think they weren't bluffing on that one. It has mostly recovered in the couple MLB bullpen appearances.