caulfield12

Red Sox announcers now questioning why Ventura had to be forced by Ramirez to make that appeal in the bottom of the 9th. Walk Ramirez to face Konerko? Interesting, whichever way they go. Konerko 0 for 4, 3 's but it works out for the Red Sox anyway. Sigh. Wonder if that will end up being our best chance to win this game??

QUOTE (flavum @ Jul 10, 2014 -> 05:07 PM) Hey Beckham, how about you make yourself useful this inning. Here we go. 1 for his last 30. Only one sacrifice, and only 8 on the season for the entire team. Bunted it right at Miller, but got the job done. Off the lip, where the grass meets the dirt. Walking Abreu to face Viciedo. No brainer. Would they Red Sox have walked Abreu even with Eaton on 1st? BTW, it would also be quite helpful if Eaton had the ability to steal a base in these situations...

Well, that's a pleasant surprise. Extras. Belisario gets Napoli, Putnam and Rienzo are in the pen. When's the last time Rienzo pitched? Seems like a month ago.

Ventura with his Tony LaRussa bullpen approach this inning. Working so far. But bringing in cold pitchers who aren't in rhythm always has a way of backfiring. http://espn.go.com/mlb/player/batvspitch/_...130/koji-uehara White Sox a sizzling 4/33 before that inning against Uehara. Konerko 2/6, Dunn and Alexei Ramirez have hits and that's it. DeAza 0/3 with 2 K's. Still not getting no Dunn appearance there, unless his wrist/hand is hurting again.

QUOTE (BigHurt3515 @ Jul 10, 2014 -> 04:54 PM) Should have been De Aza then you put Conor at 3B and De Aza in LF and Viciedo in RF... But Robin doesn't think that much Completely forgot about DeAza there as well.

Is Ventura trying to send a message to Hahn that his options at the bottom of the line-up SUCK? Garcia and Flowers don't belong on a major league roster. Sierra's MEHH for a fourth OF, but you can live with him.

Pedroia, Ortiz and Napoli against Webb, this is going to be interesting. Once again, why aren't we going to use Adam Dunn in this inning when the best chance is to get a lead and try to save it before the middle of Boston's line-up can put up a run? Conor Gillaspie has to be the most pleasant surprise this season, along with Noesi/Putnam/Petricka. Unless you consider Abreu a surprise.

Wow. POWER SHOW. Geoff Blum-esque homer there just inside the Pesky Pole. Quick, Red Sox, how much will you give us for Conor. Would be an absolute monster playing in Fenway with the balls off the monster (albeit lacking great speed) and the short porch in RF. BOSTON fans shocked. Lester loses his decision, just like Sale the previous day.

Is Dunn hurt? Excuse me, but wouldn't that be EXACTLY the time we need a 2 run homer? Gillaspie for Sierra. Guessing Dunn will hit for Flowers. Or Garcia. Does anyone have the splits for Konerko and Dunn against Uehara?

What was it last time...playing cards in the clubhouse instead of prepping pitchers and watching too many University of Florida Gators football games? Who was the Giants' pitcher who complained about him the most, can't remember? It was a fifth starter type of guy, I remember that, not one of their best pitchers at the time.

Viciedo and Beckham doing their best in this game making it difficult if not impossible to trade them. Sigh. Supposedly, the glare/sunlight in the first half of the game was terrible, which is part of the reason for all the Lester K's. But the Red Sox guys say this is the best curveball Lester had all season long.

QUOTE (flavum @ Jul 10, 2014 -> 04:32 PM) Hawk call Asians "Orientals" two games in a row. You would think that gets corrected after one. UGH. And we wonder why we have a hard time attracting Hispanic, African-American and Asian fans. Not just the White Sox, but baseball in general (actually, there's a ton of Asian MLB fans in California and NY, but doesn't seem to be a huge presence in Chicago, or mostly on the NorthSide until the Fukudome thing).

White Sox not exactly making much of an effort to charge back into this one. Things won't get any easier against Uehara. Webb fastball a tick or two better now...95/96 ish. 98 MPH fastball gets KILLT the other direction, almost destroys Garcia.

Wow...they might be willing to trade for Tyler Flowers now. NOT. Hello, JL, Mozeliak calling...how much do you want to rake us over the coals for Jason Castro for?

When is the press conference in Chicago scheduled? On the 18th, when the team comes back from the ASB? Or earlier, so they can get him out to Winston-Salem?

Red Sox radio guys questioning Ventura for pulling Sale "early" yesterday. They don't know how many pages at SoxTalk would pop-up (complete meltdown) had Ventura not conservatively/cautiously pulled him and he went down to injury in order to hold or complete what many would consider a meaningless victory in a rebuilding year. White Sox outhitting the Red Sox 7-2, haha. Of course. 4th straight start for Lester of 7 innings. He's placed himself at the top of the FA pitching list, maybe ahead of Scherzer, since his demands won't be QUITE as ridiculous as Scherzer's.

Let's face it...falling out of the Wild Card race now by losing five straight puts Rick Hahn squarely in the sell mode. Which is the right play. Then they can come back to fighting for .500 over the last 70+ games. I'm sure changing the catching situation (whatever they do) will breathe some new life into this team, just like it did for the Red Sox (see the WEEI anti-AJ article)...there's no doubt in my mind the Red Sox would be looking at a four game sweep had they not made that move. They just would have laid down and died with a 4-0 deficit in the late innings instead of fighting back. Well-timed, Cherington.

QUOTE (fathom @ Jul 10, 2014 -> 04:11 PM) I can't recall the last time the Sox played the same catcher in all 4 games of a series. You would think Tyler Flowers was the greatest catcher ever to get as much playing time as he has. Oh well, Quintana has to get over his 6th inning, 3rd time through the order scuffles to become a star. A not so subtle message to AJ Pierzynski that he's not needed, lol.

This will be another big test. Either we lay down and collapse going into the break or we fight back. Just go away, Tyler Flowers.

QUOTE (Capn12 @ Jul 10, 2014 -> 04:06 PM) And that's that. So we go from having a good shot to sweep a 4 game series from a dead Red Sox team, to splitting at best, and wasting a great Sale effort. Up until that inning, a great Quintana effort as well. He does have a propensity to kind of fall apart in situations like that, when there are some bad calls or questionable calls from the umps or particularly when the defense gives up extra outs and puts him under extra pressure. Not saying he's not a #2 starter, just that he doesn't have the dominating type of stuff to extricate himself out of those situations as often as an ace does.

Whether you want to blame Ventura, Cooper, Flowers or Jose for not shaking him off...that was just dumb.

Why did we just throw Ortiz five street curveballs with a base open???? 3-1 curve? WHAT?

Yeah, luckily we will have the huge assistance of my g/f (soon to be wife's) family, especially the mother...and her best friend. So like four parents...especially when we're working, which is normal in China, no such thing as daycare really. The current line of thinking is to spend at least 3-5 years in China to build all the pre-school skills in Chinese and English. I'm conflicted about living in a country like Singapore, but that's the most popular expat location these days because of the safety and standard of living...maybe continuing to teach in an international school and the child would have free tuition, which is probably the biggest factor with the cost of education these days, both abroad and in the U.S. My international school now costs about $8000 USD per year....the one I taught at the previous two years (near Shanghai) was double that. And, if you're married, the health care/delivery costs in China for a baby are practically zero.

QUOTE (Dick Allen @ Jul 10, 2014 -> 09:22 AM) The 2005 White Sox scored almost the exact same percentage of their runs from home runs as previous teams. You need power in USCF. It plays as an average park to even slightly pitcher friendly except for home runs. If you put this year's Royals team into USCF for 81 games, they would struggle to finish at .500 IMO.

Must protect "Red Sox Nation" mystique at all costs. It's getting more annoying than the "Butler Way." Big Papi's defensive, self-serving, "woe is me" rant about the steroids issue is just one more example...