mmmmmbeeer

He probably threw less than 15 pitches last night. He was definitely available.

Scouting report against the Sox pen is clearly wait for the heat and go the other way. Just every game, we see teams doing it. Need to attack the top of the zone with the heat more often and throw more breaking balls for strikes instead of chases.

Just start going with the softball rover in play when Bummer is in. Getting out of hand!

Love watching the kid hit, but sit yo ass down.

nearly 30 pitches. this is yet ANOTHER reason Kopech shouldn't have been pulled.

On a scale of 1-10, how pissed is Kopech? I'm going 8.8.

This is fine.

What the hell?!?!

Convince Benetti isn't reading this thread as the game goes on.

That's twice in less than a week, Joe. C'mon.

STRONG disagree. I'm enjoying this more than I did Stone and Len.

The only hole in the Sox lineup when healthy is backup C and MAYBE a part-time DH if you're not comfortable platooning some combination of Vaughn/Engel/Eloy covering RF, LF and DH. You don't trade valuable assets in year 1 of a multi-year championship window for bench players, especially for what it would cost for a reliable power bat that can play the field when needed. I'm frustrated as all hell, too, but injuries aren't Rick Hahn's fault. ETA: You could say we could've used a second baseman at the deadline, an upgrade over Hernandez, but I'm struggling to find an option outside maybe Kris Bryant, who would have cost the farm.

Didn't see the replay until this post, so thanks, and interesting article. While Kimbrel's pitch was absolute garbage, notice that Seby wasn't even leaning toward the outside for the breaking ball. He was essentially in an upright position, giving him absolutely zero chance of getting to that ball. If he's been lined up outside with his legs ready to move quickly outside, I think he has a decent chance of getting to the ball, if not just knocking it down.

Hendriks was a bridge guy for a long time before closing. Additionally, he's learned the art of slapping himself on the ass to get his adrenaline pumping if he's in a low leverage situation and doesn't have his good shit. You ever seen Kimbrel slap his own ass in the 8th? That should tell you all you need to know about moving him into a bridge role.

Don't blame LaRussa. I'm sure Robert has a standing green light. Blame Jose for absolutely abysmal execution (again).

For as good of a hitter as Jose is, he sure can be dumb sometimes. Why is he trying to pull the ball so often when a man is on first? Deja vu all over again...and again...and again.

Exactly zero times. Closest we got was when Engel, Lu, and Eloy all returned and were playing but we were missing still missing Yas.

Any way to find his stats against sliders from UC-Berkley? I'm curious if he has just never really recognized the pitch well throughout his career or if the quality of MLB sliders is what is throwing him off? I doubt there are any hitters in the league who hit sliders better than they hit fastballs so you'd expect some dip in performance but the numbers you've presented are ugly, to say the least.

Props to the crowd for booing him. I mean, I don't think he deserves to get booed, personally, but rest assured Liam didn't like that shit. That should light a fire under his ass.

Crazy that in mid-August we're still having to guess how things line up out of the pen with a 1 or 2 run lead.

Dude is going to be worth a ton when he hits FA given he's carrying a well above average hit tool with the flexibility to play so many positions competently.

Don't need him unless he beats Rodon back from the IL. Keep him away from Tony or our record will suffer.

Likely playoff teams and the order I LEAST want to face them: 1. Astros 2. Yankees 3. Rays 4. A's 5. Red Sox 6. Blue Jays Let's hope NYY get knocked out of the wild card slot.

I mean, there are some teams that are just horrible match-ups. The Yankees are a nightmare for Sox pitching. They're patient as all hell, feast on fastballs with HUGE power, and seem to intimidate the Sox a bit just by being the Yankees. I'm not going to worry until we see us look especially weak against other good teams this month. I put little to no value in looking at our current record against teams over .500 considering the injuries we've had.

I hope Gio can get his slider working today or it's going to be a loooonnnnngggg afternoon. Yankees will be sitting dead red and let the changeups go.