I hate to say it but the Sox could be out of first come next Monday.

You just can't lose this game. You have to beat the teams your supposed to especially this time of year and your in a race for the playoffs. And you just wasted a great start by your No1 pitcher.

Now you absolutely have to win the next two.

5 minutes ago, Jake said:

Tough loss. Great start from Burke. You hit some homers. Reds get 4 lucky hits in a row all in one inning. Then they hit two lazy flyouts to beat you with the Manfred man. Outplayed them in this one but you'll have to do the next two with a worse starter and no closer.

I was listening to the radio the other day and Len said they will never get rid of the extra inning rule because fans love it so much....your what hurts?? I cannot believe I'm in the minority thinking that phantom runner rule is bullshit.

5 minutes ago, fathom said:

Some of these pitchers need to miss more bats. It’s why a lot of these bloops are taking place. Meanwhile guys like Colson and Murakami are striking out at insane rates.

Hawk was rather notoriously full of s%*# (god bless him), but there's some real insight into his proclamation that "you make your own luck." If you strike everyone out, you're not going to see a whole lot of bad luck. And when you're batting, your strikeouts are going to lock you out of any good luck. Of course you're always searching for some balance since we know you can go too far in the other direction.

1 minute ago, PaleAleSox said:

They hit two fly balls. Meh. It’s stupid.

Yeah that’s why this loss doesn’t really anger me. They played fine. They pitched well. The Reds just did a good job capitalizing on some good fortune.

I'll say it again....Acuna was awful this whole game. He got a good hand when the lineups were announced and I thought "this guy is popular?"

A serious playoff team doesn't field offensive blackholes like Romo and Acuña anywhere near their lineup

Edited 1 hour ago1 hr by MexSoxFan#1

1 minute ago, wegner said:

I was listening to the radio the other day and Len said they will never get rid of the extra inning rule because fans love it so much....your what hurts?? I cannot believe I'm in the minority thinking that phantom runner rule is bullshit.

I'm not a fan of an endless ballgame but I'm not in love with how a lot of these Manfred games play out. No perfect way to do it I guess, especially since teams seem unwilling to leave a pitcher out there for long which is what tended to bring extra games to a close in the past (reliever would end up wearing out and giving up runs)

This game is on Venable. I know Hudson didn't exactly get hit hard, but it made no sense to use him in the 8th. 4 righties in a row coming up including 2 who murder lefties at the back end of it. It's like Will didn't want him to possibly face Stewart when he took him out for Taylor.

Then he made the same mistake in the 10th, using another lefty against the same part of the order. Toglia and Elly had no issues hitting deep enough fly balls to get the run in.

Venable has been god awful on this homestand. From the Schultz incident, to using Richards to close, and now this. We lose a game we were in control of and now we probably won't see Taylor the rest of the series cause we just wasted 2 innings from him.

Just ground the hell out of my teeth.

2 minutes ago, wegner said:

Acuna looked awful all game

Who could have hit for Acuna? Sam did not cut down on his swing with 2 strikes. We needed to move the runner to third at least. Not doing well with Manfred ball.

14 minutes ago, BigHurt3515 said:

damn man, what an AB but ends in nothing

Yeah, this one might be the worst loss of the season

9 minutes ago, fathom said:

Detroit is the best team in the division.

I have a feeling they’re going to find that out the hard way this weekend.

3 minutes ago, fathom said:

Blame that on the idiot catcher

I’ve been screaming at the catchers all year for horrible challenges and non-challenges, but I’m not even that mad at Quero on that one. He made a decision to throw behind the runner before the pitch was thrown, and it was once again bad luck that it happened to be a pitch he needed to challenge. When you’re in catch and throw mode, you probably don’t even know exactly where the pitch is.

No more Pope nights

1 minute ago, hankchifan said:

Who could have hit for Acuna? Sam did not cut down on his swing with 2 strikes. We needed to move the runner to third at least. Not doing well with Manfred ball.

I feel like Sam was doing everything he could to make contact against a pitcher he apparently wasn't seeing too well. Amazing job by Pagan to never give in and throw him ball 4 because clearly Sam was just trying to hang in until he got the ball 4.

2 minutes ago, wegner said:

I'll say it again....Acuna was awful this whole game. He got a good hand when the lineups were announced and I thought "this guy is popular?"

I hate Acuña

Great glove and speed but a blackhole on offense.

Alright… who fucked up our winning streak and Doyle’s leadoff homer?

I was able to watch but was not available to join today’s thread.

Which one of you did this??

Yuk

7 minutes ago, fathom said:

Two critical calls they didn’t challenge in the 8th and 9th. They’re so bad at this.

Meanwhile the Reds challenged any close pitch with just 1 challenge left and got 3 overturned.

I love Sam, but he failed to get the runner over. Nice AB but with Quero left standing at 2b, that’s a failed AB. Fouled off several cookies.

I’m a strong Will supporter but he’s had a rough couple of weeks. He treats handedness like a religion except one it comes to his favorites. His favorites, aka Grich, is like the last guy you lose your religion for.

I could see Acuna getting it figured out and becoming a nice player. But if the Sox could find a utility guy who can actually hit lefty pitching (Acuna has generally not had platoon splits as a pro, not to mention the overall poor production), it's probably time to pull the plug. Lots of chatter on Twitter about Jorge Mateo who also doesn't really hit lefties any better than righties but is probably a slight upgrade over Acuna.

1 minute ago, Jake said:

I'm not a fan of an endless ballgame but I'm not in love with how a lot of these Manfred games play out. No perfect way to do it I guess, especially since teams seem unwilling to leave a pitcher out there for long which is what tended to bring extra games to a close in the past (reliever would end up wearing out and giving up runs)

Part of the point Len was actually making was that he would like regular extra inning rules but after 11 or 12 innings, just make it a tie. I don't disagree with that.

I hate the Manfred Man but I guess I hate it more because our Sox seem to suck at it so badly.

1 minute ago, Jake said:

I could see Acuna getting it figured out and becoming a nice player. But if the Sox could find a utility guy who can actually hit lefty pitching (Acuna has generally not had platoon splits as a pro, not to mention the overall poor production), it's probably time to pull the plug. Lots of chatter on Twitter about Jorge Mateo who also doesn't really hit lefties any better than righties but is probably a slight upgrade over Acuna.

Acuna’s swing is way, way too wild. He is a bad hitter.

Just now, wegner said:

Part of the point Len was actually making was that he would like regular extra inning rules but after 11 or 12 innings, just make it a tie. I don't disagree with that.

I hate the Manfred Man but I guess I hate it more because our Sox seem to suck at it so badly.

Too many idiots complain about the length of games

1 minute ago, fathom said:

Acuna’s swing is way, way too wild. He is a bad hitter.

Yeah I don't ever see him figuring it out. He just tries to pull every pitch and always swings over it. He had a nice stretch but has been pretty bad recently.