ALDS vs. MFY—Buckle Up
- Thread starter RedOctober3829
- Start date
You guys are cute. I hope the simulations can simulate Voit’s line drive into Chris Sale’s fragile shoulder that dribbles to “X” who airmails it into Alex Cora’s dumb squawking face.
Sale’s shoulder is further than RF in the Bidet, I’m not sure Voit can hit it that far.
this was a weird game. the Yankees had no XBH until the Judge HR, while we managed to squeak out a win due to a couple huge XBH in the early innings.
we successfully got Boone to panic and take out Happ, who the top of the lineup crushed twice around, but then nothing at all against the weaker part of their pen. I think a lot of this though was the shitty umpiring - giving 6 inches outside the zone all night mostly to the Yanks but not us.
Cora made really curious moves - Workman is presumably the 25th guy. maybe a bit over his head tonight but this is correctable. Porcello to get through the 8th was inspired though and Kimbrel was terrific - Judge just guessed right on a tripling of the offspeed and had a really impressive opposite field stroke. Nothing you can do there. Kimbrel striking out the side to their heart of the order (Hicks out aside) with a 1 run lead is extremely encouraging.
as noted in the gamethread the Yanks got a lot of BABIP help. the game may have been a more comfortable 5-2 or 5-3 without it. but you're begging for trouble when you walk people.
the silver lining I'd say overall is that just about everything went wrong after the 3rd inning but we still won. Devers will also be tried at 3rd against a righty starter, and I'd like to see Holt in there but wouldn't expect it.
we successfully got Boone to panic and take out Happ, who the top of the lineup crushed twice around, but then nothing at all against the weaker part of their pen. I think a lot of this though was the shitty umpiring - giving 6 inches outside the zone all night mostly to the Yanks but not us.
Cora made really curious moves - Workman is presumably the 25th guy. maybe a bit over his head tonight but this is correctable. Porcello to get through the 8th was inspired though and Kimbrel was terrific - Judge just guessed right on a tripling of the offspeed and had a really impressive opposite field stroke. Nothing you can do there. Kimbrel striking out the side to their heart of the order (Hicks out aside) with a 1 run lead is extremely encouraging.
as noted in the gamethread the Yanks got a lot of BABIP help. the game may have been a more comfortable 5-2 or 5-3 without it. but you're begging for trouble when you walk people.
the silver lining I'd say overall is that just about everything went wrong after the 3rd inning but we still won. Devers will also be tried at 3rd against a righty starter, and I'd like to see Holt in there but wouldn't expect it.
also the Yankees lineup is not THAT good, especially if Hicks is out for a prolonged period. Stanton can be pitched to. Voit can be pitched to. Torres has hit the rookie wall and chasing out of the zone.
I mean they broke the HR record in a season.. sure they can be pitched to but it's a scary lineup. Same could be said about ours.
Pete AbrahamVerified account @PeteAbe 56s56 seconds ago
Steven Wright was not available because of a sore knee and was taken for an MRI. Status to be determined.
Steven Wright was not available because of a sore knee and was taken for an MRI. Status to be determined.
Right? So, ok, we have that one taken care of now. What else should we talk about? Rick Porcello, bullpen ace?
Oh shit. If that's real, maybe they need to let EdRo pitch in NY (ugh) and let Eovaldi be the relief ace. But it sure doesn't seem like that's what is happening based on tonight.
They may have Eovaldi start Game 3 and have Porcello be the relief ace, with EdRo available situationally as a lefty out of the pen.
I'm not convinced that Cora is as sold on Wright as a relief ace as many people here seem to be.
Just for the record, my appetite for drama has been duly sated, and I hereby give my permission for the Sox to win a couple of 13-2 laughers now.
And there just aren't that many left-handed hitters in the AL. The Yankees have Gardner and Didi. The Indians have Brantley and Alonso. The Astros are mostly righties as well. All the big threats are righties. A LOOGY is not necessary.
And, more importantly, he had no split this year.
EDIT--and historically has actually been better against righties
I was hoping for more from Kinsler after they got him but now, I'd rather have Holt starting at 2B. Sandy's bat is bad enough, Kinsler has become a pop-up machine.
The only role for him is if a starter gets the ax early and Wright can maybe do some multiple innings. If that’s what Cora is thinking, I’m with him. A knuckleballer against this Yankee line up? No thanks. It might be a moot point with the injury.
The fact that we saw Porcello instead of Eovaldi tonight suggests Eovaldi is starting game three. Unless Porcello pitchount was more or less in his mid-start side-session range. That might have been why Cora took him out after two outs and the swinging bunt.
he shut down this yankee lineup at full strength for 3 innings at yankee stadium 2 weeks ago...
Looks like the Sox have a mild lineup advantage, a mild starting pitching advantage, and a big bullpen disadvantage. Who knew?
In reality...
Sox won by a run. Sale pitched well. Barnes got the job done. Kimbrel gave up a solo homer in the 9th and then struck out Voit to end it.
How about that?
He definitely threw less than a side session (not counting bullpen/warm up work). With two days off, he should be fine for game 3.
Evoldi can pitch an inning plus out of the pen tomorrow and be good for game 4 after 2 days rest.
Given the bullpen issues and Wright's possible injury, I think we'll see starters pitch out of the pen between starts throughout the playoffs.
Agree wholeheartedly. The bottom third of the lineup is like getting becalmed out at sea. Nothing happens. I'd start Devers too, but replace him for defensive purposes at the first excuse.
Wright most likely off the playoff roster
https://www.nbcsports.com/boston/red-sox/sources-steven-wright-likely-be-replaced-playoff-roster
https://www.nbcsports.com/boston/red-sox/sources-steven-wright-likely-be-replaced-playoff-roster
Yes and I’ll fill you all in tomorrow if anyone is remotely interested.
Edit: I did it before finding out about Wright, and if I recall, he does make an appearance in my simulated game. Oh well, it is what it is.
That actually makes more sense. Porcello pitches an inning today, then starts game three. Eovaldi pitches an inning tomorrow and starts game four... if there is a game four.
Edit: it’s already “tomorrow” but you know what I mean.
This is true. He also gave up a couple of hits in his last appearance against the Yanks at Fenway, including a bomb to Stanton that might still be rising.
Don’t get me wrong, I’d rather have him on the roster than not have him. Just a little leery of that knuckleball in high leverage situations.
Not the first to agree, but I agree with this. In a closer game I think the bullpen is now Barnes, Kimbrell, and guys who usually start.
It was great to win, but the bullpen usage/performance from last night isn’t sustainable. We all knew the bullpen was a concern coming in and they didn’t do anything to alleviate any of those concerns. They did not throw enough strikes and spiked way too many breaking balls. We kept saying that Dombrowski did not do enough to fortify the pen in order to have a better playoff pen and it manifested itself in Game 1 of the playoffs. They barely held a 5-0 lead in the 6th for Christ sakes and had to go to the Game 3 starter by the 8th because he couldn’t trust anyone else to get the ball to Kimbrel.
The news on Wright is really unfortunate, both near term (this series) and potentially long term (it seems like it's going to be a chronic problem). If he's replaced during this series, it also means he's out of the ALCS as well.
Obviously everyone would like a better bullpen but I think it is conceivable they could get by with a pen of Kimbrel, Barnes, ERod and "starter not starting for a few days'.
The guys who do start need to be pretty good and they need to score runs as it is unlikely they will win many 1-0 games with that approach but it can be done.
I'm also not ready to abandon Brasier after one bad outing, he'll get more chances and hopefully he'll be better.
The approach isn't sustainable over a season but they only need to win 6 more games to get to the WS and if they can do that they should have a pretty significant advantage over whoever they play.
The guys who do start need to be pretty good and they need to score runs as it is unlikely they will win many 1-0 games with that approach but it can be done.
I'm also not ready to abandon Brasier after one bad outing, he'll get more chances and hopefully he'll be better.
The approach isn't sustainable over a season but they only need to win 6 more games to get to the WS and if they can do that they should have a pretty significant advantage over whoever they play.
They certainly can’t win 1-0 games especially if the starter comes out in the 6th. As you said the offense needs to score a ton of runs to keep the white knuckle situations to a minimum. It looked like the relievers were nervous as their breaking balls were mostly spiked and that’s due to gripping the ball tightly. Hopefully it gets better.
Kimbrel looked great last night. The homer was on a knee high curve on the inside part of the plate that Judge somehow drove out to RIGHT. Not much you can do about that.
He blew Stanton and Voit away and got four outs. Stud performance.
I agree that they can use starters to help in relief. Porcello looked great last night too. We just need guys to throw strikes. This constantly falling behind 2-0 and 3-1 crap is getting old really quickly.
Still... great way to start the series. Hope Price can deliver tonight and the Sox smack Tanaka around.
He blew Stanton and Voit away and got four outs. Stud performance.
I agree that they can use starters to help in relief. Porcello looked great last night too. We just need guys to throw strikes. This constantly falling behind 2-0 and 3-1 crap is getting old really quickly.
Still... great way to start the series. Hope Price can deliver tonight and the Sox smack Tanaka around.
I agree that this was vintage Kimbrel. The fastball, particularly, was electric, really rocketing through the zone. I just hope he can sustain it through three weeks of hard use.
And I agree with RedOctober that the other relievers looked nervous, particularly Brasier. This doesn't mean anybody is "weak". But it was his first postseason appearance ever, and he did look like he was overdosing on adrenaline a tad bit. That's OK -- he got it out of his system, they won anyway, and there didn't appear to be anything wrong with him mechanically. His velocity was fine, his breaking pitch was doing what it does. His command was just nonexistent. Hopefully that's a one-time thing.