Should not have hit Pearce for the pitcher with none on and two out in whatever the hell inning it was. Not a high enough leverage spot to burn your last capable bench bat.
I am nearly certain that there is no rule in place as of this time however expect one this offseason with the increasing use of openers. It really isn't likely to occur as your opponent can simply see who is warming up to start the game. I suppose you could warm up a righty and a lefty as lineup cards are exchanged but in tonight's case Roberts knows at the very least it will be a lefty.
Lots of 20/20 hindsight here. Especially on the road, you can't save players for opportunities that may not come around. You don't know that the game's going 18 innings, you need to fire everything to try and end it as soon as possible. It was just the previous game where a 2-out/0-on situation spun into a game-deciding rally. You can't let any opportunities go by in favor of a future one that may not ever exist.
This is where I am as well. As a lifelong 46 year old Sox fan, I can say that there were many talented Sox teams in the '80s and '90s which I would have relished to see this type of managing and competing. For much of my Sox fandom, it was way too many selfish/non-competitive players combined with "managing-not-to-lose" managers.
Does Roberts go back to his weaker, RHH lineup used in Fenway?? < i hope so>
I’m pretty confident in them too. Our pitching has shut them down for nearly all of the series. It took them 18 innings against a depleted batting order for them to win a single game. The Sox have been at their best when bouncing back from potential disappointment.
It was the 11th inning. He hit for Kimbrel with Betts next. So just let Kimbrel whiff and then replace him?
The loss sucked, but I was so proud to be a fan of this incredible team and their unwavering support for each other. They're not perfect in every aspect, but in the context of the SSS that is the playoffs, there have been some unexpected performances that came out of nowhere. Who predicted the kind of bullpen performance we have seen with all hands on deck? Amazing performance by a special team.
Muncy, Bellinger and Freese are all in the lineup tonight, there was no way Roberts was doing that stupid game 1 and 2 lineup again.
Seriously. These threads are orders of magnitude more embarrassing than Kinsler’s performance last night. Good fucking god you stupid whiners.
That's actually not best case scenario, interesting enough.
That's clearly the best case scenario and probably way too rosy. More likely is that they lose the series before it ever gets back to Boston, which sucks. Damn, I wish last night didn't count triple, but those are the rules.
Or they can go 5 games and wrap it up in LA. Honestly, I’m not sure how anyone can doubt this team right now. They’ve battled all year. We figured LA was going to get one. But I get the optics of losing a game like that. They’ve put bad losses behind them this year. I expect them to come out swinging.
I know you have an act to keep up but this one is over the top. Did you see the stuff DeadlySplitter posted and figured you needed to one up him?
See, I think there are a lot of things that could have gone worse than the bullpen being insanely effective. It's further proof that this alleged weakness is now a real strength of this team, and should give confidence going forward.
Merloni stole this "nugget" from Pedro on mlbn, last night, after the game. He asked Muncy about it.
Dude, if there’s one thing you don’t want, it’s pointing folks to your gamethread work.
Nice troll job. They have a chance tonight and then come back with Sale, Price, and Eovaldi. They are winning this.
See, this is what I was thinking last night before I finally went to sleep. Win or lose, Eovaldi played the role of Papi. By example, he told everyone to get ready for war.
I'm reminded of how the Reds rolled over all fetal-like after game 6 in 1975.
I really liked Merloni's other nugget about that AB too. After Muncy nearly hooked it around the foul pole in a long AB there were several Dodgers who jumped out into foul territory to get a good look in anticipation of a celebration. There is no rule against this however Cora left the dugout and spent nearly 10 seconds chatting to the HP umpire about it......not to argue a rule but to buy time for Eovaldi to gather himself after giving up a rocket that almost ended the game right there. He did gather himself and K's Muncy a pitch or two later. This is the part of managing that has zero to do with X's and O's or any analytic preso.
