8/23/23 - Boston at Houston
- Thread starter brandonchristensen
- Start date
Kenley? Against the Astros? A guy who has gone more than one inning one time in the last calendar year plus?
Either way, Pivetta was dominant and Winckowski threw over 20 pitches last night.
This was a stupid decision by Alex Cora.
Maybe Martin also. He threw more pitches than usual.
We turn our lonely eyes to Bello.
Let's agree to disagree. They have a plan for each of these pitchers and plans for what happens in extras. At the very least, Pivetta wasn't expecting to pitch the ninth and got warmed up quickly. We don't know if they have some limits on his usage or anything of that nature. If we find out that Cora simply didn't like the way Pivetta looked or was galaxy braining everything then I will agree it was a bad decision. But I need more information before giving the guy grief for his decision making after the Jansen injury.
I'm not an argumentative sort and I try to avoid the game threads except to be mockingly pessimistic. But what if Jansen was pitching 9 and wink had already been told he was pitching 10 if it came? Then when Kenley goes down he doesnt want to go to a Wink yet and tells pivetta to go end this inning.
I mean I am not a huge Cora defender but this isnt all played on paper. If Cora had told the players what to expect he should stick with that.
Fair enough. And the good news is that maybe Pivetta is available tomorrow.
All's well that ends well and all.
Guys, Pivetta pitched five innings on Sunday. He hasn’t pitched on two days rest since June, when he took over the quasi starter role, except that one time he after he had the quick 8th inning one inning performance. He was a break glass player tonight, but no fucking way you send up him back out with a three run lead. If Winc and Bernardino can’t close the door, you’re fucked any way. Jansen’s injury may be game over for the season. Frying Pivetta leaves zero doubt.
I get people being frustrated with Cora sometimes, but for me this discussion is exactly backwards tonight.. Pivetta has been throwing 80 pitches a game for two months. You don’t pitch a guy like that on 2 days rest in the regular season. That is playoff game 7 shit.
The fact that Cora brought him in at all, when he actually had a couple of guys in the bullpen, was a desperate move. It’s actually contrary to the whole Cora narrative on SOSH. He made a desperation move in a difficult situation in August and Pivetta got his two guys.
Pivetta was not available going into tonight. Cora pitched him anyway.
I was away from SOSH at the end of the game, and when I came here after, I was kind of thinking that Cora would get some kudos for going against brand and making a desperation move in August to get 2 huge outs. I did not expect people to be saying they wanted him back out after the Sox broke it open.
I was laying in bed last night and remembered this. Obviously you are right, so I am here to issue my mea culpa.
I think Cora brings in his best reliever (Jansen) with no margin for error (tie game, bottom of the 9th) because there's a chance that someone not as good (theoretically, everybody else) will get a shot with a bigger margin for error; maybe like a 3run lead.
And, since I don't start from the proposition that the entire coaching staff is sitting in a strip joint playing with themselves until 8 seconds before gametime, I assume that they know, for example, who is available and what they've got. So, for Pivetta, who pitched 5 innings/75 pitches Sunday, at some point he tells Bush that he's good for 10 or 20 pitches or somesuch.
EDIT: Or what DDB said while I was trying to compose a post that didn;t make me sound like more of an asshole that I usually do.
Last edited:
I am concerned about Bello pitching in the daytime, especially to the Astros, who are such clever and flexible hitters. Maybe Cora was expecting Pivetta to have to go several innings today after Bello can't make it through five and decided to use him only for one, as a sort of warmup for the next day?
Edit, and to show I don't always "persist in error," I guess I was wrong, since other posters say Pivetta was over-used on Sunday.
Unless there's an IL, he has to be down for 15 days.
But I think they really have to bring up an arm just in case.
I get it -- I was fired up when Pivetta was leaving the mound at the end of the 9th, but, yeah, when you remember what his role has been for the last two months and what he did on Sunday, it changes how you think about it.
He only pitched 7 innings though, so he should be [consults thread] ready to go 2+ innings tomorrow.