ALDS 2021: Red Sox vs. Rays General Discussion Thread

jayhoz

Ronald Bartel
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Step on their throats today. Do not put the fate of the season in the hands of a catwalk or baseball colored ceiling in that epic dump of a stadium.
 

Granite Sox

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Feb 6, 2003
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Loved Pivetta's emotion out there on the mound, especially after holding the Rays to 0 runs after the Kiermaier ground-rule double. Reminds a little bit of Dennis Boyd, in a good way.
 

geoflin

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I'll be shocked if one team or the other (or even both) don't have a case of Hellenic Flu strike some member of the pitching staff.
The problem with that is whichever player leaves the roster becomes ineligible for the next series (if there is one for that team). For the Sox, unless Robles has Covid, and there's been no indication that he does, he's not a candidate for removal from the roster. Neither are Eovaldi, Houck, Pivetta, ERod, Brasier, Whitlock, or Taylor. That leaves Sale, Barnes, Davis, Ottavino, or Perez. Perez is already the most likely pitcher on the 40 man roster to be able to provide innings. When they could have added anyone else in Richards' spot they chose Barnes so it's not likely him. Davis is on the roster because he's a lefty. So the 2 remaining candidates are Sale and Ottavino, neither of which I can see being removed from the roster today leaving the team without them for both Wednesday if necessary and the next series if necessary.
Tampa on the other hand seems to have a lot of interchangeable parts to their pitching staff but the primary one able to give innings is Yarbrough whom the Sox have hit hard this year.
 

54thMA

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There have been 7 walk off homers by a catcher in post season history"
@Christian_7_7_
hits a #8 "Do I hear number 8!? The
@RedSox
win! Christian Vazquez doing his Carlton Fisk! - Matt Vasgersian.

This is like that announcer curse, they said a stat like this an then a second later it happens

Also for those who want to see how it looked in Fenway:
View: https://twitter.com/Steve_Perrault/status/1447373070411436034
View: https://twitter.com/RedSox/status/1447379336772870152

View: https://twitter.com/tylermilliken_/status/1447377052353585152
What I love the most about the first video is the initial roar from the crowd at the crack of the bat and it it lands in the stands on top of the green monster, the roar goes up another level, it's tremendous, no announcer yammering, just the noise of the crowd and the sheer joy that follows.
 

effectivelywild

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Jul 14, 2005
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My wife is a personal trainer in L.A. and one of her clients is a stylist for Fox Sports. After game 1 the company decided they weren't going to be sending their big guns to cover the ALCS in person because "it was gonna be Houston versus Tampa Bay and no one will watch it anyway."
 

nattysez

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This is an interesting take from Jomboy. Probably unwise to draw big conclusions from a single playoff series, especially since the Rays were operating with "openers" because so many of their starters got hurt. But I think the Sox being able to find guys to eat innings (relatively speaking) may have been the difference in the series.

This dovetails a bit with what may have been the only good point Smoltz made all series -- the more relievers you use, the more likely it is you'll use someone who doesn't have it that night. I think that's what happened to the Rays.

View: https://twitter.com/Jomboy_/status/1447754093380911109?t=jc6YTE1vjM24oFGbfLV8Nw&s=19


View: https://twitter.com/Jomboy_/status/1447756755317018627?t=aI6-ARELcuC3IV2MwSUkVg&s=19
 

scottyno

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This is an interesting take from Jomboy. Probably unwise to draw big conclusions from a single playoff series, especially since the Rays were operating with "openers" because so many of their starters got hurt. But I think the Sox being able to find guys to eat innings (relatively speaking) may have been the difference in the series.

This dovetails a bit with what may have been the only good point Smoltz made all series -- the more relievers you use, the more likely it is you'll use someone who doesn't have it that night. I think that's what happened to the Rays.
The difference in the game tonight was the Sox battering around the rays best healthy starter, it's a terrible take.
 

Petagine in a Bottle

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Jan 13, 2021
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It’s a really dumb take considering that the Sox also used a ton of relievers and found one who didn’t have it, too.

These last two games easily could have gone either way. Sox being at home was, obviously, huge.

In a short series, winning a game on the road is key and the aggressiveness the Sox had in game 2, pulling Sale and rallying, was key, I guess?

But, it’s a four game series, where either team could have won 3. Difficult to make sweeping conclusions about the future of either team based on what happened (although we will!)
 

Stanley Steamer

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Having missed the game thread, I'll post here, stating well fucking done, Red Sox! They played their asses off and beat a really good, probably better, team. All this after stifling the Yanks in the WC. They have tightened it up, not making many errors, not giving up outs, working ABs. I know most of we fans grew to accept that this wasn't the greatest of Red Sox vintages, yet here we are, in the final four of baseball. I'm just impressed and happy.
 

The Gray Eagle

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We had 47 hits in the last 3 games of the series, and hit the ball hard even in the first game shutout. You don't beat up on a good, deep pitching staff like Tampa's like that without some really good advance scouting. Seems like a great job by the front office to get the scouting info and by the players and coaches to use the info given them.

The Red Sox hitters were noticeably aggressive in this series, attacking early in the count. That seems like part of the reason we only struck out 26 times in the 4 games, while Tampa K'd 46 times.
Tampa was first in the league in ERA and in fewest walks. We likely thought that since they won't walk us much anyway, we should attack good pitches whenever we see them.

Houston walked 549 hitters, 11th best in the league, and were 6th in Ks. So if we face them, the approach will surely be different than it was against Tampa.

The White Sox were second in ERA, 5th in walks allowed, and first in strikeouts.
 

Red(s)HawksFan

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We had 47 hits in the last 3 games of the series, and hit the ball hard even in the first game shutout. You don't beat up on a good, deep pitching staff like Tampa's like that without some really good advance scouting. Seems like a great job by the front office to get the scouting info and by the players and coaches to use the info given them.

The Red Sox hitters were noticeably aggressive in this series, attacking early in the count. That seems like part of the reason we only struck out 26 times in the 4 games, while Tampa K'd 46 times.
Tampa was first in the league in ERA and in fewest walks. We likely thought that since they won't walk us much anyway, we should attack good pitches whenever we see them.

Houston walked 549 hitters, 11th best in the league, and were 6th in Ks. So if we face them, the approach will surely be different than it was against Tampa.

The White Sox were second in ERA, 5th in walks allowed, and first in strikeouts.
It's funny how some folks (media included) kinda shrugged off the discussion after Game 1 that the Sox were a bit unlucky with how many hard hit balls they had that were converted to outs, and if they kept up what they were doing, breaks would start coming. Lo and behold, the hard hits continued and they started falling in (when they weren't leaving the field entirely).
 

Rovin Romine

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It's funny how some folks (media included) kinda shrugged off the discussion after Game 1 that the Sox were a bit unlucky with how many hard hit balls they had that were converted to outs, and if they kept up what they were doing, breaks would start coming. Lo and behold, the hard hits continued and they started falling in (when they weren't leaving the field entirely).
They did. But I think it's awesome we scored the walk-off run on a 70mph seeing-eye groundball (Vaz), a bunt (Arroyo), a dribbling opposite field infield single (Shaw), and a shallow sac fly (E.Hernandez.)
 

Max Power

thai good. you like shirt?
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It seems like an adjustment to an adjustment. Everyone knows that the Rays are a low batting average team that relies on walks to score. The Red Sox knew they had to throw strikes to keep them off the bases. The Rays saw that was happening and started swinging at pitches early rather than falling behind in the count.