The Red Sox ARE good. So now what?
- Thread starter grimshaw
- Start date
Pick your poison:
1) Seabold has an injury
2) A pitcher in Boston has an injury
3) Seabold may have COVID
4) A pitcher in Boston may have COVID
5) A pitcher in Boston just got DFA'd
6) "Just in case something happens and they need length in the coming days" per Cora
View: https://twitter.com/SmittyOnMLB/status/1441798882292273157?s=20
Red Sox MLB site had Sale listed as starter only an hour ago. Now has Pivetta.
I’m guessing Sale is done
I know it's been covered above, but we can all take a deep breath. Apparently they don't want to burn Seabold in a AAA start today just in case they need him in the coming days. Eovaldi was knocked out early last night and I imagine Pivetta and ERod will have extremely short leashes today and tomorrow -- it makes sense to have Seabold around just in case (maybe he'll need to start Tuesday @ Baltimore if they want to give Sale another day for some reason, maybe the bullpen will be exhausted after today, a surprise COVID test, etc.)
I imagine this is just a result of Perez throwing a lot of pitches last night. It’s optimistic to think Seabold could provide length, though.
Apparently my Red Sox mlb site opened up (safari) to an old page this morning. I saw Sale and didn’t think twice about it….
Onward Pivetta!
Onward Pivetta!
I’ve been saying this for weeks. It’s abomination. Every time this thing gets bumped something bad happens. Lock this and the talk about the WC game roster thread.
Did this team really turn things around in September, or was it the same August Red Sox just playing terrible teams? 7-1 vs teams under .500. 6-7 vs teams above .500.
If you had an .875 winning percentage vs under .500 teams and a .462 winning percentage vs over .500 teams you'd win a shit ton of games over a full season. In August they went 2-11 vs over .500 teams and 10-5 vs under .500 teams so yes, they did turn things around.
Yet they blew yet another game today against a good team. A massive failure in every way.
They can’t beat good teams at all. Today was awful. Just when you think they’ve figured things out they revert to making the season a disappointment.
"They can't beat good teams at all", yet they're somehow 6-7 against them this month, which is fine, and have one of if not the best records against them all year, so apparently they can.
It's actually pretty impressive how many different times in the last 2 months you decided the season was a disappointment for a team that's still a huge favorite to make the playoffs
Beating Baltimore doesn’t count.
Losing to the Yankees is never OK. Particularly when the goddamn playoffs are on the line. JFC people. Today was awful.
You should tell that to the Yankees. If they could beat Baltimore at the same rate the Sox have this year they'd still be in the division race
Even worse then that they blew yet another game to them today.
This team hates prosperity.
Do the games where they come from behind to win count or only the ones where they lose a lead?
The Sox are 8-20 against winning teams since July 30, including 0-5 against the Yankees, 4-9 against the Rays, and 1-3 against the Jays.
The 6-7 this month includes the final two games of the Rays series that they won, but not the first two, that they lost.
sibce July 30, they have played 9 series against winning teams, and won one of them (Mariners). They split one (Rays), and lost the other 7.
The 6-7 this month includes the final two games of the Rays series that they won, but not the first two, that they lost.
sibce July 30, they have played 9 series against winning teams, and won one of them (Mariners). They split one (Rays), and lost the other 7.
They blew a game today against their biggest rivals because their relievers couldn’t throw strikes. FFS they’ve had this issue all year and it never got better. For once it would be nice if they actually addressed their problems.
It really doesn’t. This is who they are. They can’t beat winning teams at all. Who gives a shit what they did in April? They can’t beat good teams, period.
Honestly this season has been immensely frustrating. Every move they make backfires. This series has been a microcosm of their issues. Not enough offense. A bad start. And a good start followed by a horrific bullpen implosion.
It’s absolutely amazing how bad they are when they face decent teams. It speaks very poorly of their resilience and quality. Just make some goddamn pitches. For once.
No excuse to lose today’s game. Massive kick in the balls. I can’t see how this doesn’t linger. They have to understand they won’t face the goddamn Orioles every game.
Amazing that bringing in a pitcher who has walked 31 in 39 IP didn’t work out. Who could have seen that coming.
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Other than the 6 games they won this month vs good teams? Or only the losses count? It's also really hard to be on the brink of clinching a playoff spot with 7 games left to play if every move you make for a season backfires.
They were also ridiculously unlucky to not break today's game open in the 6th, but I'm sure you'll chalk that up to the offense not being any good.
You are who the score says you are. 8-20 against teams .500 or better since July 30. That’s well beyond bad luck sample size .
Win some goddamn games against good teams and we’ll talk about how that might change.
No you're right, there was also a mass covid outbreak and a 10 day stretch of terrible play mixed in. Total coincidence I'm sure that as they got past those they started winning games in bunches again. Also cute how you picked July 30th, why not a few weeks before that when they were beating up the good teams? Or did something magically change on July 30th that made anything before that no longer apply.
I didn’t magically pick July 30, Petagenie posted the stats and I found it illustrative. It’s a logical data end point.
July 30th seems like a reasonable date to look back to since it represents when contending teams rosters were in their most complete form and best represent what they look like going forward, into the playoffs. It’s also nearly a two month sample. Trends matter; Sox are winning the season series against the Yankees, for example, but have lost the last five.
Sox have not played well against good teams for a long time; that’s not really debatable. All the teams in the playoffs are good teams. So if the Sox want to make the playoffs and advance, they need to win series against good teams, no?
The last time the Sox won a series against a likely playoff team was July 25th, the ridiculous comeback win against the Yankees.
Sox have not played well against good teams for a long time; that’s not really debatable. All the teams in the playoffs are good teams. So if the Sox want to make the playoffs and advance, they need to win series against good teams, no?
The last time the Sox won a series against a likely playoff team was July 25th, the ridiculous comeback win against the Yankees.
Other than the part where the Sox of today look almost nothing like what they did for a huge chunk of that 2 months thanks to not having Sale and Schwarber, playing a ridiculously terrible early august stretch, and then getting covid The Sox weren't in their complete form for almost any of that stretch.
Well ok, but when they were beating good teams in April-July, they didn’t have those guys either…so…i am not sure what your point is. Even now, with Whitlock and Taylor out, they are not in complete form. They will never be in complete form.
They haven’t played well against good teams since the end of July, that really can’t be debated. Their final series win against a likely playoff team was two months ago.
Sale came back 8/14. If you want to use that as your starting point, their performance against likely playoff teams is…
NY 0-3
TB 2-2
TB 1-2
CHI 1-2
NY 0-2
Total 4-11
So the Sox are have played .500 for nearly half the season now - they are 37-37 in their last 74.
Fun fact: the 2004 Sox had an 86 game stretch where they went 43-43.
That said, the chances this team wins it are about as slim as coming from 3-0 down against the MFY, maybe even less.
Fun fact: the 2004 Sox had an 86 game stretch where they went 43-43.
That said, the chances this team wins it are about as slim as coming from 3-0 down against the MFY, maybe even less.
I thought it was known that this thread wasn't going to ever get bumped again. Maybe if the Sox break the Curse of the "The Red Sox ARE Good" Thread and we'll have to bump it before each game from here on out?
This.
Seriously, can we keep the superstition stuff in the game threads? Please??
I don't care about the sloppiness, what coulda/shoulda or not shoulda, they won 92 games in one of the toughest divisions in history despite it being a bridge year. And they had to be good to do that.
Whatever happens, I was tremendously entertained from wire to wire.
Whatever happens, I was tremendously entertained from wire to wire.
The way I see it, the team that had Barnes as a lights-out closer followed by a really good group of prime / healthy Whitlock, Taylor, Ottavino, Sawamura, and Hernandez was a playoff team. They did just enough with that team to get there with this team, which probably should not be a playoff team. But every game counts and I'm thrilled by what has been an entertaining, if not pretty, success of a season. One more win and it's an unqualified success where I could not realistically have asked for more.
Exactly. Now if they had won a couple more vs the MFY maybe they’d be playing the Jays instead. But you could argue they are better off playing the MFY anyway. So whatever. The deadline really didn’t end up mattering from that perspective.
While not having a closer is tricky, it's been an extremely pleasant surprise to me that Brasier and Robles have emerged as competent replacements for two of the above. With Whitlock and Houck, they still have some damn good pieces in the bullpen.
4 good BP arms and a starter being used on their side session day is better than most teams had up until recently.
That said… starters going less than 5- especially in the playoffs- Sox will need Otto, Sawamura, Perez and Richards to step up.
What’s the status with Taylor?
Agreed. All hands on deck on Tuesday. Kill the Wabbit and the season is an unmitigated success.