GAME #146 - MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 2021 - BOSTON RED SOX @ SEATTLE MARINERS

[Sea Dog 23]

Dang.  The old Brasier shows up again in the 7th.  Tried to come back in the 8th with homers by Bogey and Raffy, but came up short again 5-4.  All these 1-run games are killing me.  Bottom line, giving them 4 unearned runs, then seeing your guys handed 15 strikeouts, all that is bad baseball this time of year.   

[markj]

Sox now out of the WC slot.

[elktonnick]

Did not see the game but the box score shows Brasier 's runs were unearned. It looks like the errors killed the Sox again.

[longgame]

Did not see the game but the box score shows Brasier 's runs were unearned. It looks like the errors killed the Sox again.

Schwarber blew a play but Brasier gave up 3 hits including the HR.  I was right in my prediction - why stay up to watch them fail again?

E-Rod was comparatively squeezed compared to Gilbert early on.  Very wide strike zone for him, not so much for E-Rod but it opened up for him before he pitched himself out of the game.  Saw a similar thing in the Yankee game.  They had struck out twice on good pitches that were called balls.  The second one was a 3-2 count and it brought up Judge who hit a fly ball to RF for a HR.

For the Sox, once again, weak hitting, poor defense and shaky relief combined for a loss.  Funny how you don't win many games if you can't hit, field or pitch

[Sea Dog 23]

The Sox iirc are 3-5 in their last 8.  Losing Bogey, then Sale may have sucked the life out of this team over a weeks time.  Maybe a chance Sale can recover in the next couple weeks.

Sawamura has been reinstated in place of Davis.  Cora had this to say,

“Red Sox manager Alex Cora said there could be more players coming off the COVID-19 injured list in the coming days. Left-hander Martin Perez is expected to be activated on Tuesday, and Cora is holding out hope that left-handed starter Chris Sale could return this weekend against the Baltimore Orioles.“

[SeaBeachFred]

Every team has had their starting lineups out for hours, but not the Sox. Once again, down to the wire before it's released.

That's because genius Cora has to figure it out to the last minute detail.  That is why he "smartly" put Schwarber on first last night , batted him second where he has had NO succcess at all, and saw him make the error that cost us the game.  He also batted Hernandez at leadoff even though the guy hasn't hit worth shit for the past week and is NOT a good second baseman.  Cora has lost his usefulness and needs to go. Dalbec is our first baseman and should be in the lineup every night since he is part of the future and is a better fielder the Schwsarb.

[SeaBeachFred]

Time for bed. I hate West Coast games.

So do I and I live on the West Coast because the Red Sox hate them too and usually play pretty crappy  our here---like last night  I didn't even watch the game because I knew with E-Rod on the mound we would find some way to lose the game.  And keep this in mind.  Brasier does NOT react well when things go bad..like an error.  He usually craters when that happens.  Just look at his work since the start of the 2019 season.  He can't take reverses well at all even though he shouldn't have had to if Dalbec would have been playing first as he should have.  Damn you Cora!!!!!

[elktonnick]

Fred is right about Brasier cratering after an error, but he isn't the only one..  Richards, Barnes, Taylor, Perez as well as ERod all can not recovery from a defensive lapse behind them.  What I fail to understand is why Cora has not been able to get these guys to play sound team defense.

[longgame]

That's a really good point the way these guys crumble.  A bad call.  A bloop hit.  They crap their pants.  And since they've usually managed to get a couple of guys on before that they are problems you can't recover from.

This team is fundamentally bad on defense and has become worse as the season went on.  In addition, they just dont seem to have mental toughness.

A note on Schwarber, he came in looking good after a few games but he's another JDM - no glove, even in LF he doesn't make me comfortable.  Like JDM he also gets to these points where he looks completely lost at times.

One more thing - if you could split the difference between the way Devers rips at every pitch and Bogey just sorts of tries to hit a check swing chip shot you'd have two guys who may put a hit or two together. 

And finally O'Brien - last night Vazquez stays with a tough pitch on the outside, let's it go deep and pushes out a line to RF.  DiNardo made some good commentary and the O'Brien says something along the lines of "he can really turn on a fastball" after DiNardo explained exactly what he did. 

[elktonnick]

I think the team's lack of mental toughness all goes back to Cora who has created an atmosphere acceptance of weakness.  It all stems from his policy of resting guys when there is no need to do so so.  Has he ever told guys to suck it up?

[longgame]

I think the team's lack of mental toughness all goes back to Cora who has created an atmosphere acceptance of weakness.  It all stems from his policy of resting guys when there is no need to do so so.  Has he ever told guys to suck it up?

What really bugs me is that it that keeps him from getting the best lineup out there every night and that's hard enough to do.  Seems like now would be a good time to tell them it's all hands on right now and they better get locked in. They've got this "easy" stretch ahead which won't matter if they lose this series.

[SeaBeachFred]

I think the team's lack of mental toughness all goes back to Cora who has created an atmosphere acceptance of weakness.  It all stems from his policy of resting guys when there is no need to do so so.  Has he ever told guys to suck it up?

What really bugs me is that it that keeps him from getting the best lineup out there every night and that's hard enough to do.  Seems like now would be a good time to tell them it's all hands on right now and they better get locked in. They've got this "easy" stretch ahead which won't matter if they lose this series.

And the way they've played the past eight games there will be no easy stretch for them if they don't get their heads out of their asses.  This team lacks leadership on the field, toughness in their approach and a shaky confidence that fails to enable them to overcome a bad break or two.  This is turning out to be a candy ass team.  And please, don't anyone out there  try to say that Bogaerts is a leader.  The front office keeps portraying him as our future leader but he is ill equipped for that job.  He has as much leaderrship skills as Bradley and  Franchy had.