ALDS GAME # 4 - MONDAY, OCTOBER 11, 2021 - TAMPA BAY RAYS @ BOSTON RED SOX

[SeaBeachFred]

Talk about over achievers!  As much as I have criticized Cora one has to admit he has done an incredible job this year especially considering the covid outbreak.  Bloom also deserves a heck of a lot of credit also.  He has mixed and matched putting together this team of over achievers.

Like you Elk I was on Cora's case much of the season but truth be told, he completely outmanaged  Aaron Boone in  the playoff game and Cash in this series.   The only crink was putting Brasier in the game in the eighth instead of Whitlock.  Brasier is meat, a straight fastball and little in the way of off speed pitches.  He and Barnes should be mop up men in my opinion.  But, what the hell we won the ALDS and will play for the American League Championship.  I'd say so far, so good.

[BoSoxFanNY]

Sox won 3 games in a row to beat the Rays!
Remarkable.

ON TO THE ALCS!

The energy in Fenway Park is electric!

YAHOOOOO!

Don't play again until Friday.
Good for the pitchers to rest -
HOPE the players keep up their energy!

[MongoLikeSox]

Cora had a good move that did not wok out. KK ended up with that 2b flair to left. The risk of that is Houck not having clean inng and so on. That part back fired, too. I still can't blame him for that one. Seemed like a good idea.

That 8th inning was bad news we somehow survived. I still can't believe we were not ready. But we won in the end. Good job everyone including Cora *except the top of 8th*. Man, too much. Whitloch! Nice saving us!

[Sea Dog 23]

Amazing the Sox were able to scratch and claw in the end to get this one wrapped up.  But it's the way this team did it the whole year.

As much as Tampa is admired for system building, they really came up short in pitching this year.  In a four game series, their best available was McHugh, the Rasmussen on Sunday.  Those moves last year, trading Snell, then losing Morton in FA, I forget what happened to Glasnow, injury"?  Anyhow, that came back to bite them in their pitching depth.  On to Houston!

[Bill-806]

RED SOX  WIN , WIN, WIN !!!!  MOVEON.ORG !!!! thumb_u thumb_u rofl rofl rofl rofl

[longgame]

Cora had a good move that did not wok out. KK ended up with that 2b flair to left. The risk of that is Houck not having clean inng and so on. That part back fired, too. I still can't blame him for that one. Seemed like a good idea.

That 8th inning was bad news we somehow survived. I still can't believe we were not ready. But we won in the end. Good job everyone including Cora *except the top of 8th*. Man, too much. Whitloch! Nice saving us!

Just can't say enough about this series.  I'm pretty sure none of us expected them to even be in the postseason, never mind going to the ALCS and what a series against TB.  I love that Cora outmanaged Cash, who everyone raves about.  Cora has some postseason magic that works for him.  I'm very happy that Tampa Bay's crappy approach to pitching was their undoing.  Hopefully that idea can be invalidated now and pitchers go back to actually throwing a few innings.

E-Rod deserves a game ball.   I didn't think he had it in him but he did.  Heck of an outing for him in a huge game.  They needed that.

Kike - what a series this guy had.  Didn't see that coming!  The postseason always seems to have some unlikely heroes. 

Can't complain too much about the pitching changes.  Brasier has been unhittable lately.  I would have gone with Whitlock there, but it worked out.

Whitlock - what a stuf.  Some big innings in the postseason already.

Devers - hand looks healthy, apparently thanks to Jim Rice.  He slowed down his swing and follows through.

On to the ALCS after a few days of rest which they need.

[longgame]

Jeff Passan on Twitter says that this team reminds him of the Sox in 2018.  I could not disagree more.  The 2018 team had starting pitching, it was a juggernaut, they were the heavy favorites, they won 108 games.  Nothing about this team resembles the 2018 team other than the handful of guys who are still on the team.

[BoSoxFanNY]

Cora had a good move that did not wok out. KK ended up with that 2b flair to left. The risk of that is Houck not having clean inng and so on. That part back fired, too. I still can't blame him for that one. Seemed like a good idea.

That 8th inning was bad news we somehow survived. I still can't believe we were not ready. But we won in the end. Good job everyone including Cora *except the top of 8th*. Man, too much. Whitloch! Nice saving us!

Just can't say enough about this series.  I'm pretty sure none of us expected them to even be in the postseason, never mind going to the ALCS and what a series against TB.  I love that Cora outmanaged Cash, who everyone raves about.  Cora has some postseason magic that works for him.  I'm very happy that Tampa Bay's crappy approach to pitching was their undoing.  Hopefully that idea can be invalidated now and pitchers go back to actually throwing a few innings.

E-Rod deserves a game ball.   I didn't think he had it in him but he did.  Heck of an outing for him in a huge game.  They needed that.

Kike - what a series this guy had.  Didn't see that coming!  The postseason always seems to have some unlikely heroes. 

Can't complain too much about the pitching changes.  Brasier has been unhittable lately.  I would have gone with Whitlock there, but it worked out.

Whitlock - what a stuf.  Some big innings in the postseason already.

Devers - hand looks healthy, apparently thanks to Jim Rice.  He slowed down his swing and follows through.

On to the ALCS after a few days of rest which they need.

MLB Network is now singing the praises of the Red Sox.
The mojo of the players. Team chemistry.
Good defense.
Good coaching by Alex Cora.
Good moves by Chaim Bloom in signing Kike Hernandez and Hunter Renfroe.
Adding Kyle Schwarber at the trade deadline.

AND they are saying about how Kevin Cash mismanaged his pitchers.

HAVE to love these players!
And - wow - Nick Pivetta and Garrett Whitlock

[Sea Dog 23]

Looks like Houston is ready to close out Chicago.  A 5 run lead in the 7th.  Both pitching staffs should be rested by Friday.  Let the games begin!

[SeaBeachFred]

Jeff Passan on Twitter says that this team reminds him of the Sox in 2018.  I could not disagree more.  The 2018 team had starting pitching, it was a juggernaut, they were the heavy favorites, they won 108 games.  Nothing about this team resembles the 2018 team other than the handful of guys who are still on the team.

Let me offer Passan a free "get out of jail card" for that statement.  There is no way on God's green Earth that the 2021 team resembles the 2018 team in any way except being called the Red Sox.  2018's team was a powerhouse that blasted their way trough the season, post season and post post season.  To me that was the greatest Red  Sox team ever. What this year's team showed that it was resilient and could go from the penthouse to the outhouse and back.  Right now they have gotten their footing and look like the team that was dominant in June and July before the August near collapse, and for some reason Alex Cora seems to save his best for the post-season as he proved in the past series, and in 2018.  What I was impressed with is how our defense and base running seems to have improved markedly  the past ten days.  The timing seems to be right for them to be ready to take on either Chicago or Houston, though both teams could be tough nuts to crack if we don't play at our very best level.

[MongoLikeSox]

I would have not disagreed too much had he said 2013.

Starting in mid-May, us there as big an unheralded arm out there than Taylor? He comes in game after game and nips whatever's happening in the bud. That ERA us only that high because of the awful start and a later season hiccup.

Cora did very well at least three times the past 2 games to get Cash to PH early and get weapons out of the game, all the while leaving us with desirable match-ups established for later. Handcuffing them by middle innings. Nice! Double nice is how he got rid of our need for LHP later in the game. Then they get to face those righties we have that showed up large and in charge.

I though Cash did very well to keep his team into the both Fenway games and had legitimate chances to win each. Talk about not losing with your best arms on the bench. BUT, not saving one for the end... only so many bullets, as 'Eck is fond of saying. I can't imagine that "Rays' Way" as a fan. Good thing they don't have many.

Keeping Meadows on the bench for much of the early series was a GIFT, and Lowe's post-season career makes ARod's look like Reggie Jackson. That left KK as the big lefty. Too bad he delivered in a big way.

I don't think there's a Sox fan out there who saw Devers hit this year and think how much better he could have been had he controlled his swing more. Him being limited might open his eyes once and for all. If that's the case, sign him up for the long haul. He's like Mongo from Blazing Saddles. "Don't bring in a Lefty to face him. You'll just piss him off." 

Speaking of swinging - how about Verdugo? That is some classic bad-arse line drive after line drive machine going on.

All that said, I ain't feeling too good about Houston. Then again, I did not in 2018.

[Sea Dog 23]

Looking at the Sox pitching depth -- the starters -- in a 7 game series.  We have been set up for the 3 game sets to end the season, then the best of 5 with Rays.  Now the depth of starters come to play out.  Surely Nathan is probably our most dependable guy right now, Pivetta could provide a good 5 innings, can ERod have two good starts in a row?  Not sure how Sale will do.  He's had about three uneven starts of late.  The bullpen will get a workout with those Astros bats.

Very interesting that Houston ace McCullers had to come out of the Whitesox game yesterday with forearm tightness.  They're unsure the severity, could be easily treatable, but one source said he could miss 4-5 days.
Urqueda is maybe they're next man up.  Lots for Cora to think about.

[longgame]

I really don't know a lot about the Astros this year.  Clearly they're good, winning 97 games in a division that had Oakland and Seattle with good records.  Looking at stats, they look impressive.  The one area the Sox have an edge is in power, but Houston has legit starting pitchers and what appears to be a good bullpen.  Their team ERA is a good half point better than the Sox, but the more telling stat is quality stats - Houston has 66 versus our 39.  That's not necessarily a weakness though as we know that most guys aren't going to go as deep in a playoff game and that's where the Sox have to attack.  It seemed that in the last game in particular, the Sox had a strategy to attack and had a lot of first pitch swings (and outs).  The key to the Astros is to get pitches and stress on those starters and open up that bullpen.  You can be more aggressive at that point. 

I continue to have no expectations whatsoever for this series. I know if they play their best they can win, but if they don't, they won't.

[Bill-806]

I really don't know a lot about the Astros this year.  Clearly they're good, winning 97 games in a division that had Oakland and Seattle with good records.  Looking at stats, they look impressive.  The one area the Sox have an edge is in power, but Houston has legit starting pitchers and what appears to be a good bullpen.  Their team ERA is a good half point better than the Sox, but the more telling stat is quality stats - Houston has 66 versus our 39.  That's not necessarily a weakness though as we know that most guys aren't going to go as deep in a playoff game and that's where the Sox have to attack.  It seemed that in the last game in particular, the Sox had a strategy to attack and had a lot of first pitch swings (and outs).  The key to the Astros is to get pitches and stress on those starters and open up that bullpen.  You can be more aggressive at that point. 

I continue to have no expectations whatsoever for this series. I know if they play their best they can win, but if they don't, they won't.

AND THIS IS WHY WE ARE ALL BASEBALL FANS , RED SOX FANS , WE ALL HAVE THE MANAGERIAL SKILLS & THE LOVE OF OUR TEAM !!!! GO RED SO, THE PLAYOFFS SO FAR HAVE BEEN EXCITING TO WATCH !!! thumb_u thumb_u thumb_u rofl rofl rofl rofl rofl

[markj]

I was just watching this game again on FS1. Whitlock is the unsung hero of this game. He came in and shut down that rally by TB with the score tied. Just that one play where he hustled over to back up Raffy at 3B may have saved a run. If the Rays had scored again, who knows how things would have turned out.