GAME #23 - SUNDAY, APRIL 25, 2021 - SEATTLE MARINERS @ BOSTON RED SOX

[markj]

1:10PM Eastern

Red Sox

Eduardo Rodriguez (L)

1. Enrique Hernandez (R) 2B
2. Alex Verdugo (L) CF
3. J.D. Martinez (R) LF
4. Xander Bogaerts (R) DH
5. Rafael Devers (L) 3B
6. Christian Vazquez (R) C
7. Marwin Gonzalez (S) SS
8. Hunter Renfroe (R) RF
9. Bobby Dalbec (R) 1B

Mariners

Nick Margevicius (L)

1. Mitch Haniger (R) DH
2. Ty France (R) 2B
3. Kyle Seager (L) 3B
4. Kyle Lewis (R) CF
5. Evan White (R) 1B
6. Dylan Moore (R) RF
7. Sam Haggerty (S) LF
8. Tom Murphy (R) C
9. J.P. Crawford (L) SS

Gametime Temp: 46°F
Chance of Precip: 84%

[Sea Dog 23]

Geezers, 84% rain makes it iffy.  We had some rough weather in the South yesterday.  They did play some football in it.

[Sea Dog 23]

The Sox are more lucky than good today.  In the 1st 5 or 6 walks, two scored on bases loaded walks, a third scored on HBP with them loaded.  There was a routine RBI on a single by Vaz.  4-1 in the first. 

[Sea Dog 23]

The Sox have had a lot of baserunners,  iirc are 2-10 on RISP today.  Only 5-3 to show.  ERod was noted to have his lowest velocity in a couple years today, around 92 on FB.  But yielded no walks.

Ottavino walked the first batter in the 8th, then got a DP, courtesy of Marwin's gem.  The Sox haven't scored in 6 innings, and Barnes will get to close it.

[BoSoxFanNY]

Red Sox beat the Mariners 5 - 3.
E Rod pitched 7 innings.
Barnes gets the 1-2-3 outs in the top of the 9th inning.

[SeaBeachFred]

Very disappointing series and home stand with the Mariners and Blue Jays.  We really haven't been playing well at Fenway Park since the titile year of 2018 and that is just plain crappy.  No one is playing that much better in our division or any other AL one right save for the A's whos had their 13 game streak snapped, but caution----we go to New York to play the Mets on Tuesday and we have Grimy and gurgling Garrett on the mound.  The guy h as had miserable control while his pitches have been very successful in hitting bats on a regular basis.  Cora can't keep running this guy out there unless he shows some imp rovement.  I do remember when he was the ace of the Angels pitching staff back in the 2013-2015 period have been told he still has good stuff after TJ surgery and other ailments.  It would be nice to see him use some of that and not get  us in a 4-0 hole in the first or second innings because the fact is we haven't that consistent with our hitting attack save for three players.

[longgame]

Very true on the poor home record Fred and it makes little sense, especially for a club that should be putting up a more consistent offense.  They can play .500 ball and have a few winning streaks they'll be fine, but this is a strange team.   Not a lot of glaring weakness other than the LF position and the middle of the bullpen.  But the other thing is nobody else is playing well in the division either. 

A day off and on to the Mets.

[elktonnick]

Playing at home these days hardly gives the home team any advantage.  Until the crowds return, and their outfielders adjust to the park's dimensions, I wouldn't expect much advantage if any to playing at home.

[MongoLikeSox]

Marwin's instincts on that dazzling DP was something to behold. He turned the glove around to not have to do a backwards flipping thing. The ball was in the palm of his glove, allowing for control and speed.

I thought Febbles should have shared some blame for Dever's turn. His positioning was horrible. Lack of hustle. He was so far out of Devers' view it wasn't funny.

Another game in which not having high quality fielding hurt the Sox. We watched Seattle's defense all weekend long. I made me miss our defenses from recent years. I've got this fear that I hope is irrrattional, but I'll state in nonetheless. I fear the decision makers above Cora don't see what's really happening on the field. Stats are fine and dandy, but bad baseball is still bad baseball despite what an official scorer says. There's no way that good fielding thing was all Dombrowski's vision, right? Please?   :(

[SeaBeachFred]

Very true on the poor home record Fred and it makes little sense, especially for a club that should be putting up a more consistent offense.  They can play .500 ball and have a few winning streaks they'll be fine, but this is a strange team.   Not a lot of glaring weakness other than the LF position and the middle of the bullpen.  But the other thing is nobody else is playing well in the division either. 

A day off and on to the Mets.

My friend, put this in your pipe and smoke it , but don't gag on it.  Do you know that when we score four runs or more, but just four runs, we a have a record of 13-1.  Our hitting is supposed to be our strongest part of our game, so the experts tell us.  So why do we have so damn many games when we fail to get even three runs.  Well Cora can do a little about that.....like playing Verdugo against all types of pitching.  Does he know that Alex has better stats against southpaws that righties?  He has shown  that talent since he was signed.  Keep him in the lineup at all times save for an occasional day off.  That would be a good start.  Now here is where we may disagree.  Power hitters cannot be run in and out of the lineup.  It takes longer for them to get their timing down since their swings are longer.  Jerking them around does nothing to get them zeroed in on the pitchers.  I would like to see Dalbec and Renfroe get  more playing time.

[SeaBeachFred]

The Sox have had a lot of baserunners,  iirc are 2-10 on RISP today.  Only 5-3 to show.  ERod was noted to have his lowest velocity in a couple years today, around 92 on FB.  But yielded no walks.

Ottavino walked the first batter in the 8th, then got a DP, courtesy of Marwin's gem.  The Sox haven't scored in 6 innings, and Barnes will get to close it.

One thing I would like to see more of is for our pitchers to pound the strike zone.  We have too many long counts and coupled with foul balls the pitch count keeps running up and our bullpen starts to get gassed much earlier than they really need to.  If we have any chance at all of getting a playoff spot this coming season (questionable) we need a pen that is not gasping for air.

[MongoLikeSox]

....... Power hitters cannot be run in and out of the lineup.  It takes longer for them to get their timing down since their swings are longer.  Jerking them around does nothing to get them zeroed in on the pitchers.  I would like to see Dalbec and Renfroe get  more playing time.

Indeed!