GAME #46 - FRIDAY, MAY 21, 2021 - BOSTON RED SOX @ PHILADELPHIA PHILLIES

[markj]

7:05PM Eastern

Red Sox

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

Phillies

1. Andrew McCutchen (R) LF
2. Jean Segura (R) 2B
3. Bryce Harper (L) RF
4. Rhys Hoskins (R) 1B
5. Alec Bohm (R) 3B
6. Odubel Herrera (L) CF
7. Andrew Knapp (S) C
8. Ronald Torreyes (R) SS
9. Aaron Nola (R) P


Gametime Temp: 79°F
Chance of Precip: 1%

[MongoLikeSox]

Wow!!! DFA Brice instead of optioning Franchy. Think he clears?

[Sea Dog 23]

We took some bats out of the lineup with Dalbec and Chavis out.  Santana new 1B tonight.  Hope the LH platoon guys make a difference.

[MongoLikeSox]

Why did Bush go out to the mound? He was cruising. What a disruption. 4 run lead and we gotta go talk about Bohm because he's hit the ball hard.  jeeez

[longgame]

Santana - good.

Phillies - bad.

[MongoLikeSox]

That last pitch by Whitlock showed some fortitude. Good for him.

Santana - good.

Phillies - bad.

One of them said this about Segura. I'm paraphrasing. "When he decides he wants to play, he can play!". Ouch!

[markj]

Sox having a good time tonight. Up 11-3. Bottom of the 9th.

[markj]

Darwinzon gives up a walk, but otherwise K's the side. Sox with an easy win. Like to see it.

[markj]

This is the tightest standings in the ALE I remember for a long time. Three teams with 19 in the loss column and the Sox with 18. That's tight. Drop a couple games and you'll find yourself dropping through the standings like a stone through water.

[elktonnick]

The Sox beat a very troubled Phillies team.

[MongoLikeSox]

The Sox beat a very troubled Phillies team.

Yeah, that's not a good showing. Lots of glazed, distant looks.

[Sea Dog 23]

If you didn’t know any better one would think Chris Sale pitched against Cole Hamels.  Phils struck out 13 and Sox 17 times.  But the bats came alive when it counted.  I didn’t like the lineup with 2-3 solid hitters sitting out.  But the top of the lineup and Vaz did the damage.

[MongoLikeSox]

Speaking of strikeouts, there is an article in The Athletic about some pitchers using substances to make the ball more tacky to increase spin rates. The article implies that use is wide-spread. It's behind a pay wall, but I'll post the link here just in case.
https://theathletic.com/2603443/2021/05/21/what-are-we-even-doing-here-around-baseball-players-raise-concerns-about-pitchers-use-of-foreign-substances/
Might explain the spin rate. Always something going on.

[Bill-806]

Looks like the SOX are going to go all the way, hey, hey !!!!  May not lose another game this year !!!!   thumb_u thumb_u iono iono iono iono iono iono iono iono rofl rofl rofl rofl rofl rofl

[SeaBeachFred]

Looks like the SOX are going to go all the way, hey, hey !!!!  May not lose another game this year !!!!   thumb_u thumb_u iono iono iono iono iono iono iono iono rofl rofl rofl rofl rofl rofl

Hey Bill, don't get carried away either for real in a joke.  We are still the kind of team that can go low energy at the drop of a hat. For the most part we are playing better than many of us thought they could but what I want to see how they do after they win three or four in a row because we usually hit a wall with a low energy performance that sinks us.  The Rays and Yankees have been very hot of late and we need to show we can go on a decent winning streak of six or seven games two or three times during this season.  I just have doubts if they can do this because this has been their history since the beginning of the 2019 season.  I'm hoping they prove me very very very wrong.  Still a good win against a strong Phillies team that is having troubles of their own.  We cannot let them get well at our expense.  If they get their stuff together let it be against some other teams.