GAME #132 - MONDAY, AUGUST 28, 2023 - HOUSTON ASTROS @ BOSTON RED SOX

[markj]

7:10PM Eastern

Red Sox

Chris Sale (L)

Alex Verdugo (L) RF
Rafael Devers (L) 3B
Justin Turner (R) DH
Masataka Yoshida (L) LF
Adam Duvall (R) CF
Triston Casas (L) 1B
Trevor Story (R) SS
Connor Wong (R) C
Luis Urias (R) 2B

Astros

Cristian Javier (R)

Jose Altuve (R) 2B
Alex Bregman (R) 3B
Yordan Alvarez (L) LF
Kyle Tucker (L) RF
Jose Abreu (R) 1B
Chas McCormick (R) CF
Yainer Diaz (R) DH
Jeremy Pena (R) SS
Martin Maldonado (R) C

Gametime Temp: 69F
Chance of Precip: 4%

[MongoLikeSox]

Rafaela, Baraclough and Hamilton getting called up. Abreu to Paternity List and Reyes to IL. According to MLB.com, Rafaela's move is for the stretch run. Murphy sent down.

Baraclough has been pitching very well pretty much since we picked him up from Independent ball. He should be able to provide some much needed length.

No word yet on the Reyes injury except that it is a sore elbow.

Not that none of these moves are in conjunction with the 2-man Roster expansion, which I think is next week.

[longgame]

Rafaela, Baraclough and Hamilton getting called up. Abreu to Paternity List and Reyes to IL. According to MLB.com, Rafaela's move is for the stretch run. Murphy sent down.

Baraclough has been pitching very well pretty much since we picked him up from Independent ball. He should be able to provide some much needed length.

No word yet on the Reyes injury except that it is a sore elbow.

Not that none of these moves are in conjunction with the 2-man Roster expansion, which I think is next week.

I just saw that.  Really excited about Rafaela and hope we get a good look.

[Sea Dog 23]

Casas drives in a couple early on.  Then Sale gives a couple back.  Urias leaves the bases loaded in the 3rd.

[MongoLikeSox]

Every once in a while, Wong can look downright bad back there. Like lack of focus bad.

Lots of LOB'stah tonight.

[MongoLikeSox]

There is zero reason to ruin a pitcher. This is effing insane. Bad managing.

[BoSoxFanNY]

Duvall hits a two run home run to give the Sox the lead
in the bottom of the 5th inning 4 - 3.

THEN, Barraclough gave up 6 runs in the top of the
6th inning.  Astros 9 - Sox 4.
CRAP!

[MongoLikeSox]

That's all for me. Goodnight guys!

[BoSoxFanNY]

WHO is this pitcher Barraclough??????
He allowed EIGHT runs in two innings

Astros 11 - Sox 4

Game over.

[elktonnick]

There is zero reason to ruin a pitcher. This is effing insane. Bad managing.

You can say that again!  This was insanity.  Cora's bull pen management shows that utter folly of the Sox's entire approach towards pitching and Bloom's incompetence at constructing a roster.  To me it looked as if Cora was sending Bloom a message. 
This game was the Red Sox giving the middle finger to the entire fan base.  Even O'Brien and Youklis were incredulous about Cora's strategy.

[longgame]

I’ve never seen a team allegedly in a playoff race simply give up when they were up 1 in the 6th inning.  Barraclown never should have seen the light of day but after walking 3 guys maybe you pull him instead of just turn it into a disaster for him and the team. Last 10 games the starters have pitched 46 innings.  You have Bello, Crawford and then hope that the hurricane heads north and lingers.

[MongoLikeSox]

I am SO glad I missed Altuve getting a HR to complete the cycle. I was thinking about his Triple earlier, and how ironic it was that Duvall played probably his worst CF of the year on the night they call up Rafaela.

Speaking of Rafaela, I saw the replay on MLB.com now of his AB and first MLB hit. Hit hit a big breaking slider just off the outside edge for a blooper to RF. I guess that 300 BA in Worcester was not a fluke with coverage like that.

I understood what Cora was doing Sunday and thought it might happen again Monday. Sure enough, they call up Barraclough. And sure enough, Barraclough threw his worst outing of the year at any level. This was not the same pitcher I saw pitching a few times for Worcester. This was ugly, though kudos for hitting Bregman twice. Barraclough was all over the place. He lost it. He got all nerved up, I guess? He had a low strike rate in AAA, but it was nothing like what we saw last night. I hope they give him another chance. He might not be all that great at this level, but he's not THIS bad.

Who knows how many arms Cora actually had available in the pen last night. We all seen them pitch recently and we all know they needed some rest. Did we get past that point in the season where 3 days has as big of a positive effect as we'd like? The Red Sox are like every other MLB team. They need starters to be Starters again. They need their Starters to learn how to pitch through that 5th or 6th innings that started off rough. They need to be strong enough to endure a few extra losses that will happen until they figure it out. It's too late for that now. The damage is done.

[longgame]

They knew they'd need relievers. We've all watched Sale and post injury he's not going 7 innings.  Barraclough is a 33 year old guy in AAA.  Maybe if we were the Dodgers who could turn Ryan Brasier into a stud it would be one thing, but take a guy who has been bouncing around for years and he's going to get to get better in our system?  Give me a break!

[SeaBeachFred]

There is zero reason to ruin a pitcher. This is effing insane. Bad managing.

You can say that again!  This was insanity.  Cora's bull pen management shows that utter folly of the Sox's entire approach towards pitching and Bloom's incompetence at constructing a roster.  To me it looked as if Cora was sending Bloom a message. 
This game was the Red Sox giving the middle finger to the entire fan base.  Even O'Brien and Youklis were incredulous about Cora's strategy.

We got home from our vacation in time to see that debacle play out on our TV/  Elk calls it insanity; incompetency should join it.  Blame Cora or Bloom?  Why blame only one of them.  Both need to go.  If last night didn't convince even the most pollyanna Sox fan that we need to clean house of both of them then we are in for more of the same over the next season or two  Middle finger to us was as appropriate as any thing that could be said.  While Mookie Betts is heading for a second MVP Award and his new team angling for a possible WS berth, we see  those two clowns and our horseshit owner playing Russian Roulette with Red Sox Nation.  This season is now unofficially over save for the remaining games to be played.  And who the hell is that Barriclough anyway.  Another moving of the chairs on the Red Spx version of the Titantic.  We should all be disgusted and infuriated.

[SeaBeachFred]

They knew they'd need relievers. We've all watched Sale and post injury he's not going 7 innings.  Barraclough is a 33 year old guy in AAA.  Maybe if we were the Dodgers who could turn Ryan Brasier into a stud it would be one thing, but take a guy who has been bouncing around for years and he's going to get to get better in our system?  Give me a break!

Brasier!!!!!!  He was rotten for us from 2019 until we disposed of him and yet has become a real stud for the Dodgers Ted.  If that doesn't spell incompetence in bold colors to our pitching coaches throughout the organization and especially the one who poses as our pitching coach, well nothing does.  We need to clean house my friend and rid ourselves of this excess garbage we have running our team.  I'm more than convinced that within a year or two the Mookie Betts trade will rank just next to the Babe Ruth one as possibly the worst trade our team ever made.d  Think about it.  The Dodgers get Mookie, we get three back.  One, Verdugo is a solid player who plays hard and is a decent player.  But Wong?  He is mediocrity in bold letters and Jeter Downs? Horseshit in capital letters, just recently send down by the Nats, his fourth failure.  To this day I simply cannot understand how they could have traded that guy.  I see him every night on the Dodger station out here and he is better than ever.  We can talk about incompetence but to see an owner refuse to pay for a once in a decade type player and see what our worthless baseball ops director gets back in exchange for him.  If what  they did in trading him could be measured as a crime, the perpertrators would get the death penalty and be shot, hanged, electrocuted, gassed and then j ust disposed of as excess trash.  Both Cora AND Bloom have got to go and Prune Face must be convinced to sell his team.