GAME #134 - WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 30, 2023 - HOUSTON ASTROS @ BOSTON RED SOX

[markj]

4:10PM Eastern

Red Sox

Kutter Crawfrord (R)

Ceddanne Rafaela (R) SS
Justin Turner (R) DH
Rafael Devers (L) 3B
Adam Duvall (R) CF
Rob Refsnyder (R) LF
Alex Verdugo (L) RF
Luis Urias (R) 2B
Triston Casas (L) 1B
Connor Wong (R) C

Astros

Framber Valdez (L)

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

Gametime Temp: 77F
Chance of Precip: 10%

[Sea Dog 23]

On paper that's almost an even matchup

Kutter 6-6, 3.65 era, 101.0 IP,  vs Valdez, 9-9, 3.40.  Although Valdez has pitched about 60 more innings this year.

[Sea Dog 23]

That's a bit of pressure for Ceddanne, lead-off and SS in his first start.  His AAA position was in most games CF.  But the lead-offs amps up the pressure.

[Sea Dog 23]

Well the roof fell in on Kutter. Have mercy.

[SeaBeachFred]

We're toast friends and I can only hope that Bloom and Cora are the same after this season. Four teams, the Pirates, Marlins, Blue Jays and now the Astros have swept three game series from us on our home turf.  There is no excuse for such failure and malfeasance and heads should roll after this debacle of a season.

[Sea Dog 23]

About the only positive I can see from that dismal game was Rafaela (Raffy II?)blasting a double off the monster wall, driving in a run, 2K, 0 BB.  He went 1-4 and is batting .400 (1-1 in his first game.)  Very small sample sure, but the kid was not overmatched like some of the vets we sent to the plate.

[MongoLikeSox]

This did not hit me until the other day. The strategy - make that the paradigm - this organization has lived by this whole time is to play playoff baseball for an entire season.

It's so obvious to me now. The early hooks, the lineup jumbling, the platoons and the overuse of bullpen arms is all playoff baseball. Yes, we're trying to wring out every last ounce of win probability that we can each and every day. In the end, it's almost no different than playing playoff baseball for 162 instead of an October chocked full of off days.   

It worked in spurts, good and bad. When it did work, it worked well and looked like a well orchestrated live stage production. When it didn't work, it bombed loudly in the form of short losing streaks. I don't think it ever failed like it did this past week, though. Not to this degree. We were out of pitching and our solutions had either faltered or disappeared. That's a whole other clusterf*** of a topic.

Wanna see something fun? Go to Baseball Reference site, click on the "G" at the top of the individual pitching stats, which will sort all of the pitchers by game appearances. https://www.baseball-reference.com/leagues/majors/2023-standard-pitching.shtml Scroll down until you get to the guy with the most relief innings in baseball. Keep scrolling..... keep scrolling... there, at #106. Josh Winckowski. 105 pitchers ahead of him in number of appearances do not come anywhere close to Winckowski's 1.45 IP per game appearance use. Gee-whiz! Why is he such a spent force in August? Sure sounds nice at the conference table in December, though. Go Sox!

[elktonnick]

This did not hit me until the other day. The strategy - make that the paradigm - this organization has lived by this whole time is to play playoff baseball for an entire season.

It's so obvious to me now. The early hooks, the lineup jumbling, the platoons and the overuse of bullpen arms is all playoff baseball. Yes, we're trying to wring out every last ounce of win probability that we can each and every day. In the end, it's almost no different than playing playoff baseball for 162 instead of an October chocked full of off days.   

It worked in spurts, good and bad. When it did work, it worked well and looked like a well orchestrated live stage production. When it didn't work, it bombed loudly in the form of short losing streaks. I don't think it ever failed like it did this past week, though. Not to this degree. We were out of pitching and our solutions had either faltered or disappeared. That's a whole other clusterf*** of a topic.

Wanna see something fun? Go to Baseball Reference site, click on the "G" at the top of the individual pitching stats, which will sort all of the pitchers by game appearances. https://www.baseball-reference.com/leagues/majors/2023-standard-pitching.shtml Scroll down until you get to the guy with the most relief innings in baseball. Keep scrolling..... keep scrolling... there, at #106. Josh Winckowski. 105 pitchers ahead of him in number of appearances do not come anywhere close to Winckowski's 1.45 IP per game appearance use. Gee-whiz! Why is he such a spent force in August? Sure sounds nice at the conference table in December, though. Go Sox!

Many of us saw this happening months ago when we criticized Cora's handling of his pitchers.  This is why Mondays debacle was inevitable and why Cora should be fired regardless of whether hangs on to that incompetent Bloom.

[MongoLikeSox]

Many of us saw this happening months ago when we criticized Cora's handling of his pitchers.  This is why Mondays debacle was inevitable and why Cora should be fired regardless of whether hangs on to that incompetent Bloom.

I hear you. I know I've mantra'd the Quality Start issue for two years and criticized Cora's pitcher killing abilities until I was blue in the face for much longer than that. Ferrell was awful at the latter, too.

I've never simplified it to this level(meaning playoff baseball) in my mind, though. There's no way the Math will ever work out. Too many games in too short of time for too many months. It just does not work, and gets worse with the collective modern-day max effort pitching strategy. Something has to give.

[Sea Dog 23]

In regards to Cora's brainfarts on Monday, unless he was sending a message to MGT.  If he gets shown the door next month, I saw a name that will bear notice, Joe Maddon.  And Bloom probably played cards with the guy at Tampa.  But having typed that, I do not want to think about Bloom making another executive decision for Boston.

[MongoLikeSox]

In regards to Cora's brainfarts on Monday, unless he was sending a message to MGT.  If he gets shown the door next month, I saw a name that will bear notice, Joe Maddon.  And Bloom probably played cards with the guy at Tampa.  But having typed that, I do not want to think about Bloom making another executive decision for Boston.

It's sort of obvious that Cora and Bloom are not the best pairing. Maddon was one of the early adopters of the modern-day stats driven managing styles. Seems like an obvious fit for Bloom, but Maddon's parting pock-shot to the Angels' Baseball Ops dept was that the analytics had too much power in baseball. I doubt Maddon would take another post like that.