Bosox Board

LINEUPS

BOSTON:

1. Andrew Benintendi, LF
2. Mookie Betts, RF
3. Rafael Devers, 3B
4. J.D. Martinez, DH
5. Xander Bogaerts, SS
6. Mitch Moreland, 1B
7. Eduardo Núñez, 2B
8. Jackie Hernandez, CF
9. Christian Vázquez, C

PITCHER:  CHRIS SALE

MARINERS:

Lineup

1. Dee Gordon, 2B
2. Mitch Haniger, RF
3. Jay Bruce, 1B
4. Edwin Encarnacion, DH
5. Domingo Santana, LF
6. Omar Narváez, C
7. Ryon Healy, 3B
8. Tim Beckham, SS
9. Mallex Smith, CF

PITCHER:  MARCO GONZALES

Here are the pitching matchups for the Red Sox-Mariners series:

Thursday: LHP Chris Sale (12-4, 2.11 in 2018) vs. LHP Marco Gonzales (1-0, 4.50), 7:10 p.m. (ET), NESN, ESPN.

Friday:     RHP Nate Eovaldi (6-7, 3.81 in 2018) vs. LHP Yusei Kikuchi (0-0, 1.93), 10:10 p.m. (ET), NESN.

Saturday: LHP Eduardo Rodriguez (13-5, 3.82 in 2018) vs. RHP Mike Leake (10-10, 4.36) in 2018, 9:10 p.m. (ET), NESN.

Sunday:   RHP Rick Porcello (17-7, 4.28 in 2018) vs. LHP Wade LeBlanc (9-5, 3.72) in 2018, 4:10 p.m. (ET), NESN.

Wonderful to have you back, Bear!!  thumb_u

Thank you Mark.  Feels good to be doing something.

Go Sox

Excited for the opening but not overly optimistic for the season. With a great offense and very good SP, they should IMO get to the playoffs. A lackluster pen will prevent them from going far in the PO. 93-95 wins should be possible.

                                                          GO SOX

Quote from: markj on March 27, 2019, 10:13:48 PM
Wonderful to have you back, Bear!!  thumb_u

I AGREE!
WONDERFUL to have you back!!

Let's GO BoSox!!

TY BosoxFanNY

YES, good to see all of you back in the FOLD.....  Keep your eye on NUNEZ tonight as I think he is DONE, the KNEES do not allow him to move !!   GO RED SOX, make us PROUD AGAIN !!! thumb_u rofl rofl rofl rofl

Quote from: Bill-806 on March 28, 2019, 05:15:40 PM
YES, good to see all of you back in the FOLD.....  Keep your eye on NUNEZ tonight as I think he is DONE, the KNEES do not allow him to move !!   GO RED SOX, make us PROUD AGAIN !!! thumb_u rofl rofl rofl rofl

Nunez is in because we are facing a left handed pitcher===that would be my guess.  If he can't move we will have to insert Holt in there and keep him there until Pedroia comes back, whenever that is.  And who is this Jackie Hernandez and why is Jackie Bradley not in the lineup?  Is he hurt or is Cora going the righty-lefty match up  I feel good about starting the season but I'm not that much enamored about our starting lineup tonight and hope Moreland will not keep pulling off pitches as he usually does against southpaws.  Would have liked Swihart in the lineup to give us another bat in there.  Well, it is what it is so I'm hoping the team will go out there and play like the champions they are with Chris Sale being able to go six or seven innings to limit that bullpen of ours from having to get too many outs.  GO RED SOX!!!!!!!

And here we go.

One pitch, one out.

Devers getting a quick start on his error total for the year. First ball hit his way this season. Inning should be over.

Sale with his 3rd K to end the inning. He looks good so far.

Beckham with a booming solo shot off Sale. Sox up 2-1.

Gonzalez made some good pitches to avoid jams in 1st and 2nd.  Should be up  at least 3-0.  But  now 2-1 is good for Sale, but he's thrown 33 pitches in the 2nd.

Sale losing it here. Last 4 batters: HR, walk, single, and HBP. Bases now loaded with 2 outs.

And now a 2-run shot to RF. Luckily the Mariners tried for 3 runs and missed, so inning over. Sox down 3-2 now.

 Sale looking like Erod with 53 damn pitches in 2 innings.Pen will be in by the 5th.Need a 8 spot here.

Sale gives up a solo dinger to Encarnacion. Sox down 4-2 now.

Leaving LOBsters every inning will come back to haunt.  But Gonzalez did give up 5 and 2 homers last week's opener to A's.

YIKES - NOT a good start for Sale.

Just as I was thinking that 2 runs may be enough for Sale -
BAM, home run, then more hits
CRAP
Mariners 4 - Sox 2

None of this is surprising to me, this is what happens when you don't work your starters in spring training.  I expect to see more like this from the Red Sox starters over the next two weeks.

Beckham goes deep again for 2 this time. Sox down 6-2 now. Sale looks like crap.

 Contract not looking good tonight.Pitches are all over the pkace.

Sac fly makes it 7-2. Velazquez warming in the pen. Yeah, that'll help.

Quote from: markj on March 28, 2019, 07:28:10 PM
Beckham goes deep again for 2 this time. Sox down 6-2 now. Sale looks like crap.

He doesn't  even look that good.Putrid performance !!!

Quote from: markj on March 28, 2019, 07:28:10 PM
Beckham goes deep again for 2 this time. Sox down 6-2 now. Sale looks like crap.

According to the ESPN crew Sale only threw 9 innings in ST.  It is totally ridiculous to expect a starter to be regular season ready with such a light AT workload.

CRAPPY start to the season
CRAPPY start for Sale

AND yet, Sale's last start in Spring Training - he went 6 scoreless innings . . .

 I think Sale only went 5 innings in that game mainly against Pirates guys wearing very high numbers on their backs meaning they weren't their best.

Seattle batting practice. Yet another dinger. Sox down 8-2.

Quote from: elktonnick on March 28, 2019, 07:51:25 PM
I think Sale only went 5 innings in that game mainly against Pirates guys wearing very high numbers on their backs meaning they weren't their best.

You could be right.
AND yes, he was not pitching against a starting MLB lineup.

The Mariners have about the same amount of hits - their hits have home runs.
Sox have left 7 men on base.

NOT a good start to the season.
Really disappointed, especially with the way the game started.

CRAP

They left their heart in Jet Blue Park. sigh

Sox eke out another run courtesy of an RBI double by Vaz.

Maybe they can do better against Seattle's BP now.

Beni knocks in another run. Now 8-4.

Was just thinking that Velazquez didn't do too bad and then he loads up the bases with one out. Hembree coming in. I am not hopeful.

It looks to me that the couple of games that Seattle played got them up to game speed while the Sox are in extended spring training.

I’m surprised Sale got in 9, I wasn’t sure he had thrown a third time.  Certainly not ready.

How Hembree.  Gasoline, meet fire.  Yikes.

Hembree walks in a run on 4 pitches. Ugh. Useless.

Bad to worse. Now 10-4.

Quote from: longgame on March 28, 2019, 08:43:41 PM
It looks to me that the couple of games that Seattle played got them up to game speed while the Sox are in extended spring training.

I’m surprised Sale got in 9, I wasn’t sure he had thrown a third time.  Certainly not ready.

How Hembree.  Gasoline, meet fire.  Yikes.

It isn't just the pitching but the Sox are playing sloppy baseball.  This team simply does not look ready for the regular season.  I know they lost on opening day last but they started last year with a mission.

BOTH teams have 10 hits
AND the Mariners made the best of their hits.

Mariners 10 - Sox 4

Quote from: elktonnick on March 28, 2019, 08:58:48 PM

Quote from: longgame on March 28, 2019, 08:43:41 PM
It looks to me that the couple of games that Seattle played got them up to game speed while the Sox are in extended spring training.

I’m surprised Sale got in 9, I wasn’t sure he had thrown a third time.  Certainly not ready.

How Hembree.  Gasoline, meet fire.  Yikes.

It isn't just the pitching but the Sox are playing sloppy baseball.  This team simply does not look ready for the regular season.  I know they lost on opening day last but they started last year with a mission.

YUP!
They didn't look good in Spring Training.

AND last year they looked great in Spring Training
and took off in the regular season.

Hopefully, we can check this off as one bad game . . .

Side note on Sale .Staring 2018 like the way he finished last 3 months of 18 and we know how terrible that was.

Thornburg gives up a 2-run dinger. Why on earth is he still on the roster? He has *never* done well in a Red Sox uniform.

At least the pen is pitching up to their normal capabilities. 

Lots of question marks on the pitching staff.  Every guy that's pitched has run into trouble.  Since most were given few innings in ST, probably into April before they tune up.  Guys like Valaz, Hembree, Thorney -- what you see is what you get.

Devers still can't throw to 1B in the air.

 I'll  give him a pass on that hurried off balanced throw on a good play.

AND the Sox lose 12 - 4.

VERY disappointing way to start the season.

Quote from: elktonnick on March 28, 2019, 07:27:12 PM
None of this is surprising to me, this is what happens when you don't work your starters in spring training.  I expect to see more like this from the Red Sox starters over the next two weeks.

Perhaps Alex Cora got caught up in the hype that when you play an extra month in the Fall you have to go a little easy in ST Elk.  I'm not too surprised either but I didn't expect Chris to get hammered as he did tonight.  One game doesn't a season make but you would think the team will come back to rectify this farce of a game and make amends tomorrow.  Well I hope so anyway.  All we can do is put this to bed and root our guys to come out snarling tomorrow, but I was vindicated on one front in this game my friends out there.  I have had a hard-on for pitchers Velasquez, Thornburg and Workman, and the first two lived up to my worst expectations of them.  Both should become mop up men because they both stink to high heaven.  Well, let's come back and win tomorrow.  Maybe we can start a modest winning streak because we can't get this one back.

Quote from: markj on March 28, 2019, 09:16:59 PM
Thornburg gives up a 2-run dinger. Why on earth is he still on the roster? He has *never* done well in a Red Sox uniform.

Mark, someone either here or on BostonRedSoxForum said that the front office is reluctant to admit failure in that disastrous trade we made after the 2016 season when we traded Travis Shaw, a 30 homer, 100 RBI man for this POS.  If so, Dombrowski has to disenthrall himself, admit his mistake and dump this bum before he causes us any more damage.

NOT GOOD ...... Hung ovaa ? entitlement? do you know who we are ????  SALE looks like the arm will fall off on the next pitch ???  WOW, a wake up NOW call !!! thumb_d iono iono iono iono

Some of the players spent a lot of energy bemoaning owners not signing bigger contracts, and for honoring FA's who did not get signed.  I know It's pro sports, it's just one bad game, but time to get everybody on the same page.  I think Eovaldi will get it going on Friday.

This one fell apart early when Chris Sale, making his 4th Spring Training start, had to face live batters.  Then of course being coy with Pedey all year led to Nunez who must have the same frying pan, I mean glove, manufacturer, as Devers.  Neither of those guys play major league defense by a long shot.  The bullpen pitched like we thought they would.  No time for weeping, they go back at it today. 

However I stand by my comment that Seattle is already at game speed and the Sox don't look close to it yet.

I went to three ST games. Not much difference in the way they played last night.  No focus, they are still patting themselves on their backs for last year.  Cora wasted ST.  He doesn't have this team ready.  I hope they prove me wrong.  But, I see this team limping back to Boston with a losing record.

Quote from: elktonnick on March 29, 2019, 07:51:52 AM
I went to three ST games. Not much difference in the way they played last night.  No focus, they are still patting themselves on their backs for last year.  Cora wasted ST.  He doesn't have this team ready.  I hope they prove me wrong.  But, I see this team limping back to Boston with a losing record.

CONCUR ….. Looked like the Mariners are in the July 4th mode & OUR SOX are still talking about last year !! iono iono iono

Quote from: markj on March 28, 2019, 06:29:58 PM
Devers getting a quick start on his error total for the year. First ball hit his way this season. Inning should be over.

Our PITCHERS can not be happy with DEVER'S glove at 3rd base..... He also concerns me in the 3rd slot in the lineup ????  NO WAY to START !!! iono iono iono

Also are our pitchers still voicing their preference for Leon behind the plate? (Sale was one I think, and one other).  When he was waived, Cora stated 'we are not accomodating anybody.'  Cora will get all the drama put to bed, I think.

A good night's sleep did little to allay my fears that this team of ours is simply not ready for the season.  Anyone who now things ST failures cannot seep into the regular season should have what passes for their brains examined.  We simply looked like crap last night.  Tonight Cora has to wake up the team and maybe himself while he's about it, get Holt in at second to at least get some defense in the infield while Devers has to start playing third base better than he did last year and last night.  How about  guys?  Time to get the cobwebs out.

Quote from: Sea Dog 23 on March 29, 2019, 09:46:08 AM
Also are our pitchers still voicing their preference for Leon behind the plate? (Sale was one I think, and one other).  When he was waived, Cora stated 'we are not accomodating anybody.'  Cora will get all the drama put to bed, I think.

Cora is right there.  He should not be accommodating anybody, pitchers or otherwise.  Leon was a total washout at the plate and no team can carry a 177 hitter inthe lineup.  He's been outrighted and no other team made any move to sign or trade for him.  That speaks volumes about his talent because if anyone saw anything in this guy they would have asked for him.  No one did.  Case closed.

Quote from: SeaBeachFred on March 29, 2019, 09:55:49 AM

Quote from: Sea Dog 23 on March 29, 2019, 09:46:08 AM
Also are our pitchers still voicing their preference for Leon behind the plate? (Sale was one I think, and one other).  When he was waived, Cora stated 'we are not accomodating anybody.'  Cora will get all the drama put to bed, I think.

Cora is right there.  He should not be accommodating anybody, pitchers or otherwise.  Leon was a total washout at the plate and no team can carry a 177 hitter inthe lineup.  He's been outrighted and no other team made any move to sign or trade for him.  That speaks volumes about his talent because if anyone saw anything in this guy they would have asked for him.  No one did.  Case closed.

Good points Fred.  He was awful but he may still be up at some point later in the season.

I was concerned about this whole idea of starting the season with 11 straight road games, but they actually came out pretty good.  Much like last year they were stringing together base hits and you had the feeling they were still in it a little bit when they climbed to 8-4, but the pen blew any chance.  The real shame is that Sale gave up 7 and the pen gave up 5.  Even if Sale pitched a gem it may not have mattered.

Quote from: SeaBeachFred on March 29, 2019, 09:55:49 AM

Quote from: Sea Dog 23 on March 29, 2019, 09:46:08 AM
Also are our pitchers still voicing their preference for Leon behind the plate? (Sale was one I think, and one other).  When he was waived, Cora stated 'we are not accomodating anybody.'  Cora will get all the drama put to bed, I think.

Cora is right there.  He should not be accommodating anybody, pitchers or otherwise.  Leon was a total washout at the plate and no team can carry a 177 hitter inthe lineup.  He's been outrighted and no other team made any move to sign or trade for him.  That speaks volumes about his talent because if anyone saw anything in this guy they would have asked for him.  No one did.  Case closed.

The case is closed until an injury. Then pick your poison between 3 slugs. Centino   Hernandez or Leon none of which have a career BA of .230   



Read more: http://www.milb.com/roster/index.jsp?sid=milb&cid=533#ixzz5jZpuLAGc

Raffy and Nunez did what they do commit errors. At least, for now, Nunez had some speed and hustle perhaps his knees are better.

Quote from: SeaBeachFred on March 29, 2019, 09:51:36 AM
A good night's sleep did little to allay my fears that this team of ours is simply not ready for the season.  Anyone who now things ST failures cannot seep into the regular season should have what passes for their brains examined.  We simply looked like crap last night.  Tonight Cora has to wake up the team and maybe himself while he's about it, get Holt in at second to at least get some defense in the infield while Devers has to start playing third base better than he did last year and last night.  How about  guys?  Time to get the cobwebs out.

I happen to agree.  There were not as prepared as last year.
Spring Training 2018 - the Sox went 22 - 9 and WERE READY to play.
I know that he had to consider that the starting pitchers pitched until the end of October (YEAH),
BUT, he had to know that the season started on March 28th.


Disappointing start for the Sox AND sale.

Quote from: Murph on March 29, 2019, 11:05:25 AM

Quote from: SeaBeachFred on March 29, 2019, 09:55:49 AM

Quote from: Sea Dog 23 on March 29, 2019, 09:46:08 AM
Also are our pitchers still voicing their preference for Leon behind the plate? (Sale was one I think, and one other).  When he was waived, Cora stated 'we are not accomodating anybody.'  Cora will get all the drama put to bed, I think.

Cora is right there.  He should not be accommodating anybody, pitchers or otherwise.  Leon was a total washout at the plate and no team can carry a 177 hitter inthe lineup.  He's been outrighted and no other team made any move to sign or trade for him.  That speaks volumes about his talent because if anyone saw anything in this guy they would have asked for him.  No one did.  Case closed.

The case is closed until an injury. Then pick your poison between 3 slugs. Centino   Hernandez or Leon none of which have a career BA of .230   



Read more: http://www.milb.com/roster/index.jsp?sid=milb&cid=533#ixzz5jZpuLAGc

We had better hope with all our might that Swihart and Vazquez stay healthy and that the former gets his chance to show what he can do because any of those three slugs you mentioned would be a bitter pill to swallow since none of them can hit worth shit, and it is time to move on from wastrels like that.

Leon will be back catching mark my words 177 ba or not.  What is much more important is how he calls the game.  I just don't see either Swihart or Vaz cutting the mustard behind the plate.

Quote from: elktonnick on March 29, 2019, 03:17:22 PM
Leon will be back catching mark my words 177 ba or not.  What is much more important is how he calls the game.  I just don't see either Swihart or Vaz cutting the mustard behind the plate.

They won't get better if they don't play and show improvemt Elk which they won't do if they are being jerked in and out of the lineup, and, besides, if some of our hitters have hangovers as our team did last night, having a 177 hitter in that lineup will negate any improvement that may incur should the team be dumb enough to bring Leon back catch.  When we DFA a guy we have to learn that we need to rid ourselves of him instead of doing the dance of bringing back these piss poor players time and again.  When it is time to cut bait we mus CUT BAIT!!!!!!!!  However, I do fear that by some stupid move by the front office we have not seen the last of Leon even though he didn't make the team, and for a guy who many think is invalauable to pitching staffs it is a surprise that no other team even made a move to get him from us.

This team won 108 games during the regular season with Leon as their primary catcher.  His BA did not hurt them but his work behind the plate helped considerably.  Without him I see their pitching staff as being adversely affected as evidenced by the pitchers' era with him being quite lower than when anyone else caught.