ground-ball pitchers, pandas, victorino's rickety spine and the hope of mookie betts: your 2015 Boston Red Sox

seriously they're slouching shockingly toward quality in a tangible way, but they can't lose momentum

4 1/2 back in the division

13.5% to win the division, 26.6% to make the playoffs

and you haven't even shit on mike napoli lately

I mean the team is kinda doing that for me, david ortiz is repeatedly playing first base. in AL games.

I got to figure Ryan Hanigan is probably living out the dream getting to play for the Red Sox this year being from MA. Hanigan's a cool player, definitely someone that has pretty much maxed out of his talent.

buch's breaking ball that starts outside (to left-handers) and then darts back over the plate is fucking devastating today. he's thrown it like 80% of the time and he should keep doing so

aaaand now he's hurt

buch only on the 15-day, just enough time to coincide with the break and bring up brian johnson

I have also run out of possible explanations for the streak of de aza inexplicably doing something good or valuable in almost every game he plays in, at age 31 after being traded for nothing by the orange birds due to like a 15-game hitless streak

as much as i love brock holt you could make the argument that his fielding miscues led directly to the big innings that lost the game yesterday and probably today

they won yday! Friday was the big fuckup

but yea I mean when holt fucks up it's usually pretty consequential, which you forget bc of his utility value/general competence

yes sorry day before yday

de aza 2-4 today

nbd man just gotta savor every win in these trying times

and yea the de aza train rolls on, he had a bad miscue in left yday when he was a defensive replacement but they won the game anyway so it wasn't even a big deal

holt probably my straight up favorite player

would love to see mookie tear the cover off the ball here

ah shit

I like holt despite distrusting the cult of brock holt. xander is my favorite current red sock followed by koji

did not know there was a cult!! of what does this cult consist? yeah xander right up there, koji.. so many people to like on this team

lol I'm referring to the adoration and partial overrating focused around gritty wite players like holt, which tbf is not exclusive to boston (see how the yankee fans view gardner, countless other examples past and present) but because of certain aspects of our sports culture in the city can be magnified to a degree I find questionable

i getcha

RHP from single-A greenville, mike kopech, banned 50 for some type of speed or another http://www.bostonglobe.com/sports/2015/07/16/red-sox-minor-leaguer-suspended-games/fbHt8rbLGqg9RMGzsyxt4J/story.html?s_campaign=bostonglobe%3Asocialflow%3Atwitter

brilliant move, kid :/

the fuck is it with this new generation of stimulants. oxilofrine?

tbh i wouldn't be too surprised if this were a mistake of supplements or something. he's 19, a first-round pick, got a $1.5m bonus -- no real motive at this point

he did have a jump in velocity this season, which everyone is now questioning, but that's hardly uncommon for high school kids

going to tonight's game. Go Angeles, Boo Panda.

haha, Angels

lol ok dude

like you don't need to be mad just bc the faustian bargain bochy made dictates that odd year wins are not permitted seems like a bad way to live imo

so Uehara threw Trout an 83 mph fastball? is that his 9th-inning weapon?

not much you can do against the best player there is

looked more like a failed splitter than his (such as it is) fastball, but oh well

zloth you don't get me at all, i was being sarcatic. i was hurt at what he said at first but i have moved on...

only care about one team.

Trout is the man, they had two hits tonight and one was the walk-off.

I suppose I'm happier to see a drought stricken state get rained on than see the sox lose earlier in the evening

rip eduardo

@TimBritton
The Angels scored seven runs on Eduardo Rodriguez's last eight pitches.

u coulda been a contender ed-rod

https://www.bostonglobe.com/sports/2015/07/19/hopes-growing-that-eduardo-rodriguez-ace-material/ncuPXV9uh9HvRccJYUahjM/story.html

*sighs deeply*

his offspeed stuff needs a lot of work imo

I agree there def, also his movements are clearly easy to read although since he's a kid that can be fixed

unrelated, this dude filling in for don orsillo in the booth with remy is v off-putting

sounds kinda like patrick bateman calling a game :/

sometimes pitch tipping doesn't get fixed :/

sometimes pitch tipping doesn't get fixed :/

true, but he's so young and the massive natural talent is so clearly there i'm willing to wait to see if he works it out

never missing an opportunity for nostalgia mining, NESN is airing a marathon of classic pedro games

not that I'm complaining

currently on aug 28 2000 where he hit gerald williams and went complete game, 1H, 13K, 0R, 0BB.

Hot sub-.500 showdown on ESPN tonight.

lol yea, at least with the tigers it's only one game under rather than...12.

miley is pitching tonight and his last start was legit great so there's that but I ain't expecting anything anymore. barring a massive run (which seems impossible), the season's fuckin over

turning point, people

:D

beautiful game. even if it's just that and things haven't changed overall, it was fuckin great

also I posted earlier that miley was starting and it was in fact ed-rod, but rodriguez was great tonight!

in the bleachers for pedro day

there will be tears