Dirty Water - the tale of the 2023 Boston Red Sox

I watched the Bello innings and then the scores of last night’s game. Pretty rough outing for Bello but he only allowed one run, despite the best efforts of that guy who is not a shortstop. His skyhigh pitch count in the first two innings with all the sloppy breaking balls reminded me of a classic bad Zito outing in the 2012 NLDS against the Reds(!). And Joely Rodriguez isn’t Tim Lincecum.

Actually, just looking through his pitching sequences, it looks like Maguire kept calling for his slider, which was a ball 99% of the time? Wtf?

I should really look at it in more detail but yeah, I don’t think Maguire is much of a catcher.

I am here because I do not want to talk about the Mariners. 🫣🫣🫣

The Red Sox are .500 and have a run differential of -3 when President Biden takes a tumble

June 18, 2022
🇻🇮falls over on bike
⚾️ BOS loses to STL 2-11

June 1, 2023
🇻🇮tripped on flat ground
⚾️BOS beats CIN 8-2 pic.twitter.com/QpDhKP5RR3

— Coop (@coop_leon) June 2, 2023

seems like chris sale might be out for awhile, depending on what the MRI says. he'd been on fire of late too, peak level performance.

Is there actual news? I’ve been enjoying watching him all season, love this slender psycho

Shoulder soreness which I guess could maybe just be soreness, I'm keeping my fingers crossed, but cora didn't seem optimistic.

Possible IL stint for Chris Sale, Cora said. He’s still sore and at least been ruled out for his next start. Doctors are reviewing MRI and Cora said the Red Sox will know more later on.
If placed on IL, Kluber (paternity list) will take his spot and Sherriff will stay

— Christopher Smith (@SmittyOnMLB) June 2, 2023

one last rodeo for the klubinator

Alex Cora just confirmed on @NESN that Chris Sale will go to the IL. Said he hopes he didn’t hurt the shoulder any more by ramping it up on the couple of fastballs he threw to the final batter.

— Tom Caron (blue checkmark redacted) (@TomCaron) June 2, 2023

This quite frankly sucks!

Dermody is a hateful dipshit, but there are a lot of hateful dipshits. Chaim Bloom's quotes in this piece, however, are enraging. https://t.co/iVPk0ufzKh

— Craig Calcaterra (@craigcalcaterra) June 8, 2023

Scrolling though his tweeter, the homophobia is one of many, many things wrong with this dude.

Hopefully he gets booed so loudly it gets in his peabrain and then he gets promptly shelled back to whatever minor/international league he came from.

(sorry Sox fans)

I personally hope he gets lit up and then DFAed

uhhhm so was the tweet a "mistake" or a "statement of his beliefs" that the red sox should respect????? fucking hell

It’s so bad

Going through the likes tab of tonight’s starter for the Red Sox! Very normal behavior on display here! pic.twitter.com/HKdAVdyRZF

— Fitzy Mo Peña (@FitzyMoPena) June 8, 2023

what a f’n loser

I personally hope he gets lit up and then DFAed

:D

Will they do the same with Kluber though

if devers got caught with something like this, i could at least understand why the sox/bloom would go to great lengths to excuse it. but this guy is the absolute definition of replacement player! why wouldn’t you just get another quad-a guy (being generous) who *isn’t* an obvious bigot?

Right?????

https://t.co/Mr85r1oyVM pic.twitter.com/0V9uEGyEAa

— sam (@redsoxsam_) June 9, 2023

Chris Sale on the 60 day IL 😩

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FyNNRx2XwAEtT10?format=jpg&name=large

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FxG9zmhWYAA2JVa?format=jpg&name=medium

The “flex” on base celebration is pretty cute, but it’s even better when they cut to the dugout and show all the guys there doing it back.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fy12GKSWAAAfmVQ?format=jpg&name=large

INCREDIBLE

Alex Verdugo’s dad is having a FANTASTIC Father’s Day lmao pic.twitter.com/54kOgd8zmg

— Arcand (@ChristianArcand) June 18, 2023

"thank you for the edibles"

His brother had to post a photo of it lol

“The edibles” 😂😂 @espn pic.twitter.com/ID064zIAvJ

— Chris Verdugo (@sirdugo520) June 18, 2023

Oh yeah let me not ignore this catch by Duran! 😮‍💨😮‍💨😮‍💨

WHAT A PLAY BY JARREN DURAN! 🤯🤯🤯 pic.twitter.com/gU3kTu0pZb

— Red Sox (@RedSox) June 18, 2023

Btw my searingly hot take is that the City connect uniforms are the most photogenic of them all!

https://i.postimg.cc/G2zvM1SZ/IMG-3670.jpg

Nice piece about Yoshida in The Athletic today.

Isolated by language, culture and unfamiliarity, Yoshida remains a unique presence inside the Red Sox clubhouse, but he’s made unmistakable connections with his teammates and coaches. Translator Keiichiro Wakabayashi is ever-present to facilitate conversations, and Yoshida has learned enough English to engage his American teammates in basic discussions, especially when baseball terminology will suffice. Yoshida often laughs in the locker room and around the batting cage, and the other players like him.

Cora said he tried earlier this year to guess which team was the runner-up in the Yoshida sweepstakes, but Yoshida again surprised him by saying at one point that he thought he was going to end up with the Blue Jays. Yoshida’s left-handed bat would have been a nice fit in that Toronto lineup, and it wouldn’t have made things any easier in the American League East.

“I’m glad that it was us,” Cora said.

Stats always gets the best screenshots

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FzMEipnWYAAzMyZ?format=png&name=small

I’m so impressed with Bello. He developed a cutter and is already using it! Also, watching his game last night back, he’s looking so much more assured with men on base, they leave him to get out of trouble and so far he’s been able to do it. Perhaps most importantly, he wasn’t even at his best and still ground out the win.

he’s turning into a certified stud, incredible stuff

Devers said in his postgame he sees Bello as a little brother and tries to help him all he can. Regardless of where this team goes, watching Bello come on in leaps and bounds is really incredible stuff.

I can’t believe he literally developed and has been using a new pitch in the week!

how tf are these pitches all clustered so tightly, this is insane

Bello threw a new pitch tonight, a cutter. pic.twitter.com/RCCfNzGz11

— Red Sox Stats (@redsoxstats) June 24, 2023

Yeah I was shocked by that stats graph too cos his command didn’t look that great but I was wrong. He’s also throwing to his non-personal catcher!

The bats are asleep, the rotation picks up a new injury every week, and they’re one game above .500, but the vibes are undefeated.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUYcXyXVwbI

Some style choices were made here
https://i.postimg.cc/YSYhZWYr/IMG-4342.jpg

The Jarren Duran game! 5 for 5! 4 were doubles!

I cannot TELL you how much I love this kid.

Brayan Bello, Dirty 85mph Changeup. 👌 pic.twitter.com/KL1gWDcf4j

— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) July 6, 2023

I think you can argue he's been better than Eury Perez. Twice as many innings, 2.8 WAR already. Gave up more than 2 runs only once since May 10 (he gave up 3 against Tampa Bay on June 5)

Too soon to say on that count or Perez’s - the latter got absolutely lit up in one of his most recent starts. He’s just incredible to watch and he’s tough - he wants to go seven, he wants to pitch out of jams and go after the best hitters aggressively.

tough to sit triston even against a RHP. is duvall really that important? is yoshida really that bad in LF? too many DHs i guess..

Cora was asked about it yesterday & he said Triston was odd man out because they wanted to start Duran which means that if they want to play Duvall (which they did) means that Yoshida has to DH. And they want to keep Turner in too and he historically has great numbers against Gray, so I get it but I didn’t like it.

However, Cora also said they are going to start playing Turner at 2B more, for maximising his time in the lineup going forward. The two unsaid are that they are trying to get Duvall going again so they can trade him (that outfield is crowded with Duran, Kiké, Refsnyder, Verdugo and Duvall), so they have to try and get him ABs. The other is that Yu Chang and Pablo Reyes are both coming back, and this plus the Turner at 2B thing is probably bad news for either Kiké or Arroyo (think they will trade the latter if they can). But yeah, Triston had such a good June I’m hoping he hasn’t been cooled off. Having said that, there were some great signs for his hitting which definitely helped secure his position. Stats actually pointed out he had 96 PAs in June which was up there.

Piece about roster crunch here.

Oh and also idk if you watched the Toronto games but Yoshida was struck hard with a line drive in the shin so it wouldn’t surprise me if they put him at DH on and off a little more often so he doesn’t have to run or jump while he recovers. Think he has a bone bruise?

Yoshida got hit in the leg with a 101.8 mph four-seam fastball from Nate Pearson during the seventh inning. He went 2-for-3 with an RBI single.

Jarren 🥹

I could say more but Connor Wong being put in for the top of the ninth and immediately throwing out the best player on the A’s is why he’s him

Connor Wong immediately erases Rooker pic.twitter.com/pAJAxMSgwL

— Mr Matthew CFB (@MrMatthewCFB) July 9, 2023

That was so bad-ass

Watched Bello’s innings - got into difficulty a few times but got out of it again. They really want to push him through these difficult innings and force him to work it out and if he can do it to a team like the Rangers he can do it to anyone.

Nice to see some power from the lineup. It’ll also be nice to see the most handsome man in baseball meet Dansby Swanson on Sunday.

lol excellent

The other thing is that Cora doesn’t really have a choice. Boston literally has three starters. They’re all going 6 if they haven’t thrown 100 pitches yet and the game’s close

Bello’s last 13 starts:

5.0, 1 ER
5.0, 2 ER
6.0, 2 ER
5.0, 1 ER
7.0, 2 ER
4.0, 1 ER
6.0, 3 ER
7.0, 2 ER
7.0, 1 ER
6.2, 1 ER
7.0, 1 ER
7.0, 2 ER
6.0, 3 ER

On the subject of the most hench outfield:

HE’S READY
https://i.postimg.cc/503WBHCs/IMG-2806.jpg

HE’S READY
https://i.postimg.cc/YqjBFCqx/IMG-5091.png

HE’S READY
https://i.postimg.cc/3NfMqP9p/IMG-2807.jpg