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Post by CP_Jon_GoSox on Aug 18, 2021 3:24:40 GMT -5
Lou Merloni @loumerloni · 6h Has more to do with the Sox than the Yankees. They are not a good team. Just better than the Sox with the way they’re playing right now which is awful.
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Post by CP_Jon_GoSox on Aug 18, 2021 3:27:53 GMT -5
Red Sox Stats @redsoxstats · 6h A whole heap a trash contact made by Red Sox batters tonight. They actually took 4 walks and only struck out 5 times, so even more brutal. Those 2 games picked up while playing Baltimore are wiped out in the last 24 hours.
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Post by CP_Jon_GoSox on Aug 18, 2021 3:43:44 GMT -5
Red Sox @ Yankees Wednesday, 18th August 2021 7pm @ Boogie Dowm
Pivetta 9-5/4.20
Nick Pivetta held the Orioles to one run in six innings and struck out eight in a win Friday. Pivetta has been sharp in consecutive outings for the first time since April. The win tonight moved him to 9-5 with a 4.20 ERA through 23 starts.
Heaney 7-8/5.78
Andrew Heaney allowed seven earned runs over five innings against the White sox on Thursday, but didn't factor into the decision. Heaney just can't catch a break, as he's now allowed four earned runs or more in six of his last nine starts. He's had trouble limiting home runs most of his career (1.57 HR/9) and he's now allowed nine home runs over his last four starts. The 30-year-old lefty saw his ERA rise from 5.45 to 5.78 following the poor outing, but at least he has a respectable 113/31 K/BB over 109 innings pitched.
Yankees look to surpass Red Sox in AL East According to STATS
Less than a month ago, the Boston Red Sox led the New York Yankees by 9 1/2 games in the American League East Division race.
The Red Sox no longer hold the lead in the division, and the Yankees can move past their rivals in the wild-card race Wednesday night when the teams play their final regular-season game of the season series at Yankee Stadium.
The Yankees are tied with Boston for the second wild-card spot and their 68-52 record matches the Oakland Athletics, whom they visit next week.
They lost 10 of their first 13 games in the season series and were 9 1/2 behind the Red Sox in the division on July 26, the day after blowing a four-run lead in Fenway.
New York is 17-5 since blowing that lead and is seeking its sixth straight victory overall, which would match a season best.
The Yankees caught the Red Sox when they recorded a 5-3 victory in the opener and a 2-0 victory in the nightcap of Tuesday's day-night doubleheader.
"It's a team that has a lot of heart, playing with a lot of confidence," Yankees manager Aaron Boone said after the nightcap. "We got a long way to go. We got to continue putting the foot on the gas. The group is a confident group, and we know what we're capable of."
The Yankees won two more close games thanks to big hits from Luke Voit and Giancarlo Stanton, who combined for five RBIs Tuesday.
Voit hit a go-ahead, two-run single in the fifth inning of the opener and then homered in the second inning of the nightcap. Stanton hit a pinch-hit single in the fifth inning of the opener and homered in the fourth of the second game.
Those hits coupled with Jonathan Loaisiga escaping a bases-loaded jam to end the opener and Wandy Peralta doing the same in the fifth of the nightcap helped the Yankees improve to a major league-leading 45-23 in games decided by two runs or fewer. New York also is 18-4 in those games since the All-Star break.
The Red Sox entered their final series in New York by scoring 51 runs and winning four of their previous five games but on Tuesday they went 2-for-14 with runners in scoring position in the doubleheader.
During the doubleheader, the middle-of-the-lineup hitters Xander Bogaerts, Rafael Devers and J.D. Martinez went a combined 3-for-18.
"Things just aren't going our way at the moment," Devers said.
Tuesday's outcome also dropped Boston to 8-14 since taking three of four from the Yankees at Fenway.
Andrew Heaney (7-8, 5.78 ERA), who is 1-1 with a 9.00 ERA since being acquired from the Los Angeles Angels, makes his fourth start as a Yankee.
He last pitched in Thursday's "Field of Dreams" game against the Chicago White Sox when he allowed seven runs in five innings of a no-decision.
Heaney is 2-1 with a 5.92 ERA in five career starts against Boston.
Nick Pivetta (9-5, 4.20) starts for Boston and seeks consecutive wins for the first time since going 6-0 in his first 10 starts of the season.
Pivetta is 1-1 with a 2.16 ERA in three starts this month and last pitched on Friday when he allowed one run on three hits in six innings of an 8-1 win over the Baltimore Orioles.
Pivetta is making his first career start against the Yankees. He allowed two runs in two innings as a reliever against them on Aug. 6, 2020 shortly before Boston acquired him from the Philadelphia Phillies.
--Field Level Media
Red Sox at Yankees Wednesday, at 7:05 PM EST Cloudy According to Forecast.io, it's expected to be 78° F with a 4% chance of rain and 10 MPH wind blowing right to left in New York City at 7:05 PM EST. Hourly Forecasts: Weather.com Forecast.io
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Post by CP_Jon_GoSox on Aug 18, 2021 6:08:56 GMT -5
Peter Gammons @pgammo · 2h Garrett Whitlock hadn't pitched since 2019, and is on 60 innings in leverage relief in 2021. Tanner Houck threw 17 innings in 2020, and in a pennant race rotation,
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Post by CP_Jon_GoSox on Aug 18, 2021 7:45:04 GMT -5
Reeling Red Sox react to Yankees making up 9 games in 23 days to catch them | ‘Whatever’ Today 8:30 AM
By Randy Miller | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
The Boston Red Sox are blowing a good thing and acting like it’s no big deal.
Manager Alex Cora and Co., aren’t panicking, but maybe they should be after freefalling their way from a nice lead in the American League East in early July to not holding a playoff spot after losing both ends of a day-night doubleheader to the Yankees on Tuesday at Yankee Stadium.
“It’s not deflating,” Cora said after the Yankees prevailed 5-3 in the opener and 2-0 in Game 2. “It’s two games we lost. Whatever.”
Whatever?
Yes, these were just two losses, but they were two more losses. The Red Sox are 15-21 since winning on July 5 to go 22 games over .500. Then, they had a 4 ½-game division lead on the second-place Tampa Bay Rays and were up 10 ½ games on the fourth-place Yankees.
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The Red Sox still were in first on July 25 after giving the Yankees what appeared to be a stake to the heart. That’s the day that Domingo German took a 4-0 lead and a no-hitter into the eighth inning only to watch Boston score five times en route to a 5-4 stunner that left the Yanks nine games off the pace.
Since, the Yankees haven’t lost a series despite having an overloaded injured list that was 20 players deep just a few days ago.
“They’ve got a lot of guys that are capable of stepping up and it’s part of having a good farm system,” said Red Sox pitcher Nathan Eovaldi, the Game 2 loser. “When key guys go down, they can get the job done.”
The previous time Boston was in New York, Cora felt sorry for the Yankees because it was right when they had five players go on the COVID IL. Triple-A call-ups then plus trade-deadline deals for Anthony Rizzo and Joey Gallo balanced out the Yankees’ lineup, added speed and improved the defense.
“They have a good team,” Cora said of the Yankees. “I’ve been saying it all along. They did some good things when they were in trouble with the COVID and all that. They’re playing a different brand of baseball. That’s a different team from early in the season. They’re more agile, more versatile, more athletic.
“And one thing they’ve done throughout the season: They can pitch, and they’ve done it throughout. Obviously they’ve had some rough patches, but I think overall their starting rotation is pretty solid. Their bullpen is good. When you pitch, you give yourself a chance to win ballgames, and that’s what they done.”
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Cora is confidence his ballclub will snap out of its slump because of its pitching, which got a big boost last weekend with seven-time All-Star left-hander Chris Sale returning from Tommy John surgery to win his first start since 2019. Cora also is a big fan of his team’s slumping offense, which was among the best in baseball in the first half of the season.
“Pitching wise … we feel like the guy out there is going to give us a chance to win the game, and that’s very important,” Cora said. “I think offensively we’re a lot better than we showed (Tuesday).”
In the doubleheader, the Red Sox managed just three runs over 14 innings. Down two runs in the opener, Boston had the bases loaded with nobody out in the last inning facing Jonathan Loaisiga and didn’t score. In the nightcap, the only runs of the game came on solo homers by Luke Voit and Giancarlo Stanton off Eovaldi.
“Things aren’t going our way,” Red Sox third baseman Rafael Devers said. “In the beginning of the season and before the All-Star break things were going our way. Now we have to find a different way to find those wins.”
Cora figures it’s going to be a fun final six weeks of the season with the Red Sox and Yankees fighting it out for one or two playoff spots.
“Before the season, everybody thought (the Yankees) were going to be in this situation,” Cora said. “They did an outstanding job to gain ground, but we still have a lot of baseball to play.”
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Post by CP_Jon_GoSox on Aug 18, 2021 7:55:05 GMT -5
Alex Cora Sends Message To Red Sox After Yankees Sweep Doubleheader
'From my end, you stay the course'
by Adam London
1 hours ago
The Red Sox are reeling, but Alex Cora knows it’s no time for his players to hang their heads.
Boston had a frustrating day in the Bronx on Tuesday when it dropped both games of a doubleheader against New York. The Red Sox, who held a 9 1/2-game lead over the Yankees in the American League East standings July 26, now trail the Bombers in the division race.
Given the way the pair of contests panned out for the Sox, it only would be natural for players in the clubhouse to experience feelings of frustration and discouragement. But as Cora explained after Tuesday’s nightcap, his team needs to maintain tunnel vision.
“Obviously there (are) no moral victories,” Cora told reporters, per The Boston Globe. “You come here, try to win games, and it didn’t happen. We’re not happy that we lost two games, but the deflating part of it, the frustrating part of it, if people feel that way in the clubhouse, they need to turn the page and be ready to play (Wednesday). From my end, you stay the course.”
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Post by CP_Jon_GoSox on Aug 18, 2021 8:57:23 GMT -5
Welcome to the Red Sox' latest biggest game of the season Current Time 0:18 / Duration 3:16
By Rob Bradford 4 minutes ago
We've been doing this for two weeks, and could potentially keep the exercise going for another 40 games.
But Wednesday night might be at least slightly different. When it comes to biggest games of the season, this one is way up on the power rankings.
The Red Sox woke up in New York Wednesday in a spot they hadn't seen since early April, technically in third-place. (They are one game in back of both the Yankees and A's in the loss column.) That was courtesy an uncomfortable doubleheader sweep in the Bronx.
All of those feelings that something bad is around the corner which the Red Sox felt like they scraped away thanks to the Orioles returned in all the familiar ways.
A semi-dominant Tanner Houck outing that lands with a loss. Bullpen inconsistency. The disappearance of offense when they needed it the most. And, as is becoming a familiar theme, a Yankees team that expects wins will somehow always be the end result.
So, why does this game -- the one with Nick Pivetta going up against Andrew Heaney -- distinguish itself? Because this, perhaps unlike any of the previous post-All-Star break opportunities, is a chance to change the conversation.
If the Red Sox are able to figure out the hottest team in baseball since July 6 this one time, there can be proof that all those bits of optimism we were getting sprinkled with over the weekend might matter.
The starting rotation can hang with anyone. Christian Arroyo is coming back to lengthen the lineup. Maybe Martin Perez, Ryan Brasier and/or Garrett Richards can help fill what appears to a late-inning relief corps that is clearly an arm short. And, yes, images like the one of Rafael Devers stranding five runners in the Sox' 2-0 Game 2 loss is nothing more than a simple abberration.
The Red Sox win and they are once again a Wild Card team with the feeling of betting an actual playoff contender in their holsters. (They are 2-11 in their last 13 games against teams with a .500 mark or better.) And, to top it off, there are all those non-playoff contenders waiting on the schedule.
Tom Caron @tomcaron · 26m Today @fangraphs still gives #RedSox (78.1%) a better chance of making the playoffs than the #Yankees (71.4%.) Sox strength of schedule is .487, lowest in AL East. Sox have 9 games remaining against the Orioles, who have lost 13 straight (for 2nd time this season.)
After this game, the next three teams the Red Sox play (Texas, Minnesota, Cleveland) have a combined record of 153-204 and run-differential of negative-152.
So, while this game is somewhat about not slipping further into Wild Card standings uneasiness, it is more about getting the conversation regarding Alex Cora's team and the Yankees back on its previous track.
Conversely, a loss simply seems like we are getting into runaway locomotive territory.
The Orioles won't be around to save the Red Sox for another 30 days. It's time for this team to start saving itself.
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Post by CP_Jon_GoSox on Aug 18, 2021 10:14:08 GMT -5
Dan Roche @rochiewbz 23m #RedSox are 6-12 since the #MLB Trade Deadline and 3 of those wins came against the horrifically bad Orioles. There’s still time - 40 games to go and team is set to battle for playoff spot. It’s all up to players in that clubhouse. Can they win 21-26 games to get to 90-95 wins?
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Post by CP_Jon_GoSox on Aug 18, 2021 13:11:02 GMT -5
Red Sox Stats @redsoxstats · 1h August has seen the Red Sox total collapse in performance in High Leverage situations by both hitters and pitchers. The players not being able to get the big hit or make the key pitch at the same time is disaster.
High Leverage situations: Looking at a hundred different numbers since things started going off the rails and it's just preposterous how many facets have concurrently or consecutively gone wrong. Starting July 29 it's just whiplash. Have to hope it ends in similar fashion.
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Post by CP_Jon_GoSox on Aug 18, 2021 13:12:40 GMT -5
Bill Koch @billkoch25 · 1h Darwinzon Hernandez and Danny Santana both earn a mention in today's @woosox game notes. Rehab assignments could be coming.
Christian Arroyo went 0-for-2 with a HBP in his first game Tuesday night. #RedSox
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Post by CP_Jon_GoSox on Aug 18, 2021 13:16:35 GMT -5
Pete Abraham @peteabe · 1h Nick Pivetta is facing the Yankees as a member of the Red Sox for the first time tonight.
Only previous time was last Aug. 6 in relief for the Phillies.
Since moving back to the leadoff spot on June 27, Kiké Hernández has hit .293/.407/.555.
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Post by CP_Jon_GoSox on Aug 18, 2021 13:16:49 GMT -5
Pete Abraham @peteabe · 1h #RedSox bullpen had a 3.48 ERA with opponents hitting .236 through July 28.
Since: 6.93 ERA with opponents hitting .300.
Only the Pirates (6.95), Cubs (7.86) and Orioles (8.96) are higher.
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Post by CP_Jon_GoSox on Aug 18, 2021 13:28:55 GMT -5
Game 123: Red Sox at Yankees lineups and pregame notesBy Andrew Mahoney Globe Staff,Updated August 18, 2021, 10:31 a.m. When it comes to the playoff picture, the Red Sox find themselves tied for the final wild-card spot after getting swept by the Yankees in Tuesday’s doubleheader. Here are the standings. After scoring just three runs in 14 innings Tuesday, the Red Sox will look to get the bats going Wednesday to avoid a series sweep and falling further back in the American League East. After today’s game, the Red Sox will have the day off Thursday before opening a three-game series with the Rangers on Friday at Fenway Park. Lineups RED SOX (69-53): 1. Enrique Hernandez (R) 2B 2. Hunter Renfroe (R) CF 3. Xander Bogaerts (R) SS 4. Rafael Devers (L) 3B 5. J.D. Martinez (R) RF 6. Kevin Plawecki (R) DH 7. Alex Verdugo (L) LF 8. Bobby Dalbec (R) 1B 9. Christian Vazquez (R) C Pitching: RHP Nick Pivetta (9-5, 4.20 ERA) YANKEES (68-52): 1. DJ LeMahieu (R) 2B 2. Anthony Rizzo (L) 1B 3. Aaron Judge (R) RF 4. Joey Gallo (L) LF 5. Giancarlo Stanton (R) DH 6. Rougned Odor (L) 3B 7. Gary Sanchez (R) C 8. Brett Gardner (L) CF 9. Andrew Velazquez (S) SS Pitching: LHP Andrew Heaney (7-8, 5.78 ERA) Time: 7:05 p.m. TV, radio: ESPN, NESN, WEEI-FM 93.7 Red Sox vs. Heaney: Xander Bogaerts 7-13, Bobby Dalbec 1-2, Rafael Devers 2-8, Kiké Hernández 2-12, J.D. Martinez 3-6, Hunter Renfroe 0-5, Alex Verdugo 1-3, Christian Vázquez 1-6. Yankees vs. Pivetta: Jonathan Davis 0-2, Joey Gallo 0-1, Brett Gardner 0-1, DJ LeMahieu 2-6, Rougned Odor 0-2, Giancarlo Stanton 3-10, Gary Sánchez 1-1, Luke Voit 0-1, Tyler Wade 0-1. Stat of the day: In Tuesday’s doubleheader, the Red Sox managed only 12 hits — 11 of them singles — and were 2 for 14 with runners in scoring position.
Notes: Bogaerts, Devers, and Martinez went a combined 3-for-18 on Tuesday. … Pivetta seeks consecutive wins for the first time since going 6-0 in his first 10 starts of the season. He is 1-1 with a 2.16 ERA in three starts this month and is making his first career start against the Yankees. … Heaney is making his fourth start as a Yankee and is 1-1 with a 9.00 ERA since being acquired from the Los Angeles Angels. He is 2-1 with a 5.92 ERA in five career starts. Song of the Day: Stone Temple Pilots - Big Bang Babywww.youtube.com/watch?v=G0gAxuvo5rc
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Post by CP_Jon_GoSox on Aug 18, 2021 13:55:37 GMT -5
Has he been sitting in a different dug out since the end of July?
OMF @omfonweei · 17m Alex Cora responds to this headline from @peteabe and the Globe:
"We're not a bad team. I don't agree with that one... I hate to use the "nobody thought we'd be here" but we don't see it that way. We're a bit disappointed we haven't played up to our capabilities"
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Post by CP_Jon_GoSox on Aug 18, 2021 14:57:50 GMT -5
Guess the analytic team wants to ease Schawrber into the line up mean jesus there is an off day tomorrow, and an off day on Monday
just gonna see now what the usual bullshit excuse is. They have a few drawers of them.
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