MLB 2021 Season Thread

[Ridleylash]

Atlanta sports.mp4

[Crabcake]

56 minutes ago, Ridleylash said:

Atlanta sports.mp4

Hey now, give the Bulldogs their due credit. Georgia sports. 

[Cujo]

59 minutes ago, Ridleylash said:

Atlanta sports.mp4

 

The Thrashers are safe. They never choked.

[Ridleylash]

1 minute ago, Cujo said:

The Thrashers are safe. They never choked.

I mean, they were 3rd in their conference when they got bodyslammed by a 6th place team in their one playoff appearance lmfao

[Cujo]

4 minutes ago, Ridleylash said:

I mean, they were 3rd in their conference when they got bodyslammed by a 6th place team in their one playoff appearance lmfao

 

In a sport where teams with losing records make and win Stanley Cup Finals -- nbd.

 

Atlanta Thrashers: Marked safe. Choke free.

[Cujo]

6 hours ago, Cujo said:

Houston wins tonight, series is tied 2-2 and those grand slams are a distant memory... 

 

[DoctorWhom]

Yeah, I knew the Red Sox weren't holding on to a 1 run lead. 

[Cujo]

8 minutes ago, DoctorWhom said:

Yeah, I knew the Red Sox weren't holding on to a 1 run lead. 

 

Right. Laz Diaz Game 4 MVP.

[CaliforniaGlowin]

Dodgers actually closed a game. It's a miracle!  I'm still not confident.  I never am.

[Sport]

16 hours ago, Brass said:

 

I get that.

 

To be quite honest, I'm only interested because my team is in it. I didn't watch a pitch of the playoffs last year or really any year when the Red Sox weren't involved. This year, since they are involved, it's been exciting.

 

I hate something about all of these remaining teams, but mostly it just looks like the games haven't been very good. That Braves-Dodgers game yesterday sounds exciting, but it's the Braves and Dodgers so forgive me for not running to my nearest device to tune in. 

 

 

[TrueYankee26]

17 hours ago, Cujo said:

 

Houston wins tonight, series is tied 2-2 and those grand slams are a distant memory... 

Series changing call by Laz Diaz.

 

As well as a series changing blast by Bellinger making it 2-1 Braves instead of 3-0.

[speedy]

2 hours ago, TrueYankee26 said:

Series changing call by Laz Diaz.

 

As well as a series changing blast by Bellinger making it 2-1 Braves instead of 3-0.

 

There's a lot to unpack last night. That blown call is not the reason the Red Sox lost, nor should anyone who watched the game be blaming that.

 

Outside of Xander their lineup was 1-21 at one point.. that doesn't win ball games. Astros missed their spots a lot last night and were getting swings and misses, I knew around the 5th or 6th it wasn't going to end well.

 

Taking Eovaldi (far and way your best pitcher) out with the bases loaded and bringing in a guy with 2 BB's in his last 2.2 IP and a season ERA of 4.74 is beyond perplexing. Cora has never excelled at managing his bullpen and it came to a head last night.

 

Sale tonight, which is terrifying.

 

 

[TrueYankee26]

5 hours ago, speedy said:

 

There's a lot to unpack last night. That blown call is not the reason the Red Sox lost, nor should anyone who watched the game be blaming that.

 

Outside of Xander their lineup was 1-21 at one point.. that doesn't win ball games. Astros missed their spots a lot last night and were getting swings and misses, I knew around the 5th or 6th it wasn't going to end well.

 

Taking Eovaldi (far and way your best pitcher) out with the bases loaded and bringing in a guy with 2 BB's in his last 2.2 IP and a season ERA of 4.74 is beyond perplexing. Cora has never excelled at managing his bullpen and it came to a head last night.

 

Sale tonight, which is terrifying.

 

 

6-0 Stros. Now 14 unanswered runs for Houston.

[Brass]

Man, it's like hitting under .200 with RISP (while the opponent is hitting over .500 in the same situation) and only relying on homers for runs isn't sustainable!

 

What a turn. I don't know if it's a by-product of Tommy John, but Chris Sale is a completely different pitcher in the sense that he will not attack the strike zone like he used to. He's more finesse now (even though he's still throwing heat) and he simply cannot put the ball inside. Again, I could be wrong, but man - this isn't the same Chris Sale anymore. Also, something that probably won't be talked enough about, but the crowd tonight was absolutely TERRIBLE. I know watching Chris Sale pitch isn't that "inspiring" but Jesus Christ, it's a playoff game, make some noise or something. Boo them, who gives a :censored: - do something! Get off your damn phones and watch the game. Serves Boston teams right for pricing out their fans, though.

 

It's going to be tough to go into Houston and win two straight games. The Red Sox certainly have their work cut out for them. Keep the faith or whatever.

[DoctorWhom]

Yeah it's hard to come back from TJ surgery, and Sale obviously isn't the same as he was before. 

Obviously Red Sox were bound to cool off offensively but I didn't expect them to  be so anemic.  

 

Unless they suddenly revert back to their Game 2 & 3 selves, IDK if they can win 2 in Houston.  

[Ridleylash]

Just what the world dreads; a Dodgers/Astros WS being close to reality. Either the Dodgers go back-to-back or the trash can-banging Astros get massively inflated egos about "shutting their haters up"; whoever wins, we lose.

[speedy]

14 hours ago, Brass said:

Man, it's like hitting under .200 with RISP (while the opponent is hitting over .500 in the same situation) and only relying on homers for runs isn't sustainable!

 

What a turn. I don't know if it's a by-product of Tommy John, but Chris Sale is a completely different pitcher in the sense that he will not attack the strike zone like he used to. He's more finesse now (even though he's still throwing heat) and he simply cannot put the ball inside. Again, I could be wrong, but man - this isn't the same Chris Sale anymore. Also, something that probably won't be talked enough about, but the crowd tonight was absolutely TERRIBLE. I know watching Chris Sale pitch isn't that "inspiring" but Jesus Christ, it's a playoff game, make some noise or something. Boo them, who gives a - do something! Get off your damn phones and watch the game. Serves Boston teams right for pricing out their fans, though.

 

It's going to be tough to go into Houston and win two straight games. The Red Sox certainly have their work cut out for them. Keep the faith or whatever.

 

I was pleasantly surprised by Sale last night, he was the only guy on that roster who did his job. Cora once again let his spectacular managerial skills shine through in this one. 1-0 game, 2  guys on base and Renfroe who's batting a sultry .001 in the playoffs and you give him a green light on an 2-0 count.. BUNT!!! I've seen enough of Schwarber at 1st, get Renfroe out of my face and put Schwarb's in the outfield and Dalbec at 1st. This isn't rocket science.

 

We've reached the point of the Fenway season where it's either corporate buyers or Patagonia vests - they aren't there for the game, they're there to say they went to the game.

 

This series was over after game 4. Your bullpen doesn't blow 2 games in a series and you end up advancing, just doesn't happen. Series should've been over, you had the Astros dead to rights and you gave them life.

 

Red Sox punched above their weight class all postseason and the Astros are by far the better and more complete team, but they had them, and they let them off the hook.

 

EDIT: Also, if I see one more hitter try and pull and sinker instead of just swinging and taking it where it wants to go I am going to pull out my hair.

[Kramerica Industries]

15 hours ago, Brass said:

I don't know if it's a by-product of Tommy John, but Chris Sale is a completely different pitcher in the sense that he will not attack the strike zone like he used to. He's more finesse now (even though he's still throwing heat) and he simply cannot put the ball inside.

 

It's definitely not uncommon for pitchers to struggle in their first season back on the field following TJS. It's bad timing for the Red Sox that Chris Sale doesn't look like the Cy Young winning version of himself, and the idea of a LHB - I don't care who, any LHB - being the boogeyman for Sale in a game is really hard to believe when he's on top of his game, but 2022 will be a much better way of determining whether pre-TJS Chris Sale still exists or if only a reduced version came out of the surgery. 

 

As someone who is strongly rooting against the Red Sox, I'm still terrified of the next game and potentially two. The two starting pitchers for the Astros - as things currently stand, and I haven't checked to see if they've decided on a different strategy but boy would I endorse one - are the two starting pitchers who the Red Sox hammered in their two wins. MMP and left field are fundamentally similar to Fenway so it's not much of a surprise that the Red Sox have had a good amount of offensive success in that ballpark between the 2018 ALCS and this ALCS. While I would hardly expect Red Sox fans themselves to be at their most confident in a 3-2 hole with the last two games on the road, there are plenty of cases (...sadly, in some of them, very sadly...) where it's been overcome. 

[Digby]

I thought the crowd was pretty loud and engaged in the first Fenway game of the ALCS and in the earlier rounds. So much so that it surprised me, as this year kinda felt like the year the Red Sox lost their place as permanent favored-child of Boston's sports culture, but it was a pretty good showing for a while there. But that was before the Bad version of the Red Sox showed back up.

 

I will say secondary market tickets for this ALCS have been pricier than they were for this same series 3 years ago... maybe that's post-Covid pent up demand at work.

 

Watching the professional sports yakkers react to this year's Sox team has been a blast. From "they don't have it" to "team of destiny" and back so quickly. It was a fun couple of days but I think everyone got a little too high on a roster that's been so inconsistent being able to sustain a sudden, historic spell of production. 

[ManillaToad]

2 hours ago, Digby said:

I thought the crowd was pretty loud and engaged in the first Fenway game of the ALCS and in the earlier rounds. So much so that it surprised me, as this year kinda felt like the year the Red Sox lost their place as permanent favored-child of Boston's sports culture, but it was a pretty good showing for a while there. But that was before the Bad version of the Red Sox showed back up.

 

I will say secondary market tickets for this ALCS have been pricier than they were for this same series 3 years ago... maybe that's post-Covid pent up demand at work.

 

Watching the professional sports yakkers react to this year's Sox team has been a blast. From "they don't have it" to "team of destiny" and back so quickly. It was a fun couple of days but I think everyone got a little too high on a roster that's been so inconsistent being able to sustain a sudden, historic spell of production. 

 

Have the Sox been the #1 team in town even during/after the Pats dynasty?