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Wednesday, June 26, 2019

The Long (And Whining) Road

"Good thing there is always a losing team. If there wasn't, Dan would have nothing to write about."

No truer statement has ever been written about the Boston Globe's longest serving columnist:
After a tough loss, Red Sox have a long road ahead

The phony “surging” Red Sox blew another save Wednesday and lost to the White Sox, 8-7, despite Chicago making every effort to give the game to Boston.

The indomitable Chris Sale (10 more strikeouts — whee!) gave up five earned runs and has now won three of his last 21 starts, but probably will be featured as the red-hot guy in the NESN “Hot Zone” when he returns to Fenway Park in a couple of weeks, trying to win his first game at home in more than a year.
'Whee!'? Seriously?
The Sox trail the Yankees by nine games in the American League East and reigning MVP Mookie Betts, who evidently has no interest in staying in Boston, is on a pace to finish the season hitting .265 with 26 homers and 72 RBIs.

But enough of this reality. The star-powered Sox are an unparalleled commercial entity and are set to take their show on the road to London for a couple of days. They are off to Great Britain, where they will play two games against the Yankees in a land where no one knows anything about baseball.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

"in a land where no one knows anything about baseball." Does he mean the old Globe hq on Morissey Blvd or new Globe hq at 53 state street? No wrong answers

FenFan said...

Another columnist who believes the only measure of a great pitcher is his win total.

Eduardo Rodriguez leads the team with eight wins. Brandon Workman, with ZERO starts, has seven wins, the second highest total. Marcus Walden, with ZERO starts, has six wins, the third highest total. Rick Porcello and David Price are tied with five wins each. But, yes, having no wins at Fenway Park over the past 12 months means that Sale is a worthless bum (let's conveniently ignore the time he spent on the IL during the second half of 2018).

Also...

Sale: 3-7, 3.82 ERA, 123 ERA+, 1.026 WHIP, 6.17 SO/BB
Rodriguez, 8-4, 4.87 ERA, 96 ERA+, 1.354 WHIP, 3.59 SO/BB

How can this be? Well, the average run support for Sale this season is 3.78. The average run support for Rodriguez is 7.67. Is it possible that less run support relates to fewer wins?