Start of the Red Sox Series!

While it wasn't a very tight game, it was very enjoyable.  It was nice to relax and watch us beat up on an excellent Boston team.  CC pitched a great game.  Only walking one and living on the edges.  Romine did a nice job mixing up pitches, but CC located really well.

I found it interesting that the Yankees finally recalled Drury and Bird comes out of his slump.  I am a big believer in the stats, but baseball reminds you that the players are humans with emotions and it does play a role in the outcome.  Here is Bird, who has been weak at the plate with 6 total bases in his previous 13 games and Drury is called up against a lefty pitcher and Boone sticks with Bird and he has 8 total bases in this one game.

Tonight's game is not a great matchup with Gray (who has struggled against the Red Sox) against Sale.  I do like a lefty against our lineup though and I am curious whether Bird is in the lineup against Sale who is great against lefties (and still tough on righties).  Drury is not a platoon guy in that he is pretty equal against both sides as is Bird.  It would be good to get Drury into a game, but I would not disagree with starting Bird either.  The sad part is that Neil Walker is not even a discussion with how poorly he has hit (0 for his last 21 and a .520 OPS).  For a guy who has been very consistent (and good), it is odd he has hit so poorly.  His worst year as a hitter (not counting a rookie cup of coffee) was a .742 OPS 7 years ago.  His OPS over the last 4 years was .809, 756, 823, and 801, being at .520 is head scratching as he is only 32.  Even if he were 37 it would be surprising.  Have to think he will get it going, but the question is when will he play?  I would think only against righties where you want to give a rest to Andujar or Torres.  I also think Walker can be important in that our team could have matchup problems against tough righties, but the way he is hitting it doesn't matter.

Gray against Sale is a bad matchup

Getting swept by TB bothered me as the offense was awful. 

Losing Sanchez is worse than people think.  I heard from many people that we are better without Sanchez and Romine is hitting well and his defense is better.  While the latter is correct, Sanchez is a better hitter and it is not even close regardless of what the stats say (when the injury happened).  While the defense is VERY important to me, having a catcher who can hit is a big plus for a team.  While Romine has been hitting great (and fielding well), I am not a believer that he is all of a sudden a guy at the age of 29 who sees his career OPS go up 200 points.  He still has some holes in his swing, but so far this year he has avoided the inside pitches and driven the pitches away for hits.  I think as teams adjust he will see more hard stuff inside and while he could have an OPS of .750 (which would be great for us), as he plays more, I think it will be more in the .700 or below range the rest of the year.  His OPS was .947 when Sanchez got injured, I would think his OPS will be down to .750 by the time Sanchez comes back (I hope I am wrong and he has become a different player). 

One last point on Sanchez, as bad as he has been offensively, his OPS is .723 which is middle of the pack for catchers.  Because of his defensive shortcomings, middle of the pack offensively is not good enough, but I am confident that Sanchez will one of the top hitting catchers.

Let's see if Sonny Gray can come through!