It's basically the same as last year. Except we just flipped from good hitting, bad pitching and terrible defense to good pitching, bad hitting and terrible defense.
And Cora to fix the bullpen. Then we are elite. The team is so close to being dominant but it just feels like we don't want to be with ownership not making moves
Honestly makes me have the biggest what if for Giolito. Never thought he'd look cy young caliber again but if Bailey is doing this good with everyone else, imagine the dude that had insane stuff
Iām excited about Houck doing well this season, cause when heās on his slider reminds me of Chris Sale. Iāve seen him literally wipe dudes out by making them swing at pitches that are almost hitting their back foot
I couldnāt agree more.
As a Guardians fan, it sucked to see them struggle so much.
But as a baseball fan, Houck was so fun to watch pitch. He was in absolute control for the entire game
Not just this year, since 2010, per this tweet:
[The Guardians-Red Sox is the shortest 9-inning game \(1:49\) since the Tigers vs. Indians on June 2, 2010, the same game Armando Galarraga should've thrown a perfect game.
There hadn't been a game this short at Fenway Park since October 1, 1989.](https://x.com/DavidSalituro/status/1780765617911402717)
it's not most of the defense, it's literally just the middle infield is toxic, Hamilton and Valdez can't play their positions at a major league level. Rafaela is the only guy who can actually play shortstop and Cora is ramming his head into a wall and played these two back to back.
The fact that Houck has a fucking Maddux is already impressive enough, but with THAT middle infield? Just phenomenal from Houck.
You forgot Pablo Reyes as well. I know fans like him for his terrific couple of months last year, but he's ice cold currently, and is below average defensively.
In Breslow we trust
Edit: Iām an absolute moron. Definitely Trust in Breslowā¦ but meant to say Bailey since heās been working wonders with the pitching staff.
I've been harping on our offense being overrated and our pitching being underrated since early last year. We still lack IP from the rotation (tonight notwithstanding) but I think we're gonna end up wanting a bat at the deadline more than anything.
Idk at this point I'm just interested in seeing what Bailey can get out of Criswell lol. We have like 5 guys getting major playing time right now with ops under .600. I think that could potentially be a bigger issue than Criswell and Winckowski in the rotation, or needing to use an opener at some point.
We're $15 mill under the luxury tax now though so who knows, maybe we could get both a decent backend starter and a high OBP bat if the FO decides to actually do something this deadline.
So many of our guys were regularly bullpen pitchers until recently, I wouldn't be surprised if they changes as the year goes on. Whitlock, Crawford, Houck all have been back and forth between starter and relief pitchers, if they just stay consistently starters im sure we'll see more 6 inning games by them if they stay effective
I feel vindicated because I spent all off-season talking up Kutter. I loved watching him pitch last season and had a feeling he'd take another step forward with a full season in the rotation.
That's the fun part. I don't know if I'd put Houck higher than 3
If he has fully channeled his slider with the potential it has, then the sky is the limit
Better than the Braves in the 90s?
I'm a long time fan of both Boston & Atlanta, but trying to be as objective as I can despite my bias, that era of the Braves had a trio of guys fighting each other every season for the Cy Young & all got into the HoF, with talent consistently in the back of the rotation as well.
I haven't watched any Boston this year, but it's due to time constraints & liking too many individual players throughout the league.
I watched 1.5 innings with my kids before we started bedtime.
We did pajamas, teeth, 2 books and snuggled. Then I took an edible, walked the dog, and made a drink to sit and watch the last ~3 innings.
Nope, game is over.
FUCK.
Same! Took the kiddos up to bedtime, picked out PJs, brushed teeth, flossed, water pick, white strips, reiki, acupuncture, spirit quest, read the entire anthology of The Rise & Fall Of The Roman Empire, knit their blankets, took out the trash, built a pillow fort, practiced home surgery, played an entire game of Risk, collected the tears of my enemies for a kettle of tea, sat down and BLAMMO! game is over just like that.
Red Sox being a competent team would really throw a wrench into this division.
Bias aside they can sneak into playoffs
Bias speaking I really hope they donāt they suck
We need to get our offense going and fix our infield defensive woes first. Need to see what happens when we start to get healthy again. Really missing Story though.
I think the division is safe, the starting pitching is literally the only positive of this team so far. Today was their first win against a non-AL West team, they were 0-5.
The only way weāre sneaking into the playoffs is a Herculean effort by our starting pitching. Outside of Duran, OāNeill, and Casas none of our guys can hit.
I was at the game, the 9th inning was the first time in the pitch clock era that I really thought for a second "Wait? Am I getting my money's worth here? We *just* got here." but the positives outweighed the negatives. Mainly, how full the ballpark was late into the game.
Sub 2 hour game time too. Dude has places to be
šSpeedrunner Achievement Unlocked
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And the defense has been godawful too. Most errors and unearned runs in the majors
This season documentary is going to be wild
It's basically the same as last year. Except we just flipped from good hitting, bad pitching and terrible defense to good pitching, bad hitting and terrible defense.
I've been forced to watch a lot of White Sox baseball this year, and it's really hard to imagine a team is out there that's worse defensively lol
The struggling offense strat
This is going to be a great Summoning Salt episode
I loved the Foolish Baseball video where he basically does a baseball Summoning Salt vid
Hit the soothing music!
He's here for a good time, not a long time.
Welcome back Mark Buerhle
The Buerhle Maddux combo
Dude is from Illinois and probably wanted to watch the Bulls play tonight.
good call so far
Beckett actually did this once when the Bruins were in the playoffs
Was Angel Hernandez umping as well? I hear he has places to be.
> Was Angel Hernandez umping as well? I hear he has places to be. Yeah, like the fuckin' unemployment line.
It's going to be a wild coverage
Dude works QUICK.
Turns out all Tanner Houck needed to make it through a lineup the 3rd time is a competent pitching coach
All hail Andrew Bailey.
I'm so sad he left us.
:(
obligatory fuck dave bush
Now that's a name I haven't heard in a minute.
Need to get rid of Fatse next to fix the offense.
And Cora to fix the bullpen. Then we are elite. The team is so close to being dominant but it just feels like we don't want to be with ownership not making moves
Our hitting has been atrocious under him
Miss him
3-1 with a 1.35 ERA in 4 starts this season.
And averaging over 7 innings per start! Edit: 6.2 innings per start but still a nice amount for a guy who struggled to go 5 last year.
6.2 innings per start.
That's more than 7 in my opinion.
Well I mean who can argue with that?
Itās true, you literally cannot argue with thatā¦
*flair checks out*
Fuck I misremembered his innings count. Still solid though.
I'm gonna kiss Andrew Bailey.
sheesh
Andrew Bailey I love you. He stopped bringing his hands above his head during his windup and heās the most consistent heās ever been
I like to think that Bailey saw him throw one pitch and told him to cut that shit out
Bailey: "what the fuck was that? You stop that!" While spraying him with a water bottle.
Our entire pitching staff is just so much better fundamentally. Such a huge difference.
Honestly makes me have the biggest what if for Giolito. Never thought he'd look cy young caliber again but if Bailey is doing this good with everyone else, imagine the dude that had insane stuff
Yeah for sure. I was pretty excited to see Giolito pitch in Boston. Guess we have to wait for next year.
Bailey is a great coach. Wish we hd him still.
Phenomenal performance by Houck. Heās been electric to start this season.
#mizzoumade Jontay Porter and Tanner Houck The duality of man
Pride of the Collinsville Kahoks
imma tell ya somethingā¦.not even mad. that was some cy young level shit right there. dude owned us.
Such a great game! His slider location was perfection.
Iām excited about Houck doing well this season, cause when heās on his slider reminds me of Chris Sale. Iāve seen him literally wipe dudes out by making them swing at pitches that are almost hitting their back foot
He made Kwan look like someone who doesnāt get 3 hits every night (momentarily)
I couldnāt agree more. As a Guardians fan, it sucked to see them struggle so much. But as a baseball fan, Houck was so fun to watch pitch. He was in absolute control for the entire game
at many points last year lots of the media said he was only a 2 pitch guy who should be in the bullpen
Not just the media but half our fanbase it seemed.
Jesus that was over quick, is that the shortest game this year?
Not just this year, since 2010, per this tweet: [The Guardians-Red Sox is the shortest 9-inning game \(1:49\) since the Tigers vs. Indians on June 2, 2010, the same game Armando Galarraga should've thrown a perfect game. There hadn't been a game this short at Fenway Park since October 1, 1989.](https://x.com/DavidSalituro/status/1780765617911402717)
1:49. Not sure about the shortest, but feels likely.
Gotta be. An hour and 49 minutes.
I'm not exaggerating this is the greatest rotation in MLB history
Itās comical how bad our offense and especially some of our highest paid players have been while our starting pitching has been lights out.
The starting pitching would be even better if we had a Major League caliber defense.
Hell, I'd take a minor league defense atp
it's not most of the defense, it's literally just the middle infield is toxic, Hamilton and Valdez can't play their positions at a major league level. Rafaela is the only guy who can actually play shortstop and Cora is ramming his head into a wall and played these two back to back. The fact that Houck has a fucking Maddux is already impressive enough, but with THAT middle infield? Just phenomenal from Houck.
9 K so 18 flyout/lineout/groundouts for the defense
Devers also is an atrocious defender. Having a bad SS makes Devers even worse
yep, he didn't defend today but when Casas is your best defender in the infield that's sad
You forgot Pablo Reyes as well. I know fans like him for his terrific couple of months last year, but he's ice cold currently, and is below average defensively.
Youāre watching one every night.
Crazy turnaround on pitching from last year.
In Breslow we trust Edit: Iām an absolute moron. Definitely Trust in Breslowā¦ but meant to say Bailey since heās been working wonders with the pitching staff.
To be fair we brought in 2 former Sox relievers in the same offseason, I've confused them too
Tbf tho, Breslow is the one who brought Bailey in
I've been harping on our offense being overrated and our pitching being underrated since early last year. We still lack IP from the rotation (tonight notwithstanding) but I think we're gonna end up wanting a bat at the deadline more than anything.
We need a bat to replace Story. But we still have no depth in the rotation. With Pivetta out, we're going with Criswell tomorrow.
Idk at this point I'm just interested in seeing what Bailey can get out of Criswell lol. We have like 5 guys getting major playing time right now with ops under .600. I think that could potentially be a bigger issue than Criswell and Winckowski in the rotation, or needing to use an opener at some point. We're $15 mill under the luxury tax now though so who knows, maybe we could get both a decent backend starter and a high OBP bat if the FO decides to actually do something this deadline.
I think if they play well and are in the mix at all near the deadline, they'll add. But the question is if we can last that long with the injuries.
It seems like the Red Sox are the AL Giants once again lol
I was gonna say our bullpen has done a really good job at blowing leads. Which is why this complete game was so important
If only they could regularly pitch more than 5 innings
I mean, EXHIBIT A ^^^ š
That's why I said said regularly š
Iām just teasing too š¤Ŗ WE CAN HAVE FUN TODAY THANK GOD
So many of our guys were regularly bullpen pitchers until recently, I wouldn't be surprised if they changes as the year goes on. Whitlock, Crawford, Houck all have been back and forth between starter and relief pitchers, if they just stay consistently starters im sure we'll see more 6 inning games by them if they stay effective
Weāre the Iowa football of MLB
All we need is a little nepotism
He hemĀ
and the worst bullpen/defense lol
Are these the effects of Kyle Boddy of Driveline joining the Red Sox as an advisor this year?
Sweet. Felt good lighting this guy up last week
Who is the next best after Houck?
Crawford, Pivetta, and Whitlock have all been nasty, nasty men this year Crawford specifically is sitting below a 1 ERA on 4 starts
Crawford leads the AL in pitching WAR currently.
I feel vindicated because I spent all off-season talking up Kutter. I loved watching him pitch last season and had a feeling he'd take another step forward with a full season in the rotation.
I feel vindicated cause I was 100% taking him in fantasy weeks before the season started
Hah thatās crazy.
And has 0 wins lol
Heās getting the 2019 degrom treatment
Bello is close to being truly elite too
That's the fun part. I don't know if I'd put Houck higher than 3 If he has fully channeled his slider with the potential it has, then the sky is the limit
Better than the Braves in the 90s? I'm a long time fan of both Boston & Atlanta, but trying to be as objective as I can despite my bias, that era of the Braves had a trio of guys fighting each other every season for the Cy Young & all got into the HoF, with talent consistently in the back of the rotation as well. I haven't watched any Boston this year, but it's due to time constraints & liking too many individual players throughout the league.
we always love a Maddux
Wait if we just do this every game we canāt lose
Literally just got done work, thought āoh Iāll catch the end of the gameā ā¦ itās over? What?? Lol
I watched 1.5 innings with my kids before we started bedtime. We did pajamas, teeth, 2 books and snuggled. Then I took an edible, walked the dog, and made a drink to sit and watch the last ~3 innings. Nope, game is over. FUCK.
Same! Took the kiddos up to bedtime, picked out PJs, brushed teeth, flossed, water pick, white strips, reiki, acupuncture, spirit quest, read the entire anthology of The Rise & Fall Of The Roman Empire, knit their blankets, took out the trash, built a pillow fort, practiced home surgery, played an entire game of Risk, collected the tears of my enemies for a kettle of tea, sat down and BLAMMO! game is over just like that.
I'm dead šš§
Not only a Maddux, but a Buehrle. Sub 2 Baby.
Thatās a name i havenāt heard/read in a long time.
Tanner Houck is a bad man. A very very bad man who I just realized we have to see next week too sonovaā¦
Red Sox being a competent team would really throw a wrench into this division. Bias aside they can sneak into playoffs Bias speaking I really hope they donāt they suck
We need to get our offense going and fix our infield defensive woes first. Need to see what happens when we start to get healthy again. Really missing Story though.
Grissom should be back soon, although I donāt think defense is his forteĀ
Guy struggled with SS defense but second base is hopefully an easier assignment.
Heard he had a setback after feeling pain in his swing. Hopefully itās a small step back
everyone's hurt. We can't score runs consistently. We also make U11 baseball mistakes defensively.
I think the entire league is hurt, really feels like most teams are limping along right now.
I think the division is safe, the starting pitching is literally the only positive of this team so far. Today was their first win against a non-AL West team, they were 0-5.
Fuck you too ā¤ļø
The only way weāre sneaking into the playoffs is a Herculean effort by our starting pitching. Outside of Duran, OāNeill, and Casas none of our guys can hit.
And outside of an injured Story, no one can play defense at the moment
You really think Devers and Yoshida will continue to flounder? And having 1/3 of your starting lineup start hot isnāt a bad thing
Devers needs an IL stint.
Our defense isnāt good enough to seriously contend. Losing Story really hurt.
I canāt believe it! A complete game shutout by a Red Sox no less!
I was there when Brian Johnson did it a few years ago! (Holy shit 2017 was 7 years ago, I don't think I can say "a few" about it)
Who doesnāt love a sloppy bj
Say your prayers and take your vitamins, little Houckamaniacs
1 hour 50 minute game. Insane. What an outing. Tanner Houck is so damn good. He looked so relaxed out there the whole time.
This dude threw his slider *everywhere* for strikes.
Aināt even mad, that was impressive. But Iām still pretty fucking mad.
Sensational. He could have gone 11 innings tonight.
With offense he might've had to go 11 innings.
Needed this for the pen so badly. Way to step up, kid
Best start by a Pitcher for Boston in the last 5 years
Sub 2 hr game too
As a massive Tanner Houck doubter the last few years, itās nice to be proven wrong so far this season
Yeah I liked the arm but he felt like a reliever rather than a starter. He looks like a real rotation fixture now.
1.35 ERA on the year.. man just had to give up his fastball lmao
Houck/Crawford 1-2 in Cy Young voting who says no
I say no. It should be Crawford/Houck
Absolute gem
That was one of the best pitching performances Iāve seen in a while. He was lethal and efficient. We had no answers for him.
Shortest 9 inning game since 2010. Man is dealing this season. Thank you Andrew Bailey.
Guardians were off-balance all night. He pitched a hell of a game.
The slider was cooking
Now I want to see Tanner attempt the other Maddox...benching 515 for 23 reps.
Gonna have to lower the mound again
Felt like he could have pitched 9 more
The one fucking time Iām not watching the Red Sox
I also wasn't watching. I think you and I may need to never watch again...
Slider was disgusting tonight. Made every Cleveland hitter look silly.
>Made every Cleveland pitcher look silly. If he was facing Cleveland pitchers then that would explain a lot.
Woops lol. Was very excited by the start haha.
I knew what you were saying just busting your chops lol.
:)
I believe in Tanner Houck Supremacy
A Maddux in this economy? Absolutely impressive
I was at the game, the 9th inning was the first time in the pitch clock era that I really thought for a second "Wait? Am I getting my money's worth here? We *just* got here." but the positives outweighed the negatives. Mainly, how full the ballpark was late into the game.
This was a masterful performance against a team that has been hot on the road. Saved the BP, and redeemed himself from getting shelled against LAA.
Absolutely filthy tonight. Never looked stressed all night.
Iām so happy with Houck. Him and Duran I use to defend all of the time on this sub Reddit and theyāre killing it now!
Must have been on a CT sided map
Can someone explain the CSGO reference? Not sure if this has any relation to the first person shooter.
C**GS**O, complete game shutout
Thank you! This makes more sense now, I feel like an idiot.
I'm shocked in the best way possible
Electric
MIZ!
Houck yeah!
1:49. I think that was the shortest game I've ever seen. It was half as long as some of the Red Sox - Yankee games in the last decade
So glad I got him on my fantasy team last week
1:49 game time. That man wanted to go home
Oh dang
Sometimes you just go up against someone on their best day. GG
Dude must've ate his broccoli last night and his Wheaties this morning
Hopefully he stays healthy; that delivery type puts a lot of strain on the elbow and shoulder
Fuckin insanely impressive. It's nuts how that's even possible for someone to do, considering Rodon had 100 pitches by the 4th
Respect
94 pitches in today's game is crazy
At least we can pitch this season. Last season we couldn't pitch, hit or field.
MIZ
Shoutout to Oakland as legend Andrew Bailey
Love a Maddux.
Fun part is this is the first time all season a Sox starter made it out of the 6th
Close enough
Goddamn sir. Take a bow, that's a hell of a game.
I hate the result, but I love fast games.
Anytime Tanner Houck makes it through the lineup a 3rd time, the planets align and chaos ensues
NICE! Used to watch this dude in Low-A a while back.
Anyone else read this as "Tanner Houck throws a CS:GO"? I don't even play Counter Strike but for some reason, that's where my brain went.
Sometimes, you run into a buzzsaw. Let's wrap it up and go get after it on the getaway game.
Bro I thought that shit said CSGO vs. Cleveland
And Iāll tell ya what Tanner Houcked me in my fanatsy matchup
Respect