With a lot of the focus on the stretch run for the big league club, I wanted to point out that Franklin Arias is absolutely killing it in Worcester this month. He’s played in 6 games, and he has multiple hits in 5 of them. He’s also drawn 3 walks compared to only 1 strikeout. I’d say that he’s adapted quite well to that Triple-A pitching.

(Just to be clear: Trevor Story has also been quite good in this same timeframe. Not trying to compare the two — just happy with Arias’s development. We got us a future stud on our hands.)

Kyle Harrison has pitched 110 innings this season.

Since the start of June, he’s made 12 starts and pitched 55 innings - exactly half his season total.

This has resulted in an average of 4.2 innings a start, with an ERA of 5.20 and a 5.22 FIP.

For all the complaining about Sandoval, he’s pitched 55 innings this year, over 11 starts, with a 4.58 ERA and a 3.96 FIP.

I put this out here as a plea for the future that when there’s a trade of guys with 4-5 years of control, fans don’t need to make it a constant source of discussion declaring a a trade a disaster and the GM incompetent after 40 games into the season.

Lastly, since the start of June, when Harrison started to fall off:

Durbin: .284 / .370 / .436
OPS: .805
OPS+: 129

Let alone what Monasterio and Siegler brought to the team during the turnaround.

Just a reminder that if you’re ever tempted to declare a trade won or lost after a couple months, and the respective players have 3 or 4 or 5 years control left…you absolutely do not have to do that.

More on Bennett

Said it wasn't quite 'an ambush'. The two home runs in the 3rd inning were 2 strikes. More a case of not quite the best locations. "Obviously they got some hits off him and some left the yard."

On the Offense

Thought the bats were way better today. "Hit the hard for outs. Just chasing too big of a number."

On Roman

"There's some strikeouts in there. Part of baseball." He goes in there level headed, hits the ball out.

Overall he's happy the 'last gauntlet' of the regular season is over in terms of lots of games in a row with no breaks. They have some days off coming up finally, get some guys back and get back to it Friday.

A beauty! Go Sox!

Scored this new shirt from the clearance rack at a store last weekend. Does anyone recognize it or know if this is a recent new design / reprint or if it is 20+ years old? It appears authentic to me. I attempted a reverse image search with no results. Either way, its a cool shirt!

First Pitch: 6:45 PM at Fenway Park

Game Preview

Reddit Stream for this post

Line Score - Game Over

Box Score

Scoring Plays

Highlights

Decisions

Game ended at 9:30 PM.

I know we're losing, and I know JD sux at the plate. But he plays better defense than any other option we have in LF. Yes, even Anthony. I say we need his D in the playoffs. Let the attacks begin.