35thstreetswarm

You're a pessimist; you should have stuck around until the actual end of the season when we lost in NY.

Gotcha, thanks. By the way, (too lazy to figure it out myself) anybody know who wins the tiebreakers between those three?

I think you mean NY, TOR, and Boston all tied?

Hoping it will help that the Astros play the A’s and Rays the final 9 games of the season while we get mostly the Tigers and by-then-eliminated Guardians

I mean, I wouldn’t be opposed to that approach either, but maybe they don’t think he needs that much rest. With the off-day he’ll have had what, four days to clear his head? Seems reasonable. And I don’t feel like Jake Burger’s absence was what cost us a sweep of the Red Sox anyway.

If I were trying to come up with the vaguest possible “injury” to provide cover to rest a slumping rookie who sorely needed it, I think “his legs are bothering him” would fit nicely. Seriously, I thought everyone was on board with the idea this guy needed some time off. Here you go.

This is one of the more ridiculous “winner” threads I’ve ever seen. Glad we won another series against a likely playoff team. Most importantly, glad to see our starters come off the IL with solid performances. I was really worried about Rodon in particular.

In related news, for the first time since 2006 I went to buy tickets for a (non-opening Day/Cubs series) Sox game several days in advance (Friday night vs. BOS) and was shut out of the lower bowl.

You're wrong. Prove me wrong, I dare you. This is boring

I mean there’s always a reason — sometimes a good one — but it’s just uncanny.

Man, has any team underperformed hype and expectations more consistently than the Mets? I swear it goes back at least 20 years.

Hottest team…at playoff time. Not in late August/early September.

I think they're one of the cooler MLB franchises, myself.

Your problem is you're comparing the Sox to actual teams they might be playing, instead of an untethered, unattainable standard of team construction you invented in your mind.

Yep. And it costs nothing to do the reflexive, emotional hedging negativity routine every time -- other than one high five from me if and when things actually go well.

I think there's a lot of truth to this. The players are human and don't have much reason to "get up" right now, even if we were consistently putting our best team out on the field, which we aren't. There were really only a handful of games in the past few weeks that gave the players any reason to feel "juiced" - the FOD game and the Cubs series. I liked the way they responded in those.

Just for the hell of it, why don't you tell us why you're right? What are the "facts" you have access to that tell you Giolito, Lynn, and Rodon will all be unhealthy and ineffective 30 days from now?

Rodon is the one I’m worried about. Gio has all but said his IL stint is just about rest and I don’t think Lynn’s injury is that serious. But Rodon saying his shoulder “doesn’t feel right” — after coming back from what seemed like a “rest” already — scares me a bit.

Say what

The Sox are managing their lineups and IL in a way that suggests they’re not all that concerned about these final regular season games. I’ll judge the wisdom of that strategy based on the results of games in October. I’m certainly not going to live and die by the day-to-day results in August and September.

Before we all get distracted by baseball, if you Belgian beer fans are ever in Philly check out Monk’s Cafe. It’s like heaven.

That's too bad. Love the current can -- have a fridge full of them.

I'm not a huge fan of the 83s, and think they should be trotted out only occasionally. But I absolutely hate the sleeveless "vests." I think they look trashy and scream early-2000s; the baseball uniform equivalent of boot-cut jeans, shiny shirts, and some kind of ridiculous yellow goggles perched on the forehead of a spiky-haired boy-bander.

We live in heady times indeed.

I just nerded out and checked it -- we had a 12-pager in one of the Orioles games. This was close ?