varaven45

Yep. On to the team they DC affectionately calls "curly W's" or some call "team Walgreen" Looking for an extremely low scoring game with Tillman and Strasberg on the hill.

I can . The enigmatic offense occasionally becomes the enigmatic bullpen . But it's all good we won 7-6, As took care of Jays, and we are up 2 in the AL East. Life's good Crav; grab a cold one

I think we just scored a TD ! But you can never have enough runs in Fenway

It's 3-1 but how many bases loaded opps and scoring 1 run are we going to do ? It feels like the Ravens driving 70 yards and coming away with no TD and just a FG attempt. Gotta punch it in or it will come back to haunt you.

Hey Max, I think you meant we are 1 percentage point up on the Jays. I knew what you meant. We are still 1 up in L column and in 1st place. It's all good !

Cool. We can use the rest. Let the As take care of the Jays today.

Big series win indeed ! Some good fortune in there too. Tough challenge ahead in Beantown with only a few hours rest and facing an extremely tough SP rotation- Lester, Lackey and Peavey. Our MO has been to lay a collective egg after a big series win. In spite of their poor play, this Is the best rotation they could have thrown at us this weekend. Lets see if we can change the MO. Good thing Toronto is in Oakland playing the ALs best team and arguably the best in baseball. Oakland could be a very good friend to us this weekend.

Indeed Crav. Even with the HR happy enigmatic offense, we'll take it. Keep hanging around in the AL East and see what happens. Go Os !

You might be right but he's still got a little left in the tank for another few years.

Agreed on the not built for small ball. The team has lacked a legit leadoff guy for sometime. Markakis is a great hitter; but not leadoff. It starts there. Agreed on slow and reliant on HR ball. Don't agree with JJ being done. With a .294 BA (albeit only a couple homers), I'd take every day and twice on Sunday ! The guy is 31 and has a few years left in the tank.

The AL East teams are all flawed but all (even Tampa) are capable of wining division. I predict most if not all teams will "hang around" .500 until August. In September, one or two teams will become less flawed and make a run. One will win the division; the other will compete for a WC. If the FO makes a positive acquisition (before deadline), the pitching staff stabilizes, and the offense becomes functional (and Buck teaches/team learns situational hitting, instead of just HRs), we might just be one of those teams. Until then, its a crapshoot and we have as good a chance as any of the flawed teams in the AL East.

Crav : Papa = Glass Half Full: Glass Half Empty. You guys have unique, contrasting perspectives .... but is all good !

Good point. Unless our HR hitters start pingin em, this team is headed for another .500 season.

Can anyone explain how the third best hitting team in baseball - currently at a .264 BA - struggles against such mediocre pitching, waits till the eighth or ninth to start scoring, and when it gets runners on base fails to get them home ? Is it just a dysfunctional offense, bucks inability to play small ball, or is the team just in another weird funk again ?

Crav, maybe this is the series where the team starts to "fire on all cylinders" ?

We could have easily lost all three games. Instead, we won 2 out of 3 vs. Chisox. We re doing it with smoke and mirrors but we are dong it ! Up next: Tampa and I'll be there Friday night

And just think .... we were a Zach Britton gopherball (to Beltran) from being 1/2 GAME OUT. Hey, we are just 1 1/12 out and a long homestand waiting in the wings.

Actually Crav we are playing the evil empire this weekend. Host the Chisox early next week, followed by Tampa. No worries

No worries Cleetz. Gausman and the Os.are already maxed out on the jinx department - courtesy of Peter Angelos

Gausman is jammin !

Is jamming right now

Cruz and Davis aren't going anywhere.

Oh and homerun Hunter is done. Whatever he was going to do as a pitcher - starter middle reliever or closer- it's not going to happen, at least not with this team not this season.

Golden opportunity to have won 3 of 4. Lack of timely hitting doing us in today . Case in point: 3rd inning we have runners on 2nd and 3rd and none out. Next 3 batters - Hundley, Markakis and Machado fail to move any runners along. Not even a sac fly. For a team that's batting 3rd-4th in the league (in terms of average), this team sure lack situational hitting. It's why this team is hanging around .500 this season .