*OFFICIAL* 5/25/21 Cardinal Clown Show Comedy of Errors SOX 8 STL 3 Postgamer

[Frater Perdurabo]

But I thought the Sox were bad at fundamentals?

Maybe The Chicken’s plate is more consistent than Joe West’s?

Is LaRussa at fault for Crochet’s inability to throw strikes?

[HomeFish]

hocus pocus says Hendriks

[thomas35forever]

That's what Hendriks was brought here to do. Would prefer more clean innings for him, but I'll take outings like that.

[voodoochile]

Liam ****ing Hendriks...

[Frater Perdurabo]

Rodon starts tomorrow: let’s get the sweep!

[Frater Perdurabo]

It might be best for both the Sox and for Crochet for him to go to Charlotte for regular work, and for McRae to come up until Fry is ready.

[Paulwny]

My God, I was afraid Abreu was going to tear a leg or groin muscle stretching for those bad throws from Moncada.

[berwyn]

It might be best for both the Sox and for Crochet for him to go to Charlotte for regular work, and for McRae to come up until Fry is ready.

Hoping the 2019 Fry arrives here soon. Not the 2020 version, thank you. Crochet needs what you prescribe.

[Mccoydp]

Liam ****ing Hendriks...

I will append that with a Joe ****ing West!

[Lipman 1]

Random musings...

Solid win again tonight against a very good pitcher who had an off night. Good teams take advantage of that.

Unfortunately Cleveland, Kansas City and Minnesota all won.

Get the sweep tomorrow even if it means potentially putting the Cubs in first place 😧

Regarding Crochet, I chalk it up to rust tonight... he hasn't been used much but I'll confess in the back of my mind I've got this nagging thought there is still something wrong with that arm.

[Lipman 1]

Hoping the 2019 Fry arrives here soon. Not the 2020 version, thank you. Crochet needs what you prescribe.

With so little info concerning Fry, even TLR said he didn't know much about his situation I suspect he's not arriving to Chicago anytime soon.

[TDog]

That's what Hendriks was brought here to do. Would prefer more clean innings for him, but I'll take outings like that.

You generally aren't going to see Hendriks come in a clean inning unless it's a save situation. I don't know if anyone was upset that Crochet, whose sub-1.00 ERA is still unchanges, tonight's outting only affecting his WHIP, coming in to close out the game. When tonight's ninth became a save situation, you saw him come in. He might have come in after Crochet's first walk, when it became a situation and became apparent that Crochet couldn't throw strikes, but the man made an arbitrary and capricious change in the century-plus rule concerning pitching changes and wouldn't let Hendriks come in until the bases were loaded. If this had been a four-run game, Hendriks wouldn't have started the inning and Crochet would have left Hendriks less of a margin for error. It turned out he didn't need the margin, but I didn't see how close that tenth pitch to Edman came to being ball four. That still would have left the tying run on deck. If Joe West is going to be behind the plate, I guess it's better on the mound with Hendriks than Buehrle.

It would have been a more legendary save if he had needed only nine pitches for the inning. As it was, he used just seven with the first two hitters. Still, it' was impressive enough. I don't know if Sunday's failure when he came in with the bases loaded and one out and no margin for error had anything to do with the way he came out throwing strikes tonight. On the other hand, he seems to have come back stronger. Tonight's game was a save situation by the rule book. But I think tonight's outing saved more than the game.

Offensively, I think the Sox showed what can happen when hitters don't strike out. There certainly are some slick-fielding defenders around baseball, but players often aren't in the lineup because of their gloves. The scouting report on Vaughn must be that because he's a converted first baseman he can be run on in left. In the top of the first tonight, Goldschmidt thought he could get into scoring position with two outs by running on Vaughn, and Vaughn nailed him at second. But the Sox didn't seem to do anything to force the Cardinals errors other than put balls in play. Maybe the Sox should have scored more when a bases loaded-one-out situation with Abreu followed by Mercedes ended up with two strikeouts and only a wild-pitch run, but the Sox generally made the most of opportunities against a starting pitcher who is having a pretty good year. Maybe if the Cardinals had played a tighter game, Giolito would have been sharper. He must have had some long half-innings in the dugout. He still gave the Sox six innings. From early on this game didn't feel like it was in doubt, maybe until the ninth. Sloppy games aren't so bad, though, if you're not losing sloppy.

The Cardinals set the tone for a sloppy night, but Hendriks tied it up neatly at the end.

[Kobo]

Random musings...

Solid win again tonight against a very good pitcher who had an off night. Good teams take advantage of that.

Unfortunately Cleveland, Kansas City and Minnesota all won.

Get the sweep tomorrow even if it means potentially putting the Cubs in first place 😧

Regarding Crochet, I chalk it up to rust tonight... he hasn't been used much but I'll confess in the back of my mind I've got this nagging thought there is still something wrong with that arm.

He didn't have an off night. The defense behind him let him down which caused him to have to throw more pitches than necessary. Sox took advantage of the errors, but I don't think Flaherty was off at all.

[Kobo]

You generally aren't going to see Hendriks come in a clean inning unless it's a save situation. I don't know if anyone was upset that Crochet, whose sub-1.00 ERA is still unchanges, tonight's outting only affecting his WHIP, coming in to close out the game. When tonight's ninth became a save situation, you saw him come in. He might have come in after Crochet's first walk, when it became a situation and became apparent that Crochet couldn't throw strikes, but the man made an arbitrary and capricious change in the century-plus rule concerning pitching changes and wouldn't let Hendriks come in until the bases were loaded. If this had been a four-run game, Hendriks wouldn't have started the inning and Crochet would have left Hendriks less of a margin for error. It turned out he didn't need the margin, but I didn't see how close that tenth pitch to Edman came to being ball four. That still would have left the tying run on deck. If Joe West is going to be behind the plate, I guess it's better on the mound with Hendriks than Buehrle.

It would have been a more legendary save if he had needed only nine pitches for the inning. As it was, he used just seven with the first two hitters. Still, it' was impressive enough. I don't know if Sunday's failure when he came in with the bases loaded and one out and no margin for error had anything to do with the way he came out throwing strikes tonight. On the other hand, he seems to have come back stronger. Tonight's game was a save situation by the rule book. But I think tonight's outing saved more than the game.

Offensively, I think the Sox showed what can happen when hitters don't strike out. There certainly are some slick-fielding defenders around baseball, but players often aren't in the lineup because of their gloves. The scouting report on Vaughn must be that because he's a converted first baseman he can be run on in left. In the top of the first tonight, Goldschmidt thought he could get into scoring position with two outs by running on Vaughn, and Vaughn nailed him at second. But the Sox didn't seem to do anything to force the Cardinals errors other than put balls in play. Maybe the Sox should have scored more when a bases loaded-one-out situation with Abreu followed by Mercedes ended up with two strikeouts and only a wild-pitch run, but the Sox generally made the most of opportunities against a starting pitcher who is having a pretty good year. Maybe if the Cardinals had played a tighter game, Giolito would have been sharper. He must have had some long half-innings in the dugout. He still gave the Sox six innings. From early on this game didn't feel like it was in doubt, maybe until the ninth. Sloppy games aren't so bad, though, if you're not losing sloppy.

The Cardinals set the tone for a sloppy night, but Hendriks tied it up neatly at the end.

If the scouting report is he can be run on because he's a converted 1B playing LF then I question those scouting reports. Vaughn has a cannon for an arm. I was sitting in sec 111 tonight and I don't think Goldschmidt even looked at Vaughn when rounding first because Vaughn got to the ball quickly and then threw a rocket to 2nd. It's not the first time he's made a throw like that from LF.

[Krs1]

Probably doesn't need to be mentioned, but Vaughn touched the 90s as a pitcher. He has a very good arm.