*OFFICIAL* 8-20-21 TA Slays the Rays SOX 7 TB 5 Postgamer

[Frater Perdurabo]

Great start by Giolito. Bad Bummer.

[thomas35forever]

Tim Anderson is the player who refuses to lose. Can't wait to see him have many more years of this.

[voodoochile]

TA! What a game. Nice outing by Gio too and good to see Moncada jack one. Now about that bullpen management...

Hey, Tony. Next time just leave Kimbrel in, K?

Great win by a great team on the road against another great team. More like that. Playoff intensity.

[SOX ADDICT '73]

That was an impressive win, after a "Bummer" of an 8th inning. Tim Anderson is hands-down the MVP of this team. Each of these last eight "gauntlet games," starting with the Field of Dreams, has had a playoff feel, and the Sox have been more than holding their own. It'd be nice if we could put the "can't beat teams over .500" narrative to bed once and for all...

[LoveMySox]

TA! What a game. Nice outing by Gio too and good to see Moncada jack one. Now about that bullpen management...

Hey, Tony. Next time just leave Kimbrel in, K?

Great win by a great team on the road against another great team. More like that. Playoff intensity.

You were right voodoo. Moncada is coming around. I knew he would. Brutal game though. It took several fingers of single malt scotch to calm my nerves. But then again, there's nothing like a regular season game to keep you on the edge of your seat. And then the dancing bananas

[HomeFish]

Wow. I turned the game off in disgust when the Rays took the lead in the 8th inning and then spent several hours with my family, ignoring all MLB-related news. After my wife fell asleep I checked MLB.com to see how many runs Bummer gave up in the end and thought "ugh, he let the Rays score another two runs".

Then I remembered it was at Tampa so the top number was how many runs the SOX scored. Excuse me, I have some Tim Anderson hits to see for the first time.

[Lipman 1]

The game reminded me of the Field of Dreams game...happy the Sox won, but my God what EXACTLY is wrong with this bullpen? This is absolutely ridiculous considering "on paper" how good these guys are supposed to be.

6th blown save by Bummer who now ties Hendriks for the club "lead" in that category.

[Zakath]

Way to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat, which we snatched from the jaws of victory. With the soon-to-be Guardians knocking off the Halos, the magic number is now:

[Lipman 1]

8th game this year the Sox trailed in the 7th inning or later and won by the way.

[Lipman 1]

TLR blames himself for that 8th inning debacle:

“The way it turned out was atrocious,” La Russa said, blaming himself for putting Kimbrel in a difficult spot.

“I kept thinking, ‘This is not fair.’ It was a totally wrong message to a potential Hall of Fame closer taking him out, to think we don’t have confidence,” La Russa said. “That’s not what I think of him.”

Which of course begs the question why did he do it? What did he see??

[voodoochile]

TLR blames himself for that 8th inning debacle:

“The way it turned out was atrocious,” La Russa said, blaming himself for putting Kimbrel in a difficult spot.

“I kept thinking, ‘This is not fair.’ It was a totally wrong message to a potential Hall of Fame closer taking him out, to think we don’t have confidence,” La Russa said. “That’s not what I think of him.”

Which of course begs the question why did he do it? What did he see??

He didn't see. It was a mistake, pure and simple. He tried to force some matchup changes instead of letting Kimbrel pitch. It was a terrible decision. I was stunned when he brought in Bummer, but figured it might be okay since Bummer has been solid recently. Bummer struggled which might set him back also. It was just a bad decision all around plain and simple.

Even HOF managers make mistakes. Fortunately the Sox played over it.

[PaleHoser]

I for one would rather see these bullpen issues in August instead of October.

Tim Anderson is a money player. Seems to find a way to be exactly what his team needs him to be in big moments. Looking forward to him closing out the fourth win of the World Series this year.

[Bird Of Prey]

I think that relief pitching is much tougher now than it ever was. I think that the 3 batter rule for relievers has really messed up a lot of relief pitchers, pitching coaches, and managers in general. We used to see two relievers warming up all of the time and if a pitcher struggled with his control he got lifted, right? It eliminated a lot a relief specialists mostly left handed that could come in the game and pitch to one particular hitter. Now they can't and the pitcher, pitching coach and manager must suffer through and hope like hell the guy finds his release point.

It is all very different now. If you look around baseball, all bull pens are struggling pretty much, including the White Sox. And the hitting team after a new pitcher comes in will take early pitches if they are borderline more. They are looking for walks and more pressure on the reliever and the other team.

[LoveMySox]

TLR blames himself for that 8th inning debacle:

“The way it turned out was atrocious,” La Russa said, blaming himself for putting Kimbrel in a difficult spot.

“I kept thinking, ‘This is not fair.’ It was a totally wrong message to a potential Hall of Fame closer taking him out, to think we don’t have confidence,” La Russa said. “That’s not what I think of him.”

Which of course begs the question why did he do it? What did he see??

Lip I think sometimes we forget the human factor. Mistakes will be made. It's like a player who makes an error that costs a run.The manager still keeps him in the game. Then hits a two run blast to win the game. TLR made some mistakes. And when he does make them. he owns it. Sign of great leadership. Then the players backed him up by winning that damn game. Winning ugly. This team is special. You know it.

[LITTLE NELL]

The bottom of the 8th was one of the most bizarre innings I've ever seen, TLR was outmanaged but TA came through twice to save the day. Talking about bizarre, the home plate umpire gave the word a whole new meaning. Felt so bad for Giolito, the way he was pitching TLR should have left him in to try for the complete game or at least through the 8th.