Tony-OH

Lol... 3rd base "gold glover" doesn't know where to position himself on a steal. Then another crap reliever can't get a Red Sox out. But again, why was Irvin starting in Boston in Fenway? Just really, really poor decisions being made by the Orioles FO and manager.

Lol this starting pitching...

Mullins looking good at the plate. Easy power there. Houck is one of those guys that looks like he's good for about 50-60 pitches than loses the command.

He typically can locate much better obviously. Still, why he's pitching in Fenway is a bit of a mystery.

Irvin, who is a 5th starter, being the Orioles 3rd starter of the year in Boston tells you everything you need to know about Elias' poor offseason.

3-1 and you take right down the middle? Good Lord

Ouch, bad swing there by Gunnar.

The Red Sox are certainly winning on pitch count so far as well! 9-ptches for Houck in a 1-2-3. Irvin 32-pitches, allowed a run and left the bases loaded.

This reminds of one of those old school games where the Red Sox foul off a s-ton of pitches and has our starter out by the 4th inning.

Not even really that close.

Yikes, this ump is all over the place.

I will say this. With the way the ball has been flying, Irvin may not be a good matchup in Fenway. Let's hope he finds a way to keep it in the park.

Mullins had a really bad series defensively, but yes, the numbers show that Mullins is a well above average defensive center fielder going back and side to side. It's coming in on balls (which was not his issue in this series) that have given him some issues.

I guess I don't understand how Mateo's throw and McKenna's botch catch is on coaching. How do "coach up" guys from locking up in crucial situations? Now, if guys were throwing to wrong bases or not covering bases or not lining up relay throws you could have a point, but at the end of the day, we have two terrible errors on plays that should have ended the game. I don't know if I've ever seen that in back to back games. Thankfully only one of them cost us a game. This game is played by humans and humans make mistakes. While I can understand where you are coming from, I just don't see how these came from a lack of coaching.

As I've said a few times, McKenna was known for "mental errors" in the minors. The dropped fly ball yesterday was certainly nothing more than a mental error because it was such an easy catch. Saying that, I'm not going to say that McKenna is not a good defensive outfielder because he is for the most part. In the past, after he's had these mental lapses, he's been able to rebound with focus for awhile. Hopefully we won't see this again for a long time. I can guarantee us all one thing though, nobody feels worse about dropping that ball than him. Just because a guy has mental lapses does not mean he doesn't care or is not smart. Not saying your are saying this, but some people want the guy crucified and honestly, while it really sucks that it happened for us fans, imagine having to run off that field and go into that lockeroom as him. Now I'm sure the guys are professional and its not like they are going to ostracize him, but he knows he let the entire team down and snatched a loss out of the jaws of victory. I honestly feel bad for him. Now, how will he be remembered by fans long term? Well, Bill Buckner had a hell of a career yet if you bring up his name, his error in the World Series is the first thing that pops in people's heads. Now maybe folks will forget longterm, and hopefully Ryan gets an opportunity to do something special that will outweigh that mistake, but for now, that plays is the defining moment that most will remember up to this point.

I agree that they should have sent him back to play 1B if they hate his defense that badly. Also, why go into this season with him if you think his defense is that bad? And let me say this, his defense is NOT worse than Santander. BTW, Stowers was fine last year in RF where he spent MOST of his minor league outfield time. If you wanted to move him around from LF to RF why did they not play him more in LF in the minor leagues? Why did they play him at all in CF in the minor leagues. And if they evaluated him poorly in the outfield, why was he not given an opportunity to play some 1B to see if he can add value. Lastly, if you dislike the players game, why not trade him this offseason? Why do you bring him into the season as your 26th man, never going to play him right fielder/DH? Why not let him go back to the minors and let him increase his value where he'll show other teams that he can right and left handers? I was shocked by their usage of his last year when he never got PAs against left-handers and now I'm shocked he's the only guy on the roster to not get a start after three games. This is a guy who had a very good AAA season last year. Amazingly, they have no issues giving Henderson PAs against lefties despite him not having a lot of success against them in the minors. Whoever is doing this evaluation, and I'm going to assume its Elias based off Sig's program, it really is strange how they've treated Stowers. At this point, just expect the unexpected.

Lol... Amazing. They should have just sent him back to the minors. O'Hearn or Lester would have been fine as the 26th bench guy.

I hope you're right. Maybe its just the Red Sox and Orioles pitching is terrible, but those balls seem to really carry and the EVs seem very high.

Dude slashed .213/.276/.401/.677 last year and of course becomes Babe damn Ruth against us. Then again, with these superballs, I think we're going to see a lot of Babe Ruth's this year. MLB appears to have messed with the balls once again and now we're going to end up with clown show games with double digit games everywhere. I hope these games are aberration because as much as I like offense, these balls are flying way too much in April.

It wasn't unprovoked. He made bad analysis, I called him on it. When I have a bad take I get called on it as well. That's the way this place works. If this hurts your feelings or anyone else's, feel free to post somewhere else where your feelings matter. If he had provided stats or real analysis to disagree with me then fine, but to say things that just aren't true are going to get you called out. And BTW, I will mix it up here as I see fit. I never called him a name, I didn't break any rules. Was I aggressive, sure, probably because I was still pissed over the game, but anyone who knows me well enough there are going to be times that's going to happen. I've never run this place like I have treat everyone like a "customer." Either you want to be part of this community or not. We have been together around here for 20+ years so we've all gotten into with each other at some point. Who cares? I don't hold grudges and if I agree with the same person I got into with the day before then I'm just as likely to give them rep or say agree. At the end of the day, this place has been run the same way for 20+ years. It's not for everyone and I'm ok with that.

Yet you sent me a totally different personal note. lol As I told you, I very well may have taken yesterday's loss out on you a bit, but everything I said in there was pretty true. Your analysis of Stowers being a butcher in the outfield is just wrong. Sorry, you claim I'm being a meaney or whatever, but it's a poor take. Why do you think what you did was provide "critical feedback?" You tried to support the Orioles not playing Stowers by calling him a butcher outfielder and bat off the bench. I disagreed. You also have been very vocal in your support of Frazier by screaming throughout the first game thread "That's why we got him!" and I'm pretty sure you were a pro Frazier signing guy during his many discussions. At the end of the day, you have accessed that Frazier is an everyday player and Stowers is a bat off the bench guy and is a butcher in the field. Yet somehow you got all butt hurt when I responded to this "analysis." Now, you can have any opinion you want, and just like people have told me they disagreed with me in this thread, which is fine, only you decided Stowers shouldn't start because he's a butcher and bat off the bench.

Fair enough. I don't really remember a lot of tough chances for their outfielders, but I also saw Santander misplaying easy plays, including one in front of him that was a total misplay. Did Santander play much left field in spring training? I wonder how much pre game work, if any Santander did before the Fenway start to get used to seeing the ball coming off the bat? My guess due to the cold, not any. Either way, I'll assume Stowers will get the start today and it will be interesting to see if he plays left field or right field.

Exactly. That's why I don't want to be down on Bautista. His defense let him down in both opportunities, and honestly, as much as it's heresy to talk badly about Adley, the 1-0 fastball call to a dead fastball hitter with power when the next batter was less of a threat, was not a great pitch call. I get not wanting to get behind 2-0, but no way I'm calling for a fastball there. Batters had an xSLG of .139 against Bautista's splitter last year. Pitch calling late in games is sometimes about risk management. Calling for a split finger there makes the worse case scenario most likely 2-0, in which I would have thrown another split.

There very well could be something to this. The Hays play was really weird. I'm not sure I've ever seen Hays misplay a ball so badly. I do think the balls are juiced based off what I've seen so far. If the ball is flying like this in April, good luck to pitchers in July and August. Saying that, didn't seem like the Red Sox outfielders were misplaying balls all over the place.

I'm really hoping its because he got a late start to the spring. I'm guessing the Orioles would have preferred not to have to pitch him in high leverage situations in the first series or two, but unfortunately, it hasn't worked out this way. We have to remember, he should be 2-for-2 in save opportunities despite the wildness.