Shaw's not the starter he's the opener. Or is that what you call a guy who pitches 1 or 2 innings followed by someone else who pitches 5?

Didn't Tito invent the bullpen game when he led the team in the playoffs and nearly all of our starters were hurt?

Great work by Kirk McCarty last night, 4 shutout innings. He commented after the game that the mental preparation to pitch relief instead of start was much different. It certainly made a huge difference in his performance.
If he can pitch that well, sometimes, he could be allowed to stay around as a long reliever. Gose is out for perhaps the season, Hentges' effectiveness has waned [but cannot be optioned out] so another Lefty in the pen can be useful.

Yeah maybe Tampa had something there with making guys like McCarty "bulk innings guys" coming in after a reliever had started the game.

Really McCarty was the star of the game.

And Red Sox current funk aided the cause.

Rather sloppy [especially by Cordero for the RedSox and one bad play by Cleveland], Quantrill couldn't retire Dalbec but another Naylor 9th inning homer wins the game and Clase mows them away for another save.
1 /12 behind the Twins,
1 1/2 ahead of the WhiteSox

Not a great team but not a great division

Giminez back in the lineup tonight. hitting 5th. Naylor and Giminez are a somewhat surprising but pretty solid pair hitting 4th and 5th.
Reyes is 6th, Jones 7th.

Sort of surprised to see slick fielding Franchy Cordero back at 1st for Boston; not just can't he field he has a 680 OPS for season and he's been tredning down, he's struck out 25 times in his last 48 AB.

I assume he's a fill in; but for whom? I see that 2B Story and 3B Devers are on the DL. OK,I see Dalbec has moved over from 1st to 3rd to spell Devers and perhaps there's no other option for 1st.
I do believe Josh Bauers is available in the minors somewhere. He can field, although he too cannot hit.

couldn't resist checking, since he moved to the Yankees' Wilkes Barre team Jake is hitting up a storm. 819 OPS

If McKenzie could cut back on the homers he'd be among the top pitchers in the league; he's 4th in WHIP and 3rd in Batting Average against, but the homers put him 13th in ERA.
amazing to see that he is still only 24!
and great to see that after lots of minorleague time missed with injuries he's been one of the healthiest of our major league starters.
I think he retains a good shot of settling in as a top of the rotation lifer but he's gone some work to do yet.

Since I just mentioned Tristan is only 24, I am looking at the roster; Clase is the same. There's only younger pitcher on the 40 man roster [Carlos Vargas in the Akron bullpen] Marginal types: Pilkington another 24 year old, McCarty 26, minor league rehabber Cody Morris 25.

Naylor feeling well enough to DH. Miller flliing well enough to play 1st base. Too bad, I was hoping to see Benson debut

3 run blast off McKenzie in the first. He's not a star if he can't keep the ball in the yard.

Scores generally are lower in the daytime? At least that's true today; 1-0 G's 1/2 way through. Only run on a Straw sac fly. Bieber with 7K no walks on 77 pitches in 5 innings.

Dbacks rookie runs out of gas in the 5th. Walks Hedgs. Kwan hitting streak to 17 with a single.
Amed clears them off with his 6th homer. Very glad he's still on the club.

3 run homers are great when they're for you; they're awful when they're against you

Rosario's OPS is still nothing much at 736 since he doesn't walk a lot; only 20 for the season
Kwan's not all that better at 751 since he's mostly a singles hitter but he's among league's top dozen in on base pct and batting average
I'm very happy with them at the top of the order.

today's cleanup hitter Miller with an OPS of 673. One homer since May. Plenty of doubles early, only 3 in his last 82 AB., few walks, lots of sac flies.