The Sashman Speaks

As I have done with the previous two series's that the Red Sox have been in,  I once again am here to offer my analysis, opinions and of course my prediction.  With the Red Sox defeating the Astros in only 5 games ( yes I predicted 6) they have had sufficient time off to get some of their injured players, Sale, Moreland, and Nunez the time to get their injuries worked on and I expect them to play big roles against the Dodgers.  First, Sale is going to be taking the hill on Tuesday night, for the first time in nine days, and I expect for him to be both amped up as well as ready to show not only the Red Sox and the fans of course, that he's healthy. But to show the Dodgers that they are not going to be getting a hurt/sick Sale but hopefully, that he is well rested as well as ready to prove that when Dombrowski traded away four prospects including Michael Kopech and Yoan Moncada, that this was the reason.  Following Sale, will be Price who in his series-cli...

Like many Red Sox fans, I woke up bleary eyed and tired, unsure if what I saw at 1:00am truly happened. Then I saw the news on multiple outlets and indeed it did happen. Craig Kimbrel once again put on his Houdini act and was able to escape albeit barely surviving and wouldn't have survived had it not been for Andrew Benintendi's DIVING effort to save the game. So now we head into Game 5 with David Price ( who was warming and would have entered the game had Kimbrel totally imploded in both the 8th and the 9th innings respectively. Yet, Price was seen celebrating after Benintendi's catch and will be taking the hill in what is probably the biggest start of his Red Sox career.  So with that being said here are my keys to tonight's game.   1.)  With a much-beleaguered bullpen which saw Ryan Braiser throw 1.1 innings, and Kimbrel throwing 32 pitches in his 2 inning stint, most likely unavailable tonight, the reliance on Price going at least 5 if not 6 innings to...

It was announced earlier today that MLB has fined Manny Machado an undisclosed amount of money for his running into and stepping on the leg of Jesus Aguilar and that he is still eligible for the rest of the NLCS. Ken Rosenthal     @Ken_Rosenthal 15m MLB has fined Manny Machado an undisclosed amount for the way he ran into Jesus Aguilar last night, sources tell The Athletic.  THIS IS THE ABSOLUTE WRONG MOVE by MLB to have made. Anyone who has watched Manny Machado over the past couple of seasons, has gotten used to seeing Machado involved in drama.  From his deliberate late slides and the resulting injury to Dustin Pedroia as well his face to face yelling match with the Oakland A's now Indians, Josh Donaldson. To now during the NLCS and his repeatedly trying to interfere with Brewers shortstop, Orlando Arcia.     The first time he attempted to interfere was on a double play attempt where on a throw from the second baseman Travis Sh...

After last night's dramatics by Steve Pearce and Jackie Bradley Jr plus the outstanding outing by Eovaldi, the Red Sox now have a 2-1 series lead with Rick Porcello on the hill tonight.  1.) Following Eovaldi's performance won't be easy as he is still the only Sox pitcher to go beyond the 5th inning in both of his playoff starts. Porcello has already staked his claim to fame as he has twice provided that stable eighth-inning bridge to Kimbrel in two outings out of the bullpen.  However, tonight he is facing a tough Astros team who were limited to just two runs last night, and are like manager AJ Hinch said about Mookie Betts a couple nights ago, are a "ticking-time-bomb"  Springer leads the Astros hitters with a .417 average, followed by Yuri Gurriel at an even .400 and Carlos Correra at .375 and Alex Bregman at .333.  SO keeping these hitters off of the bases and limiting the damage like Eovaldi was able to do will be a big key in hopefully securing a 3-1 seri...

It all started in the first inning.  Mookie's bat continues to stay hot as he led off the game with a single, followed by another single by Benintendi ( he actually was the only Red Sox hitter to have multiple hits as he went 2-5 tonight)  Then up stepped JD Martinez. As I mentioned in my keys to the game for game 3 they needed to get Martinez's bat going and that's exactly what happened. As he laced a ball down the rightfield line scoring Betts.  Then Xander drove in Benintendi on an infield groundout and even before taking the mound Eovaldi had a two-run lead. Eovaldi pitched 6 masterful innings allowing only 2 runs on 6 hits while striking out 6. Yet his first inning was a bit rocky as he gave up a run on an RBI single by Marwin Gonzalez. He was able to limit the damage to that one run until the 6th when Alex Bregman laced a ball past the dive of Rafael Devers and tying the game.  Yet, he was saved by two BIG blasts. The first coming from Steve Pearce who took ...

While the Red Sox were able to split the two games of the series in Boston, and it has perhaps led to momentum being carried as they venture to Houston where they will play the next three games starting with tonight's Game 3.  However, there are still areas where they need to clean up in order to win this series and move on to the World Series which would start next week. 1.) Getting JD Martinez going.  It was said by Astros manager, AJ Hinch that Mookie Betts was a "ticking time-bomb, just waiting to go off." Well, Mookie did go off by going 2-4 with two doubles and scoring two runs including a course in base-running in the 7th inning. However, so far Martinez is still looking for his bat to ignite like it did during the ALDS where he was a one-man- wrecking crew of the Yankee pitching staff.  Currently, in the ALCS against Houston, Martinez has been held in check with only a walk in his seven at-bats against both Justin Verlander and Gerrit Cole respectively.  ...

Over the past couple of seasons, including just last night Manny Machado has found himself involved in a few instances of where his late-slides into second base have at least in my opinion, have labled him as a "Dirty" player. Example number one is very vivid to Red Sox fans, including myself.  While playing for the Orioles, Machado while sliding into second base, is seen CLEARLY, with his cleat facing up thus resulting in both injuring and then leaving a crumpled Pedroia laying near second base.   This injury not only affected Pedroia ability to stay on the field last season, but its effects lingering into this season where he only was able to be on the field for three games. Here is Machado's slide into Pedroia where you clearly again see Machado with his spike up impaling Pedroia. Machado "dirty slide into Pedroia" This led to the infamous Matt Barnes pitches over Machado's head a couple days later, and the video of Pedroia telling Machado' th...

So about 6 years ago, during the breaking down of a set from a show I was in,  I fell off of a scaffolding and dropped about 5-6ft to the ground where I, landed very hard on my back missing a set of stairs but inches.  I was lucky and was able to get up and move and while at first it I didn't think of it as being too serious, it has continued to pop up every now and then. And when it does, it does it at the worst possible time. This past week, I had to see my chiropractor and get adjustments done due to the pain I was dealing with.  Now, I am not one to let a little pain stop me, as proof of this I umpired over 20+ games with a broken hand. I did this because I wasn't going to let a broken hand stop me from doing what I love. However, when  I get this pain that shoots from my back to my knees and makes it hard to either sit or stand for even short periods of time is just frustrating. And to make things a bit more annoying is that I was asked by multiple associat...