Squirrel

You did now ... because I have 'special powers'

I'm not sure that many on either team really knew what was going on. I think maybe only Urshela had a sense of anything because he was in a position to watch/see all the runners. Both Correa and Polanco had their backs turned to the runners and didn't see what they were doing. And I think Buxton was just getting the ball in so whether or not the throw was intended to go where it did, or should have been thrown where it was, it was still, imo, a perfect throw for Urshela to field and then to tag a runner and get to 2nd for the 3rd out. The fact that Polanco and Correa were pointing to first kind of indicated that they didn't really know, either ... or maybe they just wanted to be sure it was all covered. Baldelli even said he wasn't sure what was happening because most everyone was tracking the ball and weren't watching the runners.

Welcome to Twins Daily ... and I concur!

On the Sox broadcast last night they were wondering the same thing. Said he had some knee soreness a bit ago and wondered if that was having an affect. Kopech also indicated in the post-game that something mechanical was off.

Until last night Kopech had only given up a total of 5 home runs all season

It was so weird to see a position player pitch when the Sox were down by only 6 runs. I mean, yeah, okay, that's a ways behind but not insurmountable; it's not like it was a blowout, but just seems as if they conceded the game.

If he even makes it through the season.

LaRussa on the game recap last night … man, not only did he look awful, he sounded awful. I couldn’t tell if he was drunk or maybe had some form of dementia or something. He was really out of it, hardly coherent, didn’t even seem like he understood questions or knew how to form answers

Wow, and Harrison did better than the Sox pitchers

Omg, stupid … it’s not like the game is a complete blowout. That’s giving up

I live 2.5 miles from the park, and it’s not raining here at all. Can see the occasional lightning, but no rain here

Okay, get in the bottom half of this inning and then hope for it to pour

Seth pronounces it wine-der .... I figure he's a pretty good source, but who knows?

The latter

I don't know his story ... what's his deal?

The way I see it ... it's a team sport. I don't think the manager alone is responsible for that much outcome difference. But, what a manager does can impact how players execute their jobs, i.e. ... keeping the clubhouse in good stead, and from every interview I've heard, the players give him lots of props for that. How that impacts wins and losses ... I don't think you can compute that exactly, unless the manager is awful in that regard. And even then, sometimes player personalities just cannot be overcome, either. As for game execution, it's primarily up to the players. How the manager communicates the plans is a factor, but, again, I think from everything I've heard from players, he does a very good job of that. I think together they win, together they lose, so no, I don't point a finger and blame him for specific losses or wins, except to poke a few who give him blame while giving no credit. I just don't think you can have it both ways. I do question some of the decisions, but there are many people on here who consistently say, 'This one's on Rocco' or 'They won in spite of him.' A LOT say this. I just don't think that's true. It's not that manager could be a robot and that wouldn't matter, but I don't think he's as responsible for wins and losses directly, at least not on his own. I mean, one poster here constructed their own measurement, called it manager WAR and basically gave Rocco a minus point for every game they thought Rocco lost for the team, and claimed it was legitimate because of how many games they've watched in their lifetime. I just think that's completely ridiculous. I don't think the manager is responsible in that manner. <shrug> We can agree to disagree on this, but how you and others put such specific responsibility on the manager for losses just isn't correct, imo. Yeah, he's the easy figure head to point a finger at, but ultimately, I don't really think that's fair.

It's hard to judge ... it's looked really 'grayish' for a while ... and I've gotten alerts that say 'start raining by 9' ... but, sometimes these things miss this area

Some of the players' social media accounts were showing them out and about in Chicago and I kind of wanted to play stalker and show up in places they were. But I didn't.

I think his extreme idea was very much akin to your overly dramatic plan of replacing the managers with robots. Why does everyone need to take an extreme pov?

I actually wanted this to be the plan whenever Sabathia was on the mound opposing us. Someone pointed out that batters would likely get hit pretty quick into that plan.

Oh, come ... seriously ... you don't think there can be any middle ground here, that it's only completely one or the other? These arguments to the extreme isn't what anyone is saying. I get that this is very emotional for you, but just because it wouldn't be what you'd do doesn't mean it was entirely done by numbers and the manager can be replaced by a robot. Yes, the numbers are a big influence to the game plan in baseball, like it or not, but not everything goes according to plan and none of us knows what gets changed along the way because of the situation. I'd guess that they already planned for a series of different scenarios. Maybe there is 'less gut' to it than what you want, but I'd guess it's not none, in the same way that it's never anything but the numbers and a robot replacement would be just as good.

Watching the Sox post-game show last night ... wow, LaRussa seemed really out of it. I mean, REALLY out of it. I thought he was drunk or maybe Alzheimer's or dementia setting in. Seriously. He was really bad and his face looked completely blank, eyes unfocussed. I was really shocked at just how terrible he seemed. And not in a laughing way, in a very sad way. It was difficult to listen to and to follow.

Yeah, and they also thought Buxton's catch was routine and their elite CF let two drop for doubles that should have been caught. And, they blamed the base running gaffe all on Moncado because he had a better visual of what was happening and Engel didn't. Um, okay. Fandom at its best.

Listening to the Sox post-game show, Ozzie Guillen said that that play was not why the Sox lost. Yeah, it was a blunder, but odd stuff happens in baseball all the time. He said the reason they lost is because the heart of the order didn’t come through in the bottom of the 9th. I get you don’t like how Rocco manages, I’m not always a fan either, but mostly I don’t care because managers, eh. But if we are going to play the if game here, then let’s say they don’t blunder and the Sox have runners on 2nd and 3rd with 1 out, you don’t know how that would have turned out. Could have scored, but maybe not. You are making a big assumption they do in order to justify your dislike of Rocco. I mean, this is the White Sox we are talking about, not the Yankees. There is absolutely no guarantee the Sox score there. Its more likely another team does, but not the White Sox. Or if they do, maybe the Twins come through in the 8th and/or 9th. The Twins won, so it meant they were supposed to win, so they would have even without the Sox blunder.

Actually, no, it wasn’t defensible, in my (and Ozzie Guillen’s) opinion. You wait to tag. If he doesn’t get to it, it’s likely you score anyway. And if he does get to it, you end up on 3rd with only 1 out.