I’m reading the Tiggggger fans on another site are blaming Leyland for everything that went wrong. He should have left Scherzer in the game instead of going to the pen.
Well, on flip side, we could “whine” to them and say Farrell left in Buchholz too long. It was starting to be obvious Bucholz lost his stuff in the 6th who should have been taken out. Fox announcer’s McCarver and Buck even noticed it as well who wondered and spoke to the audience why Farrell didn’t yank him for a reliever. The tardy Farrell didn’t even have a reliever warming up until the damage was done. It could have saved the Sox 3 to 4 runs if Farrell timely pulled Buchholz.
Here is tried and proven strategy to use against the Tigger outstanding starting pitching.
The Red Sox run up the pitch count. The batters look for a specific pitch in a specific area, and who don’t swing until they get 2 strikes where they have to expand the strike zone. When Red Sox batters have two strikes, they spoil off the pitcher pitches with as many foul balls as the batters can manage. The whole idea is make the Tigers go earlier to their more vulnerable Tiger bullpen. The Yankees were very good at implementing this strategy as well as past Red Sox teams.
Both Leyland and Farrell haven’t been perfect this series: Buchholtz should have been pulled earlier; Scherzer later.
Leyland unleashed his inner Maddon with the parade of relievers...WTH? And, yes, Farrell should have had someone warming up much sooner than he did, because that would have saved runs, like you stated.
Great point about wearing down the DET starters to get to their bullpen, which is one area where BOS has a significant advantage over DET. The NYY perfected that strategy (high pitch counts) and BOS did use it effectively when they’ve won.
p.s. BUF signs Matt Flynn.