They lost

Two things about last nights game:

1) Pitch tracking is a joke.
2) Might be time for the Red Sox to look for a new hitting coach.

Watching last nights game had me in a bit of a kerfuffle because it looked like the the home plate umpire, Junior Valentine, was making the worst ball/strike calls in the history of baseball. Every time they replayed a pitch and showed it on the pitch tracker, it looked like the strike the umpire just called was a ball that was at least an inch off the plate.

It got so bad that the Red Sox hitting coach, Pete Fatse (a kid from around here, by the way) got himself ejected by yelling at the umpire.

It turns out that all the analytical websites I look at after a game to see how the numbers panned out have the umpire as being fairly accurate with his calls. Here is his scorecard from Umpire Score Cards:

An accuracy rating of 96% is good but a consistency rating of 94% is great. That means his strike zone remained consistent throughout the game.

Can't help but wonder if maybe that pitch tracker thing needs to be rebooted or given some percussive maintenance.

Which leads me to my second point regarding young Mr. Fatse. His job his to coach and mentor the hitters, not call balls and strikes. Given that there is a certain inconsistency on the Red Sox lineup, it's possible that the problem lies with the coach, not the hitters.

I like the kid but it might be time for the Red Sox to see if there are other options for a hitting coach.

With last nights loss to the Orioles, the Red Sox are once again at .500 and still in last place in the ALEast.

They need to win the next two games to win the series against the Orioles before finally getting a day off on Thursday.

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Speaking of baseball, I heard back from my cousin regarding the Pirates.

She is very, very excited. Apparently so is my aunt.
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Goofy Joe has announced that he is running for a second term as President.

The market is taking it well...

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Yes, there is baseball this evening.

Yes, I am going to watch it.

Yes, there are links.

Here they are:

• Key entry from our favorite police log: "3:10 p.m. Someone was reported for using AA meetings to try and pick up women."



• The tallyman has tallied his final bunch of bananas.



• I bet this is going to piss of Elon Musk.



• Australia: Need I say more...



• It's the Phillies v. Yankees, what did you expect.



• More proof that our society is filled with idiots.