The Red Sox rolled into the weekend riding a series win in Cleveland and a Jarren Duran heater that has Carrabis on full hype patrol. So when Sox-O's hit the air Monday night, the Just The Nuts stream was already loaded — Bello on the bump, Greg behind him, and a Fenway crowd ready to see if Boston could keep the good times rolling.
The stream call-out kicked things off as Bello took the ball at Fenway.
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The thesis was straightforward and Carrabis has been pounding the table on it for weeks: Greg + Bello = Success. It's a coaching-and-catcher pairing read, the kind of small-sample correlation Sox fans live and die on, but the eye test backs it up. Bello has looked like the version of himself the front office paid for when he's got the right setup behind the plate.
Carrabis laid out the Greg-plus-Bello formula on the pod with Bello B-roll over the take.
Of course, this being Fenway, the night couldn't go by without a Green Monster controversy. Carrabis went on a perfectly reasonable rant about replay review on Monster balls — specifically that a ball that ricochets off the wall and shoots STRAIGHT UP in the air should never, under any law of physics known to man, require a review to confirm it didn't clear the wall. He's right. It's been bugging him forever and it should bug everyone.
The Monster-review gripe, posted mid-stream.
I've always been confused as to why replay would be necessary to determine that a ball off the Green Monster that shot directly up in the air was a home run or not. It is physically impossible for a ball off the wall to shoot straight up in the air. Boggles my mind every time.
Then Polar Pete reminded everyone why the Orioles are still dangerous. Alonso went up and over the Monster — 110.8 off the bat, 400 feet — to flip a 1-1 game and remind Sox fans that Baltimore's lineup doesn't really care about your coaching-pairing thesis when a guy that big is locked in.
Alonso's blast over the Monster, no replay required.
That's the rub with a Red Sox team that's finally fun again. Duran is scorching, Wilyer and Masa are producing, IKF is somehow the heartbeat of the roster, and the Greg-Bello arrangement is paying off — but the AL East doesn't hand out anything for free, and Alonso just put a 400-foot exclamation point on it. The formula still works. It just has to survive the lineup on the other side.