208.5 to Sports Hub. We are Toucher and Rich, and that's the story. Orioles 5 Red Sox 2 last night.

There was the debate if Betts was hit in the thigh on purpose. We have Peter Abraham, who covers the Boston Red Sox for the Boston Globe on the AT&T expert hotline.

Hello, Mr. Peter Abraham.

Hey, guys.

Good morning.

Now, what was your opinion?

Do you think that they hit bets on purpose?

The fact that it was bets leads me to think it was because usually you try to hit the other team's best player.

And the Red Sox, obviously, have thrown at their best player.

So because it was bets, I would think it probably was. What about the situation it happened in? That doesn't seem like an ideal time to hit a guy. No, but, you know, they had the lead. Maybe they felt like that was the time to do it, that it was the least amount of risk maybe than it would have been doing it early in the game. I don't know, Peter. You have the hottest hitter in the lineup on deck. It's only a 2-0 game at the time, right?

Yeah. risk maybe than it would have been doing it early in the game. I don't know, Peter. You have the hottest hitter in the lineup on deck. It's only a 2-0 game at the time, right? Yeah, I mean, I don't know. I guess it depends on how much they valued the idea of hitting somebody. Maybe they felt that that was important. With these two teams and the history and everything else, it just seemed a little suspicious that it was Mookie who ended up getting hit. Peter, putting that aside for a second, looking at what the Red Sox have done over the last week, especially in the field, has been awful. How did the Red Sox, with all their gold glove candidates and all their gold glovers, and all their great fielders, suddenly become the worst fielding team in the American League? Yeah, I was looking at us up last night. Last year, they were one of the top three teams in the American League, and they pretty much should be better because they replaced Taylor Ramirez with a guy who won a gold glove. So, you know, theoretically, that should be the case. And they've got 10 errors in the last four games. They lead the league in errors. They're second in the league in under and runs. So, yeah, it's been a complete reversal from last year. Now, the fact that they have the same number of guys who were there last year, you would think it would get better. It should get better. And clearly after the game yesterday, Farrell was pissed about it. And it's embarrassing when that stuff happens. I mean, it's not like these are difficult plays. Everything was pretty routine, and they should have had a double play to get out of editing twice, and they couldn't do it. Ben Attendee, who spent a lot of time in spring training, working on defense, hasn't improved as much as they thought he would. So, yeah, it's a definite concern right now. More specifically, what was Heath Hempry's excuse for not throwing the ball to Zanda Bogarts

and throwing it to Dustin Padroya, who was behind Bogart and to the right, on the first double play opportunity?

Yeah, just that I didn't see Bogarts, and that's a bad excuse, because that's the kind of play.

They do 100 times in spring training, and they do it every day, and that's

practically the reason they have spring training is to get ready for stuff like that.

So when you're not able to execute that kind of basic stuff, it's a bad look for everybody,

I think especially the coaching staff, because that's the kind of thing.

Bad hitting is cyclical, and the same thing, to some degree, is true about pitching.

But you should never be a bad defensive team for a long period of time because that's just effort and common sense and paying attention.

You know, you can't will yourself sometimes to be a better hitter, but certainly defensively, you can pay attention and be a good defensive player.

That leads to the question.

Farrell's future, do you think that this is a team that would make a move this season on the manager? Well, I mean, certainly if there would be a 500 team, you know, well into the season, you would think they would. Sure. The thing that I think he has going for him is they don't have a replacement that necessarily is screaming out that here's the guy who you would make the manager. They had that when Labella was here. Now that he's in Arizona, I think that in a weird way was good for Farrell because that took away the guy who he would say, well, you know, it could be pretty easy to make him. Well, we have the guy right next to him. But right, you know, the Gary Desarsina is in his first year as the bench coach. So I don't know that necessarily makes him the perfect guy to become the manager. All right. Hanley Ramirez hasn't had too many Bany Ramirez moments, but last night he did on the bases, and it turned out to be a huge play. Because if Hanley Ramirez just stops at first, then you bring the tying run to the plate and he eighth inning with one out. And for some reason, he went to second and Andrew Benningtony was already there. I don't know how he missed him. What did he say afterwards? That was his fault. There was nobody else's fault but his and he should have been paying more attention and he screwed up you know he owned it he

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