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25 Feb 2001: Lou Merloni #26 of the Boston Red Sox poses for a studio portrait during Spring Training at the City of Palms Park in Fort Myers, Florida.Mandatory Credit: Rick Stewart /Allsport

Not often do MLB broadcasters respond to hecklers on social media. However, Red Sox primary television analyst Lou Merloni did after a Boston Sports-themed social media account criticized the broadcast.

The New England Sports Network (NESN) debuted a “Sox in the Box” broadcast for June 12 and 13. The idea is to create a broadcast with only former players. Former Red Sox champions Jonathan Papelbon (2007) and Will Middlebrooks (2013) joined Merloni, who played for the club from 1998 to 2003.

The broadcast drew criticism from a Boston Sports fan account, @BostonStrong_34, whose username is an ode to Red Sox legend and MLB Hall of Famer David Ortiz. The account criticized Merloni’s play-by-play, while demanding to know where fill-in play-by-play announcer Mike Monaco was.

Merloni saw that and hit back with this response.

Long story short, Merloni said he enjoyed the format and then accused the account of plagiarizing reports on the Red Sox from the media.

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The idea of a “Sox in the Box” podcast may be tied to the unavailability of television play-by-play announcer David O’Brien. Merloni explained that O’Brien is attending his son’s wedding over the weekend, allowing the network to experiment.

Lou Merloni described the arrangement as this.

“I just sorta feel like we’re just like three high school kids who someone gave us a Cape House with no parents and just said, go get ’em.”

Will Middlebrooks joked about having a seven-second delay on X.

Without a traditional broadcast format, there’s a lot of unpredictability. Merloni and Middlebrooks are the more experienced broadcasters, with the latter serving on the radio as an analyst.

Jonathan Papelbon, whose temper often lights up like the radar gun on his fastball, was going to be the Wild Card. Especially after downing five cups of coffee, as Middlebrooks posted a picture.

For what it’s worth, the Red Sox went 2-0 against the Texas Rangers for the “Sox in the Box” broadcast. It was only their second series win at Fenway Park this season.

It’s unclear if they’ll ever do that broadcast format again. The superstitious fans, and perhaps the three broadcasters, certainly hope so.

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Merloni’s post generated a pretty strong response. The post drew 149.2K views, with 221 replies, 122 reposts, and 2.5K likes.

Many of the top responses were in support of the Red Sox TV analyst. Here are some of the replies to Merloni’s post.