TWiB Notes -- Sept 8 thru 14

[Frayed Knot]

We've got a situation this week, and one that will come up several times during the remainder of the season, where our WC-wanting opponents will be playing each other.



Currently: Cincy is at SDP (Padres won in 10 last night) and DBacks @ Giants (San Fran took the opener)



The best thing to do in these situations is root for something approaching a split. What we don't want is some team behind us racking up sweeps.

If the Mets play just mediocre/suck (y'know, like the last three months) then it might just be enough if no one else gets got. Now, true, we could

still go total/suck and fall behind anyway, but this at least improves our odds of hanging on.



Other series: Cubs @ Braves with the Braves winning last night; Rox @ LAD (Dodgers won the opener); StL @ Seattle (Mariners won)



So as play opens tonight it's:

LAD: +4.0

SDP: +3.0 (winner gets the division)

NYM

SFG: -3.0

CIN: -4.0

ARZ: -4.5

StL: -4.5

[Frayed Knot]

Cubs were up 2-1 on the Braves. Braves call on Edwin's baby bro Alexis Díaz to pitch the top of the 8th: GO, HBP, BB, K, BB, BB

The Braves are Alexis's third team this year: 6 games w/Cincy + 9 w/LAD. This was his first appearance for the Braves.

His combined ERA (not counting tonight) in 2025 is 7.80 with a 1.47 WHIP



His first two seasons produced a 5th in ROY and then an AS appearance in season #2 in 2023.

I would have seriously advocated for getting him in the '23-'24 off-season but he's been nothing but bad news since.



And now it's 6-1 Cubs so that means all his LOB runners have since scored which will just fluff up his ERA even more.

It also means that the Cubs are one more game removed from being a possible target to catch for the Mets.

Every day that passes they have more and more to worry about from the teams behind them than the ones in front of them.

[The Hot Corner]

Well, I'm desperately looking for something positive after another pathetic Mets loss. This is the best I can come up with, at least the Diamondbacks beat the Giants. So the Mets still cling to their 2.0 game lead (2.5 w/ tie-breaker) over the Giants. The Diamondbacks close to within 3.5 games of the Mets. The Padres and Reds are scoreless in the third,. Go Padres!! The Mets need help, because they seem unable to help themselves.

[whippoorwill]

It's only the 7th inning

[Frayed Knot]

The team on the other side of NYC faring about as well as we are so far this week.

The Yanx lost to Detroit 12-2 Tuesday night and are down [CROSSOUT]9-1[/CROSSOUT] 11-1 in the 9th tonight.

[The Hot Corner]

=whippoorwill post_id=204011 time=1757553345 user_id=79]
It's only the 7th inning

[Frayed Knot]

Most of the action this weekend will be coming from the west coast

- Reds (-1.5) in West Sacramento

- Diamondbacks (-3.0) @ Minnesota

- Cardinals (-4.0) @ Brewers

- Giants (-1.5) host the Dodgers



and just for funzies, Yanx @ BoSox

Yanx have a half-game lead on the Sox for the #1 & #2 WC slots and are 3.0 & 3.5 games in back of the Bee-Jayz

Currently 2-0 Yanx in the 5th

[Gwreck]

Sacramento beat Cincinnati.



Bottom 10, Dodgers and Giants were tied 1-1, Giants had a runner on third with one out. Dodgers appear to get a strikeout of Jung Ho Lee on a caught foul tip. Umpire asks to see the ball, looks at it and calls it foul/no strikeout. Dodgers don't protest. Replays show catcher caught it and should have been a strikeout.



Lee walks on the next pitch. Dodgers walk the next guy to load the bases. Giants then hit the walk off grand slam.

[Centerfield]

Down 4-3, the Dodgers scored 6 to take a 9-4 lead.



Then gave back 3 in the bottom half.



9-7 Dodgers





Athletics lead the Reds 5-2. Hunter Greene, who looked like Cy Young on Sunday, didn't make it out of the 3rd.

[Centerfield]

Reds just tied it 5-5. The teams chasing us have a lot more fight than we have.

[Centerfield]

Dodgers get 3 right back. 12-7 LA.

[Gwreck]

Cincinnati and San Francisco both lost. Arizona won.



+ 0.5 on SF (Mets have tiebreaker)

+ 1.5 on CIN (CIN has tiebreaker)

+ 2.0 on ARZ (tiebreaker TBD)

[Frayed Knot]

Speaking of the Giants, Gary has mentioned several times how much Drew Gilbert, the biggest prospect name the Mets sent to SFG in the Tyler Rogers trade, has been a part of the recent SFG surge. But then I look and see a guy with all of 15 hits in 71 trips to the plate [.221 w/a .261 OBA]

Turns out that what got Gary all ga-ga, and temporarily pumped up Gilbert's stats, was that he went 9-for-15 during a three start span from 8/29 to 9/1

The remainder of his brief time as a ML'er he's just 6-for-52 (.115)



So, more like a brief phenomenon so far than proof of a bad trade.

[Frayed Knot]

Reds batting in the top of the 7th down 5 - 3 to the West Sacramentoans.



DBacks won



Giants down 6-1 to LAD



and the Padres (it's not impossible for us to catch them) are up 7-4 at home vs the Rox

[Frayed Knot]

BoSox, trying to salvage one game from their weekend series, jump out to a 6-0 1st inning lead, are now hanging on to a 6-4 lead in the 8th.

[Fman99]

This little recap is helpful to me, I will try to keep posting it as it changes. Reds and Giants both lost yesterday, D-Bags won. While the Mets are off today, all of these teams play (Giants at Arizona, Reds at STL).



+ 1.5 on SF (Mets have tiebreaker)

+ 2.0 on ARZ (tiebreaker TBD)

+ 2.5 on CIN (CIN has tiebreaker)

[Frayed Knot]

Wrapping up the week with some non-NL action: it was a good week for the Mariners.

- swept a four game series from LAA extending their W streak to eight

- took over 1st place in the AL West replacing slumping Houston

- Astros (6-7 in Sep) not only lost their lead but are in danger of sitting out October entirely as they fell to the #3 WC slot only 2.0 G up on streaking Texas (and the Rangers travel to Houston to start a three game series tonight)

- Cal Raleigh hit his 43rd HR this season as a catcher which breaks Javy Lopez's 2003 mark

- and it was his 54th overall HR tying him with Mickey Mantle for most HRs in a season by a switch-hitter

[roger_that]

Frayed Knot wrote: Wrapping up the week with some non-NL action: it was a good week for the Mariners. - swept a four game series from LAA extending their W streak to eight - took over 1st place in the AL West replacing slumping Houston - Astros (6-7 in Sep) not only lost their lead but are in danger of sitting out October entirely as they fell to the #3 WC slot only 2.0 G up on streaking Texas (and the Rangers travel to Houston to start a three game series tonight) - Cal Raleigh hit his 43rd HR this season as a catcher which breaks Javy Lopez's 2003 mark - and it was his 54th overall HR tying him with Mickey Mantle for most HRs in a season by a switch-hitter

I don't get people who say it doesn't matter that Raleigh hit some of his HRs as a DH. Of course it matters. It matters a whole lot. That's the whole fucking point of the DH, to give guys who need a rest the chance to bat anyway. Of course it gives Raleigh a tremendous edge over guys who had to catch every day.