4-18 IGT: Philly at Mets: Miles Standish Proud

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Let's begin again. Begin the begin.
Zach Wheelchair on the bump. JCL in the cheap seats.

[Fman99]

The Phillies as opponent, bad at baseball, bullpen that looks messier than JFK's limo.

[ashie62]

Hoping the Mets are as good as REM in this rich pageant in philly..

[MFS62]

I was going to comment on the title of this thread, but I decided to be Miles Standish-Offish instead.

Later

[Lefty Specialist]

Hope everyone's feeling hitterish. I don't expect Zack to go very deep and it would be nice to have a nice cushion at that point.

I'll be in the left-field box seats, except that those seats will be in Busch Stadium as I'm in St Louis on bizness.

[Frayed Knot]

Cardinals off to their worst start (4-9) since 1988 so you might see a test of how far that famed mid-western politeness and boosterism of the crowd will bend.

I suspected St Looie for a team due for at least a bit of a fall this year off of last year's 86 win non-playoff team -- Alex Reyes injury, Wainwright & Molina getting old, shaky defense, too 'lucky' with non-repeatable RiSP & PH success in recent years, etc., plus there are only so many [crossout:143myn76]rabbits[/crossout:143myn76] rookies you can keep pulling out of hats whenever they need one -- but they really look like shit so far, something which would be fine with me if only part of that hadn't come vs a three-game sweep by the Yanx this weekend. At one point there were Yanx running all over the bases courtesy of Molina passed balls and I'm thinking, 'Who da fuck are these guys?!?'.
Bottom Line: 2nd worst in NL in RS/G (only slightly ahead of SDP and they're barely trying) [u:143myn76]PLUS[/u:143myn76] 2nd worst in RA/G just ain't gonna get it done.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

I always root for St.Louis to stink up the joint, figures they'd do it vs. the MFYs this weekend. I mean, they played terribly in that series, pitching, offense and defense.

Put that in your pipe and smoke it, Megdal!

Tonight the Lunchman will be in 512 (I think). I packed gloves and a hat even though it's nice out now.

[Lefty Specialist]

Much gloom in STL, despite the win last night. The horrendous defense is not 'The Cardinal Way', and there's a feeling that a stripdown and rebuild may be necessary, something they've avoided for decades.

[Frayed Knot]

With their best pitching prospect, Alex Reyes, out until sometime in 2018 with TJ surgery, and no one seemingly sure whether Michael Wacha is the stud he looked like pre-2016 or the one with the 5.00+ ERA last year, Carlos
Martinez is StL's best young (25) pitching hope right now, but it's safe to say he's still a bit erratic yet.
Anyone see his pitching line vs the Yanx in Saturday's game? ... 5.1 IP, 3 Runs (2 earned) on 4 hits, but with [u:1u9qdwpv]8 Walks + 11 Ks[/u:1u9qdwpv] (on 118 pitches)

[ashie62]

It will be chilly at Citi tonight.

St. Louis may do a rebuild. I guess a trade of the Matts, Carpenter and Adams is a start.

[Guest cooby]

I hope St. Louis loses the rest of their games

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Tonight the Phillies will pitch Zack Eflin, a promising but unsure kid who was called up to take the place of Clay Buchholz who's out for surgery already:

[tweet:1uzrycb0]

[/tweet:1uzrycb0]

Eflin saw some time last year before going down for knee surgery and only has 10 innings in the minors so far so would help to get to him early. The Mets beat him 5-zip last year in the deGrom one-hitter. I was at that game!

[Frayed Knot]

Zach Eflin sounds like a member of some Disney-owned boy band.

Instead he's a former 1st round (33rd overall) pick of the Padres -- in 2012 out of a Florida HS -- but was traded twice on consecutive days in December 2014 before reaching the big leagues with Philly.
From SD to LAD in the Matt Kemp deal, and then with another minor leaguer to the Phillies for Jimmy Rollins. Really, LA, you deal two minor leaguers including a recent 1st round pick for the aging carcass of Jimmy Rollins?!?!
I suppose one could argue that they needed a SS and JR played there almost every day for a team that went to the playoffs (and lost to the Mets) but he hit all of .224/.285/.339 while doing so.

[Ceetar]

Michael Conforto – CF
Asdrúbal Cabrera – SS
Yoenis Céspedes – LF
Jay Bruce – RF
Neil Walker – 2B
Lucas Duda – 1B
José Reyes – 3B
Travis d’Arnaud - C
Zack Wheeler - RHP

[Benjamin Grimm]

Mets have walked three times so far in the first, lead 2 to 1.

[ashie62]

Herrra homers for filthy

Bruce singles in Conforto, Cespedes to 3rd.

Cespedes scores on wild pitch

2nd inning

2-1 Mets

[Benjamin Grimm]

And José pops up the first pitch with two on to end the inning.

[Guest cooby]

Frayed Knot wrote: Zach Eflin sounds like a member of some Disney-owned boy band. .

with big ears

[Edgy MD]

Benjamin Grimm wrote: And José pops up the first pitch with two on to end the inning.

Eflin was digging his own grave and Reyes just took the shovel away from him.

[Edgy MD]

I think it would be awesome if Hernandez, Cohen, and Darling did this. Tailors should be climbing over each other to dress them.

[Centerfield]

By my count, 468 pitches have been thrown in this game.

[Edgy MD]

Man, they couldn't have done more to giftwrap a bunt single for Bruce, but he still swung away.

[Edgy MD]

Reyes one-hops one off the wall in right center and stops at second?

[Edgy MD]

[youtube:3qplx55m]eslz06J9hFw[/youtube:3qplx55m]

[Benjamin Grimm]

Edgy MD wrote: Reyes one-hops one off the wall in right center and stops at second?

That seemed like a double all the way to me. The ball bounced back to the outfielder pretty quickly.

Although the Phillies' announcer did predict it would be a triple.

Phillies booth also speculating whether Jose will be a Hall-of-Famer.

[Edgy MD]

Benjamin Grimm wrote: That seemed like a double all the way to me. The ball bounced back to the outfielder pretty quickly.

Sure, but I've never known Reyes to stop on ball hit there. I'm not saying he shouldn't have.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Come on, Zack. Finish off this inning...

[Benjamin Grimm]

And he does. Surely that's it for him tonight.

[Edgy MD]

Weird to see fans ovate a starting pitcher for getting through five.

[Frayed Knot]

Benjamin Grimm wrote: Phillies booth also speculating whether Jose will be a Hall-of-Famer.

Tell them they can stop.