Benjamin Grimm

Niese looking pretty good, but he gives up a double and a single with two out in the second. Bottom of the inning, Delgado walks, Church singles him to third, and Delgado hustles home on a wild pitch. 1-1 after 2.

Benjamin Grimm wrote: One hundredth home run as a Met (updated again): Ed Kranepool August 3, 1976Dave Kingman August 18, 1981Darryl Strawberry August 27, 1986Howard Johnson June 21, 1989Kevin McReynolds September 11, 1990Todd Hundley May 5, 1997Mike Piazza September 22, 2000Edgardo Alfonzo August 18, 2001David Wright April 13, 2008Carlos Beltran June 16, 2008 Don't know who's going to be next. Delgado, if he has an unexpected resurgence AND returns next year. (Extreme long shot, I'd say.) Otherwise, Jose Reyes, unless the Mets import a slugger who can overcome Jose's 53+ head start. I made the above post on June 17. Delgado did have that "unexpected resurgence" and now had 99 home runs as a Met. He looks really likely to become the next guy in the 100 club. Hopefully this year. Hopefully tonight. But even if he doesn't, I'm sure he'll get more chances in 2009. George Foster, by the way, is the one Met who has remained forever stuck at 99 home runs.

David Wright recently became the eighth Met to homer 30 or more times in more than one season.

="soupcan"] This girl. And I'm guessing that Billy Martin was mentioned because his uniform number, 1, matches the current tragic number for the Yankees.

Pelfrey 3 Rincon 0.4 Wright 2.5 Delgado 3 Castillo 0.4

I wasn't aware that there was a "Rookie of the Month"

Vic didn't mention Dale Murphy, but I'd call him a NO.

Voting for Thursday night's win over the Nationals in the season series finale will close on Tuesday morning. Schaefer POTG 9/18/08 - Mets 7, Nationals 2

Good point.

I think a split would be okay if the Pirates manage, at the same time, to take two of three from the Brewers. I'd like there to be a magic number no higher than 2 when we wake up on Friday morning. To get there, we need a combination of Mets wins and Milwaukee losses that add up to four in the seven games that will be played over the next four days.

Thank you!

It's rather strange, but there's some kind of inverse ratio between Mets success and CPF references to bestiality.

W L Pct3 Avg W Avg L Champions Wild Card Playoffs 1D Change 7D Change Phillies 88 68 .532 91.7 70.3 85.45823 12.86629 98.32452 1.92667 38.99482 Mets 86 69 .543 89.8 72.2 14.54098 60.27681 74.81779 -12.18916 -5.60352 Brewers 85 71 .532 88.5 73.5 .00000 26.04179 26.04179 10.42114 -22.67192These updates are a lot less fun on mornings after days completely lacking in happy outcomes. Yesterday, as we know, the Mets lost and both the Phillies and Brewers won, completely negating the triply-happy Saturday action. Mets drop 12 playoff points. About 10 of them go to the Brewers and just under 2 to the Phillies. Mets magic number over the Brewers remains at 6. The tragic number for the division title is also 6. Phillies magic number over the Brewers is a mere 4. They're highly likely to be playing in October. Mets NHOP over Philadelphia is 69.2% (9 out of 13) Mets NHOP over the Brewers goes from a relatively nice 40% to a less nice 46.2% (6 out of 13). The bad news is that the Mets now have four games against the first-place Cubs, while the Brewers have three against the last-place Pirates. It won't be an easy task for the Mets to maintain that wild card lead through Thursday's games and into the final weekend. Especially since Niese and Martinez are starting two of the games against the Cubs. Let's cross our fingers and see what happens...

..

soupcan wrote: Shaved on Sunday morning. Will no longer do so until and unless the Mets are eliminated. I haven't shaved in almost eight years. (I have trimmed, though!) Maybe if I have to give up some grooming task, I can give up bathing and showering until the Mets win a World Series.

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: I threw away the 8-page "wrap" on today's snooze and didn't watch a second of the game. Me too. I took that wraparound section off the paper and put it in the recycling bin without giving it a glance. And not only did I not watch any of last night's game, I didn't even realize that I wasn't watching it. Yankee Stadium didn't even have a little corner of my consciousness.

He also pitched 6 innings. I always give points for a guy who goes 6. His pitching was worth 2 and his hitting worth 2.

Frayed Knot wrote: - Trailing 3-2 in the 8th, the Mets explode for 4 on an Alou single and a Delgado 3R HR At that moment, I felt a resurgence of optimism. I thought, they're going to win this thing after all! I was, of course, wrong. Frayed Knot wrote: Lead jumps to 2-1/2; Magic number drops to 6 Eek. That's eerily similar to the Mets current situation with the Brewers. Magic number 6, lead 2.5. The only difference is that this year there are currently 15 games remaining rather than the 13.

VOTING FOR THIS GAME IS NOW CLOSED Totals for September 17, 2008 (9 votes) New York Mets 9, Washington Nationals 7 NameTotal PointsPoints AwardedPlayer PerformanceCarlos Beltran26.152.912-3, 2 R, 2 HR, 3 RBI, BB.Carlos Delgado17.201.912-4, 2 R, HR, 2 RBI, BB, SO.Jos� Reyes16.851.872-4, 2 R, HR, 2 RBI, BB, SB.Daniel Murphy9.051.012-5, R, 3B, RBI, SO.Brian Schneider6.200.692-4, R, 2B, SO.Brandon Knight6.150.68(W) 5.0 IP, 6 H, 2 ER, 4 BB, 5 SO.Scott Schoeneweis4.950.550.2 IP, 0 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 1 SO.Luis Ayala1.700.19(Sv) 0.1 IP, 0 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 1 SO.Argenis Reyes0.250.030-3, R, SO.Joe Smith0.250.030.1 IP, 0 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 0 SO.Ryan Church0.250.030-4, SO.

W L Pct3 Avg W Avg L Champions Wild Card Playoffs 1D Change 7D Change Phillies 87 68 .532 91.2 70.8 67.88938 28.50846 96.39784 9.00684 65.10419 Mets 86 68 .545 90.3 71.7 32.07973 54.92721 87.00695 -0.47350 -1.47401 Brewers 84 71 .531 88.1 73.9 .00000 15.62065 15.62065 -7.50365 -52.01031 Marlins 81 73 .499 84.9 77.1 .03088 .59340 .62429 -0.49727 .43762 Astros 81 73 .467 85.3 76.7 .00000 .30442 .30442 -0.46880 -11.32294Despite the Mets losing yesterday and the Phillies winning, the Mets wake up this morning with their playoff odds barely dented from the previous day, with a drop of less than half a percentage point. Milwaukee took the hardest hit, losing 7.5 points. The Phillies get the biggest boost, gaining just over 9 points. Florida's winning streak ended with the defeat to the Phillies and their odds are at a slim .62429%. Astros, with the identical record, are at .30442. The Phillies once again possess the magic number in the NL East: 8 The Mets have the Wild Card magic number: 6 The Phillies have a magic number of 5 for finishing ahead of the Brewers and likely guaranteeing a playoff berth. If the Mets play .500 the rest of the way (4-4) the Brewers have to go 6-1 to end up with a tie, 7-0 to beat the Mets outright. The Mets, unfortunately, will today play their last game of the year against a losing team. After this, it's Cubs and Marlins the rest of the way. The good news is that those last seven games will all be at Shea. NHOP update: For the Mets to finish ahead of Philadelphia: 60% (9 happy outcomes in 15 games.) For the Mets to finish ahead of Milwaukee: 40% (6 out of 15.) Also, Dodgers now at 98.33335% for the playoffs. White Sox at 87.04390%, Twins at 12.95610%.

Martinez 4 Schoeneweis 1.3 Parnell 0.7 Wright 0.5 Beltran 0.4

They'll probably mainly focus on the two seasons the Yankees played there.

Niese can be added to the post-season roster to replace a disabled player, like Maine. I don't want to see Pedro get anymore starts either, but there aren't a lot of alternatives. I do like the idea of Parnell in tonight's game as a long man, if necessary.

="Met Hunter"]But now I'm ready for one last run. Geez, I hope it's not the last run.

Wouldn't it be hilarious if they fired Sveum? Next up: Robin Yount!