G-Fafif

Alive and kicking with James McCann!

The second-place Padres do not seem in awe of the first-place visitors from the East.

The Mariners have outrighted Eric Campbell to Tacoma, which at least is convenient to Seattle.

Villar still day-to-day. Alonso just getting a day off.

Pillar LF Lindor SS McCann C Smith 1B McKinney RF Drury 3B Williams CF Peraza 2B Walker P

Maybin and Tovar cleared waivers and are headed to Syracuse, where they will be joined by Luis Guillorme on rehab and Cheslor Cuthbert, a former Royals and White Sox infielder recently released by the Reds.

Pignatano, sadly, is unreachable these days. THE FIRST TEAM casualty to COVID-19 came in May. Nancy Pignatano was terrified of getting sick. She was living in Florida with her husband Joe, the Amazin' Mets bullpen coach. She was following the precautions. They stayed indoors, had their groceries delivered and limited her outdoor trips to grabbing the paper and the mail. But she caught COVID anyway and died in May at the age of 86. For months, Joe didn't understand that she was gone. He has dementia. His family would tell him that she was out golfing with friends, and he'd smile and be OK. Their younger son, Frank, still lives in Brooklyn. The last words he heard from his mom were over the phone. "Frankie, I love you," she told him. "I can't talk." Frank is the one to pass along the memories now. He was 12 years old that season -- his nickname was "Little Piggy" -- but he speaks as if it was his best year too. The Mets kept a tomato garden in the bullpen during the '69 season. Joe found the wild plant, and instead of ripping it out, he watered and tended to it. "He was a Brooklyn Italian," Frank says. "You give them a patch of dirt and they plant tomatoes." Joe's very best friend, Frank says, was Gil Hodges. They played together for the Brooklyn and L.A. Dodgers and the 1962 expansion Mets, then started coaching together in Washington in 1965. They'd be at the ballpark all day, then meet for cards later with their wives at night, the room a chain-smoking haze of crab claws, mixed nuts and banter. "I tell my kids it was a simpler time," Frank says. "You could have a house and a car in the garage and have kids on one salary. You can't do that today." Hodges was a Marine during World War II, but he always downplayed it. He used to tell his son Gil Jr. that he worked behind a desk. It wasn't until the boy was older that he found out that his father was a gunner in the 16th Antiaircraft Artillery Battalion, fought in Okinawa and was awarded a Bronze Star. He played with Jackie Robinson in 1947, the year Robinson broke the major league color barrier. Hodges was a straightforward man with little ambiguity, but he was also a dreamer. Just before Game 1, 19-year-old Gil Jr. was sitting in his dad's office, marveling over the Orioles' stat sheet, when he asked him what the Mets were doing on the same field with Baltimore. Hodges got up, closed the door and sat next to him. "Listen, son," he told him, "I have 25 guys out there who think we can win. That's all that matters." The Mets had back-to-back 83-79 seasons after the World Series, and Pignatano kept tending to the tomato plant. They had high hopes heading into '72, a season that was delayed by a players' strike. During spring training -- Easter Sunday -- Hodges and his coaches spent a morning playing 27 holes at a golf course in West Palm Beach, Florida. Pignatano was putting his clubs in the trunk, Frank says, when Hodges suffered a heart attack, fell backward and smacked his head on the sidewalk. Pignatano held him as he was dying. Hodges was 47 years old. For years, Pignatano blamed himself. He was right next to him. If he hadn't turned around, he thought, he could've caught him. But Pignatano couldn't have done anything. Hodges' son tried to explain that to him many times. "When you love someone like that ... " Gil Jr. says, "you will always feel like you could've done something. But it was out of his hands." Pignatano has a picture of Hodges in the house, and he'll point to it and always says the same thing. "That's my best friend." https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/31317684/friendship-memories-year-1969-new-york-metshttps://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/31317684/friendship-memories-year-1969-new-york-mets

Mike REMlinger.

Jake is slated to go Saturday.

Lay in your caffeine delivery system of choice for Thursday's 10:10 PM start from San Diego Thursday night, airing on conventional Met channels. Haunting the Petco Park mound will be Taijuan Walker for us, Yu Darvish for them.

1,137. Travis Blankenhorn

Take that, 2016 SFG!

Dadgum it, somebody avenge something!

Nobody in the lineup who was around for the 2016 WC Game, but even still.

The lineup poised to avenge MadBum for the 2016 WC Game. 3B Villar SS Lindor C McCann 1B Alonso CF Pillar LF Smith RF Drury 2B Peraza SP Peterson 3:40 EDT start, no actual television, but YouTube.

Except for today being YouTube-only, this is a marvelous suggestion.

I'm not sure how else to share an image that isn't already online. Mike had a couple of good moments for us. Also caught some grief for blaming Alex Treviño for a costly wild pitch later in the short season.

=MFS62 post_id=66265 time=1622590660 user_id=60] One of two pitchers who played for the Mets who were real Doctors. (Not counting Gooden or Ellis here) His was a PhD, Ron Taylor was an MD. RIP

Villar 3B Lindor SS Alonso 1B D. Smith LF Nido C McKinney RF Peraza 2B M. Williams CF Stroman RHP

Tom Verducci suggests Lindor's defense is not incidental to the Mets holding it together through all the injuries. Lindor is among the two or three best defensive shortstops in the game. Though he was hitting .191 entering Sunday, he has continued his elite defense, which is a major upgrade on Amed Rosario, who lacked range and the footwork to make backhand plays. Lindor has an uncanny knack of reading hitters, which adds to his tremendous range that is helped by playing one of the deeper shortstop positions in the game. In non-shifts, Lindor plays four feet deeper than Rosario did and six feet deeper than Andres Gimenez, who split the job with Rosario last year. “It's no knock on Rosario. He was great for us,” Rojas says. “Lindor is just a better defender than whoever you want to compare him to.” ... deGrom is so good that he may be to 2021 what Bob Gibson was to 1968: a pitcher so good the rules of the game will need to change to give hitters a better chance. Do not overlook the role of the Mets' improved defense in deGrom's historic season. The Mets have reduced the batting average on balls in play against deGrom by 61 points, including a reduction of 129 points on groundballs and line drives up the middle, when Lindor's range and their increased use of shifts are most noticeable. https://www.si.com/mlb/2021/05/31/mets-defense-improvement-the-openerhttps://www.si.com/mlb/2021/05/31/mets-defense-improvement-the-opener

How Travis Blankenhorn got in Hugh Quattlebaum's pajamas, I'll never know!

INF Travis Blankenhorn has been claimed off waivers from Seattle. He has been added to the 26-man roster and is with the team tonight in Arizona. Blankenhorn will wear #73. INF Wilfredo Tovar has been designated for assignment.

Mike Marshall, who won a Cy Young for the Dodgers after pitching in 106 games in 1974 and finished up with the Mets in 1981, has died at 78. https://www.startribune.com/mike-marshall-pitcher-who-broke-appearance-records-with-twins-dodgers-dead-at-78/600063459/https://www.startribune.com/mike-marshall-pitcher-who-broke-appearance-records-with-twins-dodgers-dead-at-78/600063459/