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Marte scratched due to illness.

Polish up your Apple+... Friday, July 14, 7:10 p.m. ET LHP Julio Urías (6-5, 4.76) Nimmo CF Pham DH Lindor SS Alonso 1B Marte RF McNeil 2B Alvarez C Baty 3B Canha LF - Verlander RHP (3-4, 3.60)

David Robertson is 3-2 with 12 saves. Brooks Raley is 0-1.

Notable scoring change to April 27 game, issued over break. [tweet] [/tweet]

Hooray for Rowdy Tellez, however.

From the SI article posted upthread. Mets visiting clubhouse manager Dave Berni loves the game, and after hearing a few Brewers discuss it in the player dining room last month, he began printing out copies to place alongside the crossword puzzles and Sudoku games he already offers. One of his assistants laughed when he saw it. “Immaculate Grid for boomers,” he said. But the analog version has helped introduce the game to ballplayers who, eschewing social media and the death threats that often accompany a bad game, would not otherwise have seen it. And baseball players must be destroying the game, right? “That's what you would think,” says Milwaukee first baseman Rowdy Tellez, who is most proud of remembering that Steve Cishek pitched for the Marlins and for the Angels. “But I bet if you ask any of these guys that are under a year of service time or two, they don't know.” He used Tom Seaver for a square asking for Mets and 20-game winner; afterward, he says, “One guy was like, ‘Who's that?' I was like, ‘He's like a top-15 best pitcher ever.'” He shakes his head sadly.

The NL West is getting Metsier. On the same day the Rockies convince Chris Flexen to pitch up in the air, the Dodgers sign Jake Marisnick. Marisnick will have another opportunity to hear fans at Citi Field this weekend, something he couldn't do amid the cardboard cutout motif of 2020.

Gridmania hits the Times before it phases out original sports reporting. “I love it,” said Mike Cameron, the former outfielder who coached in the Futures Game in Seattle on Saturday and played for eight teams across 17 seasons. “I think of all the guys I played against and my mind starts to turn. I played in every division against every team, and I had a lot of teammates from the start. My first couple of years, all I did was sit on the bench and watch, so I know a lot of those guys.” Todd Greene, a former catcher for six teams from 1996 through 2006, plays every day, comparing grids with his two sons and son-in-law. He has used himself twice, and said he playfully scolded his family members for not doing so. “I try to fill it with backup catchers from when I played,” Greene said. “We all bounced around a little bit. At first I was just trying to get all nine answers, but now I take more time.” https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/11/sports/baseball/immaculate-grid.htmlhttps://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/11/sports/baseball/immaculate-grid.html The NYT-owned Athletic's got the fever, too. That rarity score is part of the evolution of the game. At first, scoring was simple: how many you got right in the nine guesses. After that came the individual rarity scores, with each guess revealing just how popular your answer was with all players. That led to the total rarity score, adding up the percentages of each guess, which can now be shared on Twitter. That rarity score came out of the way fans played the game; it was the users, not Minter, who were finding ways to compete beyond the basics. Still, you can play the game however you like. The rarity score just offers more of a challenge. This fits, as Shusterman noted, both the casual players and the dorkiest of the baseball dorks who remember Steve Farr's baseball card with Cleveland and then the disappointment of seeing a Royals card emerge from a pack only to find out it was Farr, a journeyman reliever, and not George Brett. But at least, 38 years later, Farr comes in handy (for reference, he also played for the Yankees and Red Sox. You're welcome.) Now that it's part of Baseball-Reference, the first addition to the game was a link to all possible answers, made possible thanks to the website's infrastructure. Forman was at last week's Society for American Baseball Research Convention in Chicago, and Immaculate Grid bragging was in full force. Although Tuesday's announcement was already in the works, he couldn't talk about it yet. One of Forman's friends, Chris Jaffe, had an ace up his sleeve, knowing the Matt Stairs played for all four of the 1969 expansion franchises, so he was just waiting to use Stairs for the Royals, Padres, Nationals (Expos count, and Stairs played for both the Expos and Nationals) or Brewers (Seattle Pilots). Stairs played for 12 different organizations in total. So, Forman said, he's been thinking about memorizing all the teams of Edwin Jackson or Octavio Dotel, as kind of a chess opening move or Wordle starter word. Jackson played for a record 14 teams, breaking Dotel's record of 13. (Editor's note: Jackson played for the Rays, Dodgers, Cubs, Nationals, Tigers, White Sox, Diamondbacks, Braves, Cardinals, A's, Padres, Orioles, Marlins and Blue Jays. Dotel played for Astros, A's, Tigers, White Sox, Royals, Mets, Rockies, Pirates, Braves, Cardinals, Dodgers, Yankees and Blue Jays.) The ability to set your own definition of a win is part of the appeal, as is the social aspect, like Wordle before it. Forman plans on monetizing the game by putting an ad on the page. He's also seen an uptick in traffic on certain days, as players research answers or simply remember some guys as a result of playing. Subscribers may get access to older puzzles. There shouldn't be too many changes, Forman said, because the game stands on its own. While there are those on Twitter bragging about their rarity scores of 1 or 2, Forman said nine-of-nine is where he finds his satisfaction. “To be honest with you, it's enough of a struggle for me that I'm mostly happy to get it correct every day,” Forman said. “But being my age, the rarity score comes on its own for free.” https://theathletic.com/4684416/2023/07/13/immaculate-grid-trivia-game-mlb/https://theathletic.com/4684416/2023/07/13/immaculate-grid-trivia-game-mlb/

The better our team gets, the more we calibrate our dismay. It hit me as the 1984 division title was slipping away that I was no longer reveling in our escape from the dark ages; I was upset in the moment that we'd let the Cubs pass us and couldn't figure out a way to catch them. That sense faded over time, but it was palpable in August and September. When the Mets fell behind the Cardinals two games to one in the 2006 NLCS and a sense of doom was setting in, I reminded myself that three short years earlier, the Mets finished last, losing 95 games and never giving us any reason to believe that in three short years we'd have a division champion fighting for a pennant. It helped to look at it that way for a night. By the end of that series, “if you'd told us in 2003…” didn't really brighten my mood, but in the long view, remembering a near miss for how far a Mets team went rather than that they fell short of the ultimate goal usually does it for me. I loved the 1988 Mets winning a hundred games, coming on like gangbusters down the stretch and blowing out the NL East. I'm sorry the Dodger series went awry. I can accept both facets of that season rather than continually mope about Scioscia for 35 years. (Not saying I haven't moped here and there.)

Chris Flexen has signed with the Colorado Rockies, or as the Daily News might have put it in its glory days, Flex to Rox.

Max's card is the best thing about his season.

Pete Alonso is the 26th Met to play for a winning NL All-Star team, the first since Wright and Dickey in 2012. Kodai Senga is the 15th Met named to an NL All-Star team but never/not yet play in an ASG as a Met.

Rest easy, Chub Feeney, wherever you are.

Ballplayers love to play, too. https://www.si.com/mlb/2023/07/11/immaculate-grid-origin-storyhttps://www.si.com/mlb/2023/07/11/immaculate-grid-origin-story

If yoy can, subscribe to BB Ref's Stathead. Eliminates ads and opens up worlds of searchable data.

In a similar vein, seek out Jay Horwitz's podcast's most recent episode for an enlightening conversation with clubhouse manager Kevin Kierst. Good uni info.

Meet the guy who gets the Mets ready to compete, Mets coordinator of clubhouse operations Scott Keltner. Some good stuff on unis and processes. “For a seven o'clock game, I come in at one,” says the Kansas City, Mo., graduate of Minnesota State University. “We're leaving between 1:30 and 2 [AM] depending on how the game ends. Scott and his staff like the pitch clock. Gets them home sooner. https://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/mets/ny-scott-keltner-clubhouse-boss-20230708-6ziha7gcmbefjhszojdmdhdq34-story.htmlhttps://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/mets/ny-scott-keltner-clubhouse-boss-20230708-6ziha7gcmbefjhszojdmdhdq34-story.html

Anthony McCarron with a 50th anniversary article in the News, with a few nuggets you might not know, including the Oakland view of the Mets. Though the Mets were underdogs again, the A's scouting staff offered Oakland a warning in their pre-Series scouting report, a copy of which is on display at the Mets Hall of Fame & Museum at Citi Field. In it, scouts wrote, in part, “Individually, this team does not impress you, but collectively — together — they have come on and developed…It would be foolish, should you defeat them in (an) early contest, to get a false sense of security.” https://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/mets/ny-world-series-tug-mcgraw-ya-gotta-believe-nl-pennant-20230708-tp2lijpibrdu7edoqvkcfigj6m-story.htmlhttps://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/mets/ny-world-series-tug-mcgraw-ya-gotta-believe-nl-pennant-20230708-tp2lijpibrdu7edoqvkcfigj6m-story.html

Edgy MD wrote: Yeah, but in Greg's poll, my vote counts as much as any chick's, and in 1998 https://www.fangraphs.com/leaders.aspx?pos=1b&stats=bat&lg=nl&qual=y&type=8&season=1998&month=0&season1=1998&ind=0&team=0&rost=0&age=0&filter=&players=0&startdate=1998-01-01&enddate=1998-12-31Olerud out-fWARred 'em all, save for McGwire. He was https://www.fangraphs.com/leaders.aspx?pos=1b&stats=bat&lg=nl&qual=y&type=3&season=1998&month=0&season1=1998&ind=0&team=0&rost=0&age=0&filter=&players=0&startdate=1998-01-01&enddate=1998-12-31#2 in WPA also. If we could factor in 2023-quality defensive metrics, that might well close the gap considerably. Thanks for voting! The https://www.podpage.com/national-league-town/second-chance-all-star-team/podcast episode for which the ballot was originally prepared goes deep on each position and candidate, with the just-misseds given their due as well. Listeners also learn which of the Met Stars That Never Were inspired this exercise a mere 48 years ago.

Pete's 26th home run comes in the 2023 Mets' 87th game. Lee Mazzilli hit the 1980 Mets' 26th homer in the club's 74th game. The 1980 Mets reached 39 homers in their 87th game, Claudell Washington doing the honors.

Slid in ahead of Justin Verlander on the all-time chronological roster.

T.J. McFarland is 1,205. DJ Stewart is 1,206.

=metirish post_id=130775 time=1688491389 user_id=72] D.J. Stewart has joined the Mets in Arizona, DiComo first, I've no idea who he is , but I looked , a 29 year old outfielder playing in AAA , 16 HR and 48 RBI this season

A salute of sorts to the worthy (or worthy-ish) Mets who never made an All-Star team as Mets, for those who like to http://www.faithandfearinflushing.com/2023/07/04/all-the-stars-that-never-were/read, or those who like to https://www.podpage.com/national-league-town/second-chance-all-star-team/listen…or both!

Pete's 25th home run comes in the Mets' 84th game. Lee Mazzilli hit the 1980 Mets' 25th home run in their 73rd game. The 1980 Mets raised their home run total to 37 with three homers (two for Hendu, one for Mazz) in their 84th game, the night in Atlanta that those Mets reached .500.