Centerfield

And I don't mean that to just spur a KTE. I mean like, I don't think I know any Marlins. Starlin Castro is there. I know they still have Justin Bour. Beyond that I'm lost.

Lefty Specialist wrote: Mickey's really rolling the dice here. But everything's worked so far, and if you're going to throw him out there the Marlins are probably the best team to do it against. Agreed. Plus if Noah and deGrom have done their job, the pen should be somewhat fresh in case he runs into trouble.

FIVE ACES!

So I heard a lot of references to the St. Louis sweep in 1986. That St. Louis sweep has become stuff of legend now, but to be honest, I remember none of it. I mean, all Cardinal games then were a big deal, but I can't remember if I watched any of these in particular. I don't think I understood the significance of these games at the time. Thankfully there is a website that is the ultimate source of Mets information! http://leaptoad.com/mets/metannual.php?ThisYear=1986&tabno=3 According to UMDB, the St. Louis sweep also featured one blowout, and two one run games, one of them going extra innings. That series was a four game series though, and we beat their ace, while here, we missed Scherzer. Looks like Gooden threw a shutout in Game 2, and Ojeda outbattled Tudor in the finale. It doesn't mention game time, so we are not sure if it was a Sunday Night ESPN broadcast where the Mets faithful had to endure some douchebag talk about how he should have come to play for the Mets 18 years ago. When the Mets left town, they had won 9 straight, and were 4.5 games ahead of St. Louis.

Frayed Knot wrote: Got out-hit 13-9, got out-walked 7-5, got out-error-ed 0-3 ... and won the fuckin' game!!! All of which made for a not particularly comfortable night of Mets watching. The sweep was terrific, but it masked some pretty ugly play by the Mets last night. In addition to the errors, there were several plays not made. Rosario bobbled a ball that should have been a DP. Frazier was lucky to get that tag play after that brain fart. Should have been looking to turn two there, so not sure what happened. Baserunning mistake by Cabrera, which I thought was excusable. He's trying to be aggressive and get to 3B on that strikeout. But I don't know why Gonzalez didn't run to first base on that. If that throw goes to third, he should have been standing on first. Particularly disappointing was Harvey. I didn't watch his 5 scoreless against Philly, so this was the first I saw of him. And in fairness, I only watched from the 3rd? maybe 4th inning on, and those were his shakiest. Very hittable. Fastball didn't have a lot of life, tons of baserunners. Got lucky with the wind on the Rendon fly ball, and also with the baserunning blunder by Turner. I actually thought Harv should have been pulled a batter earlier, but Calloway left him in to finish the 5th. I wonder if the win stat had anything to do with that decision. I hope it didn't, but I can't help but wonder. I didn't like the pitcharounds to Harper to lead off innings. It's one thing to pitch around with men on base, or with 2 outs, but to lead off an inning. It cost us a run the first time, and nearly cost us the game the second time. And I still don't like the decision to bunt there. First off, Rosario doesn't look like a good bunter (he may well be, but he didn't look like it). Secondly, even if successful, it takes the bat out of Conforto's hands. Ces had been 0 for 5. It worked out though. So what the hell do I know. And thankfully for us, as bad as we played, Washington played a hell of a lot worse!

They should really trade Stanton to us, pay his salary and take Jay Bruce. Jay strikes out less.

So let's predict the demise of this franchise. Black Panther 2 will be met with initial enthusiasm and do well on its first weekend. Then crowds will thin as it becomes obvious that the plot sucks and this is a terrible movie. Debates will rage whether we have a social responsibility to support the movie anyway, or whether we should recognize it for the subpar movie it is. Black Panther 3 will have early obstacles as none of the original cast will sign on to return. The resulting movie thus becomes a prequel, and though better than 2, it will fail to live up to the success of the first one. Black Panther 4 will be a comedy. Kevin Hart is cast as the Black Panther. He now has a sidekick named "White Hippo". Played by Kevin James.

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: MFYs knocked out the O's starter Wright in the first inning and led 5-0, but just lost 8-7 in 12 innings, so the O's took 3 of 4 at MFY Stadium. The Yanks loaded the bases on 2 walks and a misplayed sac bunt in the 12th, so had bases loaded, no out and Judge and Stanton due up. Judge 1-2-5 DP, Stanton (0-7) whiffed for the 5th time in the game to end it. Is this really what happened? LOLOLOL.

Sweep! Calloway 2020!

Or BIFW.

Omg. Bifl

Juan. Let’s see that new swing.

Let’s Drew Storen this dickhead.

Why isn’t Gonzalez on first base there? Dropped third strike.

Amazing. Great job Lugo. Let’s not walk any more lead off hitters on purpose.

So fucking stupid. I could scream.

And this is why you don’t put a runner on. Dumbass move by Calloway.

This is dumb. We were already bit by this. Throw a fucking strike.

I got a bad feeling about this.

Oh man. How nice would it be to sweep these guys and send a message. So giddy. Come on Harv!!!

Lolol. Alvarez grand slam drops the MFYs in 14. Like I said all winter long, the Mets are going to kick ass in’18 while the Yankees will be lucky to finish .500.

I think I wrote a few times this winter that I thought Gsellman could transition well kinda like Wade Davis. Shitty starter with great stuff that turns into a dominant reliever. Would be awesome if he keeps it up. The strikeouts are great, but if he gets three weak grounders every outing that's cool with me. Mickey's gotta find a way to get Nimmo some AB's. Learn 1B or 2B, or 3B. Just get him in there.

Amed throws out that second run by a half mile yesterday.

Ok, so no huge complaints, but a few nitpicks about our new manager: 1. Jose Reyes over Rosario? With the off-day and the likely snow, that's a lot of time for Amed to sit. Maybe sit him next week in Miami or something, but we need him out there on offense and defense. 2. Lugo/Gsellman yesterday. Sure, it's not a big deal with the offday today and snow for Saturday, but these innings pile up. What's the point of having Jacob Rhame if you can't pitch him with a 6 run lead? Let him get some innings. Let's see what this kid has. It will be interesting to see how he handles the OF situation with Conforto back. With the lefty coming up, does he sit Conforto or Bruce in favor of Lagares? Or is that just our everyday OF now? I wish Nimmo/Lagares could play second base.

Saw a good Newsday cover coming out of yesterday's game. If nothing else, next year's TCD will hopefully be better. I find I have to keep telling myself it's just one game and I should calm down. We are a different team when it's not deGrom or Noah, and they are still missing Murphy, etc. Still, so much fun smacking down Washington.