Chad ochoseis

A little more wind or a little less ballpark, and that would have been the Metly April HR record.

It ain't too easy to stop C�spedes, either.

Conforto is unstoppable.

...and we pick up a game.

In DC, Bryce Harper is up with 2 out in the 9th, runner on 1st, Phightin's winning 4-3.

That's three key regulars either sitting or injured. And it's still not a bad lineup.

Kaboom? KABOOM!!!! .400 or not, I'm not missing Murphy that much.

The funny thing about Pittsburgh is that they're absolutely killing it in batting average and OBP, but middle of the pack in runs scored. Power matters, more than I ever thought. What does "HEAT" mean in that chart?

It's tough to get rid of gnats. Washington 5, Minnesota 5 in our nation's capital in the top of the 16th. ...and, just a few minutes later, Chris Heisey homers to end it. Nats 6, Twins 5. And your winning pitcher is none other than Oliver Perez (and it looks like the details are in today's IGT).

Well, as I've posted here previously, I'm no longer working full time and I've left the NYC area. So I have lots more free time, and I'm going to use some of it to give an orphaned Met prospect the father figure he needs in order to progress and achieve his full Metly potential. I've selected Robert Gsellman, current ace of the Binghamton staff and, according to MLB.com, the 3rd ranked pitching prospect in the org. And that's third behind not-really-a-prospect anymore Steven Matz and out-with-TJ Marcos Molina, so he can make a claim for being the top guy in the minors this year. 22-year-old Gsellman's best pitch is his sinking fastball, which I got to see up close and personal Wednesday night when he pitched on the road. He hit 95 mph pretty regularly and made the Akron Rubber Ducks look foolish (not that a team with a mascot named Rubberta doesn't look foolish even before they start swinging their bats). The bullpen blew the game for him, but let's not think about that. Right now, the Mets are pretty well fixed for starting pitching, but pitching is ephemeral. So who knows. We may be gseeing more Gsellman if things don't work out for one or more of our current staff, and I'm proud to be his adoptive daddy. Oh, yeah...both the G and the S are pronounced. So his name sounds sort of like "gesundheit", but not really.

The B-Mets are through being cool. Rubber Ducks 3, B-Mets 2 in 10 is the final, thanks primarily to rehabbing ringer Michael Brantley, who went 3-4. But Gsellman didn't gsuck; 1 run, 3 hits, 7 Ks in 6 1/3, and he handed a baseball to a little kid in a Batman t-shirt hanging just behind the dugout. And there was some nice infield defense going on all game. Dominic Smith lollygagged his way to first base on a grounder in the 8th, and got what looked like a rather unfriendly chat from one of the coaches.

...meanwhile in Akron, I just saw Akeel F. Morris walk in the tying run with 2 out in the ninth.

Damnit. Nice effort by Wright to almost save it. But, damnit.

Ceetar wrote: '06 (Beltran, Reyes, Wright, Valentin, Delgado)? neither Reyes or Valentin. Chad Ochoseis has it, though he could've used a play-index to minimize the manual labor http://www.baseball-reference.com/play-index/season_finder.cgi?type=b#gotresults&as=result_batter&offset=0&sum=0&min_year_season=1876&max_year_season=2016&min_season=1&max_season=-1&min_age=0&max_age=99&is_rookie=&lg_ID=lgNL&lgAL_team=tmAny&lgNL_team=tmNYM&lgFL_team=tmAny&lgAA_team=tmAny&lgPL_team=tmAny&lgUA_team=tmAny&lgNA_team=tmAny&isActive=either&isHOF=either&isAllstar=either&bats=any&throws=any&exactness=anypos&pos_1=1&pos_2=1&pos_3=1&pos_4=1&pos_5=1&pos_6=1&pos_7=1&pos_8=1&pos_9=1&pos_10=1&pos_11=1&games_min_max=min&games_prop=50&games_tot=&qualifiersSeason=nomin&minpasValS=502&mingamesValS=100&qualifiersCareer=nomin&minpasValC=3000&mingamesValC=1000&number_matched=1&orderby=year_id&c1criteria=HR&c1gtlt=gt&c1val=20&c2gtlt=eq&c2val=0&c3gtlt=eq&c3val=0&c4gtlt=eq&c4val=0&c5gtlt=eq&c5val=1.0&location=pob&locationMatch=is&pob=&pod=&pcanada=&pusa=&ajax=1&submitter=1 I now know how I'm going to be wasting the next couple of hundred waking hours of my life. 2006 would have been my first guess, too, but Valentin had 18 and Reyes had 19.

I was curious and have some time on my hands this morning, so I ground this one out by going through the seasons on bbref and found 1987 (Carter, HoJo, McReynolds, Strawberry) and 2000 (Ventura, Fonz, Zeile, Piazza) tied with 4. I didn't bother clicking on teams earlier than 1980, except for a couple of mid-70s teams and the 1969 team, since even the good Met teams back then didn't do much slugging.

Yep. And many fans not up on how the game is scored are puzzled that the catcher (under normal circumstances) gets credit for a putout on a strikeout. I once read an anecdote about Thurman Munson - supposedly, he once deliberately dropped three third strikes in a game, so that he could throw to first to get the outs, enabling him to pass Carlton Fisk for the AL lead in catcher's assists. I don't know if I believe it - whatever Munson's faults, he never seemed to be the kind of guy who cared about individual records - but I know I read it. The first time I learned about the dropped third strike rule was at a game at Shea when I was maybe eight. The trivia question of the day was "Who holds the record for strikeouts in one inning?" The answer was Seaver (and probably others), and my dad explained to me how it was possible for a pitcher to strike out four in an inning.

WALKER! And as a bonus, I'm watching Michigan take a picture of a human hot dog.

Muted cheers. Cabrera got booed. I was expecting boos for Cespedes just for his ex-Tigerness, but his reception was neutral.

- I had no argument with Teufel sending either runner; I thought it took very strong throws to catch them. Based on the big screen, multiangle replays, Walker was out at the plate. - My section was about 20% Mets fans. Indians fans are generally pretty cool. As long as you're pumping cash into Cleveland's economy, you're OK. - Ketchup won the hot dog race. - Nice ballpark. I hadn't been there in several years. They've got a little outdoor area off to the side that serves as an unofficial Indians HoF. Great food and beer options from local places. Bar with a fire pit upstairs. Scoreboard was big and informative, but they twice showed Chrstian Vasquez batting for the Mets. - D'Arnaud looks lost up there. - I couldn't figure out pulling Bastardo, either. Would have been nice to have Reed available with Familia gassed. - If you heard somebody yelling "Get the ball over the fucking plate" in the 9th, that was probably me. - Back for more today. Sitting a few sections away from Mets Guy in Michigan and will try to get over there and say hi.

Cespedes!

Damn right it was foul. Even the Indians fans on the first base line agree.

CONFORBOOM!

Very Metly crowd here tonight. Guy in front of me just booed Colon. Really. In general, though, he got a nice hand .

Mets Guy in Michigan wrote: Jim Thome has a statue, which is surprising to me because A) he's not in the Hall of Fame yet, and He played for a bunch of other teams. Not complaining, mind you. I like statues. The Mets need some! Yep. I was surprised to see the Thome statue, too. Give it a few decades; if he's still a legend, then maybe think about it. I like that the Mets are stingy with the individual honors.