TransMonk

We need to get 3 outs. And then hit. Early and often from the offense.

I watched the last hour of the grand-slam single game. Direct TV blacked me out of SNY's presentation of Shea Goodbye. Jerks.

Cubs.com has Zambrano pitching, but just to get some work in. Not sure that he'll actually go, though.

Frayed Knot wrote: That's a helluva lot better situation than when we all woke up this morning. It's the exact same situation we woke up to a year ago on the last day of the season. I'm banking on the hope that Perez is on tomorrow.

I want the Cubs and then the Phillies.

No hitter gone, Lilly lifted, Milwaukee with 1st and 3rd and no outs in the 7th.

Santana 6 Reyes 1 R Martinez 1 Beltran 1 Wright 1

God, that man is good. That ninth inning made my eyes well up a little. Clutch, clutch, clutch performance.

LOB LOB LOB LOB LOB LOB LOB

Nice recovery to limit the damage. The Marlins came to play.

Even asking for forgiveness...that's just evil.

Yovani Gallardo only threw 64 pitches last night for the Crew and the speculation in my neck of the woods is that he would start a one-gamer vs. the Mets if necessary. Nothing has been confirmed though.

more

I recall last year's COL/SDP game being at night. BB Ref shows the time the game started as 5:37PM, but does not denote what time zone that was in, but I'm assuming MST. I would think that ESPN would want a primetime game, especially if it's the only one and New York is playing.

Per Rotoworld: According to manager Dale Sveum, Ben Sheets (elbow) is unlikely to be available before Saturday. Sheets played catch Tuesday and reported no problems. "He said it felt better than he thought it would," Sveum said. "There�s some optimism there that he might be able to do something over the weekend."

Johan has met every expectation I had of him from the beginning of the year. It's really nice to have a guy who is going to keep us in the game everytime he takes the mound.

Lots of ex-Mets involved with the 2008 club's fate tonight. Mike Cameron puts the Brewers ahead with a 2 run double before Mota gives the lead back on a 2 run HR. Mientkewicz worked a walk to be the tying run on that 2 run HR. Hampton for ATL as well.

I think you just did... I just find the K totals curious...even in such a small sample size...and I wonder why Reyes doesn't get any starts.

Castillo Pre-Injury: 68 G, 245 AB, 64 H, 3 HR, 26 RBI, 40 BB, 21 K, .261/.365/.331/.696 Castillo Post-Injury (thru 9/22): 16 G, 48 AB, 9 H, 0 HR, 2 RBI, 9 BB, 13 K, .188/.328/.208/.536 He's gone from a K every 11.66 ABs pre-injury to a K every 3.69 ABs since returning. I'm pretty sure A-Rey could do that.

I would say this 2008 team has faced quite a bit of adversity. Whether or not that transalates to "fight" will be determined over the next 6 games. They can't get through a national TV broadcast without the C word being mentioned. They have been patching together 3 starting position players all season (RF, LF, 2B). They have had season ending injuries to their #3 starting pitcher and closer. They went through a month or more of "Will he or won't he be fired?" followed by a managerial firing. Yet, still, they are right there with a playoff spot for the taking. I'm certainly not making excuses for them if they don't win, but these players have played through a lot of shit and have put up a lot of W's. As for 1999, I'll agree that was a totally different team...but there are similarities. The 2008 team has received major contributions from players that were left for dead (Delgado and Tatis) which is very similar to the contributions Henderson and Ventura made in 1999. Both teams got of to a mediocre start and fired managers and/or coaches in June. After each of those firings, both teams were one of the best in baseball for several weeks. Both entered September looking like they were probably headed for postseason play before stumbling down the stretch. The big difference is in the bullpens obviously. I was pretty down on them going into the last 6 games of 1999 and I didn't think they were going to make it. But then they surprised me. That's all I'm looking for now.

As bad as the last 6 games of the 2007 regular season were, the last 6 games of the 1999 regular season were pretty frickin' fun after we thought all was lost. This team reminds me vaguely of the 1999 team.

TransMonk wrote: I like this Niese kid. I take it back. WTF...I go eat dinner for 15 minutes and I come back and we're fucked?

I like this Niese kid.

Yeah...I can't believe I had to wait until 9/22 to say this, but Ryan Church is killing us.

CHOP