TransMonk

Great at-bat by Woodward. Fouls some off, works the walk, clears the pitcher. Excellent!

Delgado walked on 3 pitches?

I have absolutely no problem with El Duque being our game one starter.

KC wrote: ...Reyes really needs to learn how to protect himself and go agressively into home plate instead of sliding through brick walls. Amen, brother. Yet another reason I wouldn't have sent him. He's so fast he hasn't learned how to slide yet.

Fucking stupid! Why send Reyes? All well and all, but Jesus Christmas, that's the last thing we need.

Awesome, thanks.

What if: I know this scenario is not probable, but it is possible - San Diego holds on to win the West and Los Angeles wins the WC (basically how the standings are today). Houston and St. Louis battle for the NL Central and neither have a better record than SD or LA. Houston finishes a half game back on the Cards at the end of play Sunday. St. Louis has a makeup game against San Fran scheduled for Monday if necessary, which under this scenario it would be. St. Louis loses the game. Houston and St. Louis would have to have a one-game playoff for the division. Would that game-off happen on Tuesday even though the non-wildcard NLDS series is scheduled to begin that day? Would they flip-flop the 2 NLDS series schedules? I've checked MLB.com and it looks like they don't have a plan for this. If I were in charge, I would say day-night 3 team double header on Monday, but that would never happen. Interesting.

There are 10 teams still alive for playoff spots/seedings: Philadelphia, St. Louis, Houston, Cincinnati, San Diego, LA Dodgers, MFY, Oakland, Detroit and Minnesota. St. Louis plays San Diego today. Other than that game, none of these 10 teams will play one another over the next 5 days. With 72 games left on the MLB schedule for this year, 49 of them still have meaning. Usually it seems that are one or two key matchups during the last few days of a season. This year due to the schedule, everyone who has a chance to be in it is playing someone out of it over the last few days. It makes for a lot of scoreboard wathcing, but I'll miss these teams duking it out against each other.

The AL playoff teams are set: Detroit, New York, Minneapolis and Oakland. The seeding is still a mess as everyone is technically still alive to capture the best record.

11-12 in September. Anytime Willie wants to start putting in the A lineup on a regular basis so that they have some sort of roll going into the postseason would be none too soon. The fact that the Phillies, Dodgers and Padres are playing meaningful games down the stretch means they are going to have a mental advantage going into that first series.

Wright 3 Reyes 2 LoDuca 1 Franco 1 Green 1 Milledge 1 Woodward 1

In my mind, all along Green was insurance policy for Floyd and a serviceable outfielder should we need to play under AL rules and Floyd needs to DH. I think he fits both of those roles nicely.

Mets clinch home field advantage anyway as Geoff Jenkins hits a walk off homer to beat the Cards 1-0.

Willis leaves in the bottom of the ninth after walking Milledge and Green. Borowski coming in with the tying run at the plate...whole new ballgame. SC=47

Valadius wrote: What is the major league record for pitches in an at-bat? 37...No one's really sure. http://ask.yahoo.com/20050923.html http://baseballguru.com/attiyeh/bbread8.html http://www.faqfarm.com/Q/What_is_the_record_for_most_pitches_for_a_single_at_bat

You can Ring my Bell...Ring my Bell. Anytime Willie.

The wheels fall off. Ramirez scores from 2nd on a wild pitch. Does Bert make the post-season roster?

Gotta love that! He's a gamer.

Wright gets his 20th steal of the year.

Nice! The Mets will clinch home field for the NL side with a win tonight.

My Dad goes there a half a dozen times a year, so he loves it. It was my first time, and I was very surprised at how much I liked it. It had always been bashed as the last of the big cookie cutter ballparks. But we were in the upper deck (which I guess was re-done at one point to give it less of a slope) and still had a great view of the game. The sightlines are nice, it is clean and spacious in the aisles and walkways. The staff is friendly and the concessions had a decent variety (a bit pricy). I would give it two thumbs up, especially because I wasn't expecting much to begin with.

So, I took my old man to the White Sox game last night for his birthday. It was overcast and cold all afternoon and then once the sun went down, the temperature fell into the 40's. More like Chicago football weather than baseball weather. Still, about 25,000 of Chicago faithful came out to cheer on their Sox. The mood standing outside before the game was almost somber. The WS fans all had defeated looks on their faces with their team facing not making the playoffs unless they can pull out a marvelous two weeks of baseball. I was wearing my Mets cap the night after the clinching, and one WS usher yelled to me, "At least someone's wearing the right cap." The matchup was Freddie Garcia vs. Justin Verlander, and most of the starters were playing for each team. I had seen Garcia pitch a heack of a game in Seattle a few years ago, so I've always liked his stuff. And I was excited to see Verlander for the first time. Garcia walked the first man he faced on 4 pitches and then allowed a single to the second. He then mowed down 23 Tigers in a row. It really was a great pitching performance...and on such a cold night to boot. Ozzie took the slow walk to the mound in the eighth after Garcia walked his second batter of the night and had thrown his 102nd pitch. Every single person in the stands booed the manager, myself included. Ozzie got to the mound...and turned right back around without making the call to the pen. Garcia got the last man in the eighth to ground out. While the Tigers offense was mastered, the Sox scored all of the runs. The first time through the order, Verlander looked every bit as good as Garcia. But in the 4th he hit Dye, walked Thome, gave up a single to Konerko, and the Pierzynski laced a grand slam to center. In the 5th, Dye and Thome hit back to back HRs, and Iguchi added another blast in the 7th. Verlander ended up giving six runs. He did pick off two runners. He has one of those good moves and then an even better move. Jenks pitched the ninth in a non-save situation and gave up a single to ex-Met Vance Wilson, Detroit's only other hit of the night after the single in the first. The crowd reveled in the win, but driving home listening to the call in shows on the radio, there is still a sense that no matter how well they do over the next 12 games, it may still be too little too late. Chicago scored all of it's runs off of homers. Other than that, they had nothing going, especially getting picked off twice. The World Champs may have learned lately that if you live by the long ball, then you die by the long ball...if no one's hitting homers, the Sox probably aren't winning. In my mind, they are definately the biggest dissapointment in baseball this year. It isn't too many times that a team wins the World Series, and then improves themselves in the next offseason. The Sox have as much if not more talent than anyone in baseball, yet they haven't been able to win when it matters...something they did so well last year. Detroit is fading too...they looked horrible. But their odds are still pretty good for making the playoffs where their pitching is as good as anyone's. And they started without all of the expectations that the Sox had this year, so the end result, no matter what it is, has to feel pretty good for them and their fans.

Yancy Street Gang wrote: I was glad that MLB Extra Innings didn't cut off the feed right after the game ended. They seem to keep the lights on until the first commercial break after the game ends. I think if Gary had said, "We'll be right back" a few minutes after the game ended, that would have been it. But SNY didn't break for a commerical until about a half hour after the game ended, so I got to watch all the fun. MLB.TV carried the feed too. I have SNY on my satellite system, but the games are blacked out because I don't have the Extra Innings package. Normally I watch the pregame on the TV, the game on the computer, then back to the TV for postgame. Overall, I have completely enjoyed my first season with MLB.TV.

Trachsel 4 Valentin 4 Floyd 1 Mota 1

The NL magic number is 3.