Frayed Knot

The Guardians have crawled to within 1/2 game of the White Sox in recent days ... but just dropped one to Minnesota as AJ Minter closes out the Twin win. ChiSox, temporarily back to a full game lead, start in a few minutes in StL And just a minute later, the Dodgers lose a one run game to the Marlins preventing the Mets from sneaking up on 3rd place. Earlier in the week Shoehei finally agreed to an assignment to the IL. Interestingly he goes on the 15-day list rather than the 10-day list reserved for pitchers, so this will cover just about the remainder of the regular season.

So are we re-hiring all the guys we fired after last night's game or is all that still on?

'Fan' who ran on the field was carrying a Palestinian flag.

Supposedly yes.

Rays walk-off the Astros on a 2R walk-off HR by Junior Caminero, his 40th of the season.

Nice outing by Weisenheimer.

7th inning stretch at YSIII ... game should resume in about 20 minutes or so.

How unusual for a Yanqui fan to act out. I agree with TV not showing him ... right up until security starts pummeling him.

This has been the most uninteresting Met/Yanqui game ever ... and yet it's not out of reach even though it feels like we've never been in the game.

Russo bottom left, ???, Dave Sims (now NYY radio voice), looks familiar but not sure. ??? next to Francesa, is that Dave Jennings?, Mike Breen, Eddie Coleman, ???, and John Minko (team manager?) on the far right.

It's an interesting challenge trade if it were straight up. Strider is a full decade younger but has been injured more often than deGrom lately [32 starts in '23, then 33 combined since v 58 starts for JdG over '25 & '26]. Both are under control for '27 & '28 with the Braves having a team option on Strider for '29 while JdG's 2028 is a mutual option. deGrom is more expensive but also closer to the putting green. What this signals to me is that the Braves are already looking past Strider. They tend to pass on players in their '30s more than most teams (he turns 30 in winter '28 - '29) so, to them, they likely viewed this solely through the window of Strider's next two seasons vs JdG's and were willing to pull the plug early. Not quite so sure why Texas was keen on this. I guess it's the idea of saving money plus getting a third year (2029) from Strider if he bounces back vs likely diminishing returns from deGrom over the next two seasons.

The RH-heavy lineup you see is because lefty Carlos Rodon will tonight's starter. This will be his fifth start following about seven weeks on the IL. He's been pitching reasonably well but not all that long, 4 to 5 innings generally either out of caution or somewhat high pitch counts/inning. Rodon usually doesn't give up a lot of hits (lowest in MLB in '25) but his walk rates are up this year as are his pitch counts.

I barely remember them either. Game 1 - Fri May 15: Mets got Schlittler'd upon plus a rare bad start by Clay Holmes. Mets manage only single runs in the 7th & 9th -- 5 -2 Yanx Game 2: Mets force Carlos Rodon into throwing 88 pitches thru 3-2/3. David Peterson, coming in behind a Brazoban start, gets one of his final 'W' as a Met. 6 - 3 Mets Game 3: Tyrone Taylor's 9th inning/2 out 3R HR off David Bednar ties the game at 6. Devin Williams gets a GiDP in the 10th to strand the ghost runner. Carson Benge gets a one-out RBI FC grounder despite a five-man IF to win it. 7 - 6 Mets

Cubs got swept by the Brewers this week (after splitting four last week) dropping them to TEN games back in the Central and killing any faint hopes of winning the division. But more than that this puts them in danger of not making the playoffs at all. They're still WC #2 (1.5 G behind PHI) but only 2.5 & 3.0 G in front of SDP & ARZ. With both the West & Central decided, it's looking like the Cubs, DBacks, Padres and the non-winner of ATL/PHI fighting for three slots.

So the most unusual part about this series -- especially considering it's: September, the Subway Series, and a 9/11 Anniversary -- is that all three games are being carried by local TV!! So no FOX, no FS1, no Apple+, no SNB, no ESPN, no NBC/Peacock or whatever other platforms they're farming stuff out to these days. That's probably happened before but not often. Friday: 7:05, PIX -- Saturday: 1:35, SNY -- Sunday: 1:35, SNY (quite possible that Friday's first pitch is delayed somewhat with 9/11-related ceremonies) The plan is to start our Kiddie Corps [McLean, Scott, Thornton] against (most likely) the Yanx' 'Big Three' of Cole, Rodon, and Schlittler (in one order or another) although nothing has been formerly announced from Yaqui-land as of yet so I suppose it's possible we'll see Lindy McDaniel instead.