Frayed Knot

Mauricio sets an ML record for swinging and missing at the 17th pitch that was at least one foot out of the strike zone in the same game.

How quickly can you get to the park?

And the 9th inning in Atlanta lasts two batters: leadoff walk, walk-off HR (Matt Olson) Since the trade/signing to replace Freddie Freeman, Olson hasn't missed a single game with the Braves and has 155 HRs in five-plus seasons, averaging 36.5 HR/yr with an 859/135 OPS/OPS+. It makes one wonder what color the sky is in a world where that happens for your team. In other news, water is wet.

The beat writers would be complaining that he was canned as a time inconvenient to the eastern time zone.

In Atlanta it's still 3-2 but with Skubal now out after 7. The reliever gets the first two outs in the 8th then gets Dom Smith to a 1-2 count and appears to crease the outside corner with Strike 3. But the ump calls it a ball and the Tigers do NOT opt to challenge. Then, with the count 3-2, Dom is calls out on strikes but he DOES challenge it and wins so he's on 1st. Acuna then walks also so it's 1st & 2nd with C Drake Baldwin up who .... finally grounds out to end the inning on a 10-pitch AB so it's on to the 9th. I was sure the Tigers were going to get burned on their non-challenge but they survived.

Well, Gary & Murph debated whether Peterson loading the bases was going to be his last batter. But he was left in and promptly issued his third walk of the inning (this one with bases loaded) and that's when Mendy called for Manaea. That's why I said above that Mendoza could be blamed for both pulling Peterson too early and sticking with him too long. Both options turned out to be lousy.

Y'know it's not required to wait around for me to start TWIB threads. Anyone can start one, the only rule is that they run from Monday thru Sunday. Meanwhile, the Tigers lead 3-2 after six with Skubal still in there dealing.

Bad challenge by the Mets Aaaaaaannnd it seemingly took them about 20 minutes to review it.

Sometimes in the same game!

Gary, btw, turns 68 today for those who were wondering [Ronnie turns 66 later this summer, Keith 74 in October]*. His Wikipedia page is fairly thin, but looking through it I stumbled across one 'Huh!' moment: that while at Columbia he occasionally broadcast their soccer games along with fellow student George Stephanopolous. * and Murph is 41

So today Mendoza can be blamed Both for leaving Peterson in too long and for pulling him too soon.

And just as I say that ...

At least, in contrast to many other Peterson games where once he started down a bad path he could never right the ship, here he a couple of very clean second and third innings. And now b-2-b HR days for Juan

A secondary issue with the Mets sucking so badly is that you not only lose interest/patience with them but with the sport of baseball in general. Who wants to see other players doing marvelous things on the diamond when your team does the nightly equivalent of screwing up a two car parade? And that's not even to mention that the clubs pacing their respective leagues so far are the Yanx and the Braves. So after a week off and a late start to this one, TWiB Notes is back to try and catch up with various goings-on elsewhere. - Yanx finally lost today in Texas in what were three low-scoring games [4-2; 3-2; 0-3] getting shutout today by Nathan Eovaldi + relief help. It's always fun when Eovaldi does well vs the Bombers as he was pretty miserable when he played there and they couldn't wait to get rid of him. Guess he wasn't a 'True Yanqui'. The Tuesday game featured deGrom getting out-dueled by Cam Schlittler who is off to a hot start and doesn't look to be slowing down: 7 starts; 4-1; 0.51 ERA; 0.74 WHIP; 6 BB/42 IP - the Braves, who are scoring the most runs in all MLB, host Detroit but tonight draw Tarek Skubal. The tribe counters with righty JR Ritchie (sounds like J.R. Richard's nephew or something) making his second ever ML start amid all the Atlanta pitching injuries.

And, yet, would that game make the 'Top Ten Most Miserable Losses of Late 2025' list. Probably, but there'd be some stiff competition. Upon further review: the way the Nats scored those early runs just might secure this game 'Top Five' most miserable status. Top 1st: Walk; K; WP; Bloop single (1st & 3rd), GO but couldn't turn DP. 1-0 Nats Top 2nd: IF Single; Single + E9 (Soto) runner scores from 1st/batter to 3rd; E-3 (Alonso) runner doesn't advance but now 1st & 3rd/still no outs; K; K; WP/run scores; GO So that's one BB, two wild pitches, two errors, two soft singles, and one DP not turned resulting in three runs in just the first two innings. On the offensive side the Mets out-hit the Nats 11 to 6 but left 11 on base (including two ABs w/bases loaded/tie game/bottom 9th), and were 3/16 w/RiSP

THIS is the line/stat (from the linked article) that really jumped out at me Which was then followed up with:

I doubt umps are going into a F.F. AB thinking that they can call several inches off the plate a strike because he's not going to do anything about it. Pitchers/catchers may try to (if they even heard/remember what he said) but he always has the option of a surprise challenge. I see his statement of not challenging as less of a vow and more of an attitude, and I think it's a good one to have.

In Cade Cavalli's lone career appearance vs the Mets he threw 5 shutout (5 hits) innings last September 20 in a game that was one of the daggers ultimately causing the end of that season to bleed out. The Nats led early getting three runs (1 earned) off McLean. Finally, with the Nats odds of winning at 95%, back to back 8th inning/two-out doubles by Marte and Vientos brought in two runs. When a Soto single w/one out in the 9th tied it the odds of a Mets win were now up to 83% as Marte & Nimmo were due up with one out and bases loaded ... they both K'd on four pitches. The Mets then did squat with two ghost runner innings and lost the game on Daylen Lile's 2R inside-the-park HR in top 11 (clip of it shown in last night's game)

The previous NYM challenge wasn't smart either but, yeah, the one by Vientos was really dumb, and selfish. Freddie Freeman said early on that he wasn't going to challenge anything all year, that he was going to leave all the challenges for his defense. Now there might be a particular situation here or there where it would be smart of him to break that pledge but overall he has the right attitude.

So the only NYM pitcher who can consistently get to the 5th inning and beyond is the career reliever.

Found 'im!

Already more runs in 4 innings than in the entire Colorado series. Viva Vivas!!!!!

We got our run early today. Then followed it up with three straight pop-outs.

A mini-KTE: Gary has talked several times recently about the Nats scoring the most in MLB but also giving up the most runs on the other side of the ball. That's not quite true anymore, but it's close: at 5.38 RS/G that puts them T-3 w/the Cubs and a ways behind the Braves (5.72) and Dodgers (5.66). On the pitching side the Nats are 2nd worst at 5.9 RA/G ahead of only Houston who is coughing 'em up an even 6.00 runs per. LF James Wood leads the NL in all three 'True Outcomes' of HRs, BBs, Ks, as well as GP & PA. He is currently sporting an OPS just under 1000 and, oh yeah, he won't turn 24 until the end of the season. Now they've also got some turkeys in their lineup including C Keibert Ruiz and his OPS+ of 59 (it's starting to look like he's not going to be what they hoped when he was considered the main cog from the Scherzer/Turner trade) and Luis Garcia Jr has rotten numbers (82 OPS+) even if he weren't a 1st baseman, so a smart pitcher can maybe pick his spots strategically. What our pitchers will do I have no idea. Also of the 15 position players they've used so far this season ALL are 28 or under, eight are 25 or under, and three are 23. That all adds up to being a perfect set-up for roller-coaster baseball on a nightly basis. They're also 3.5 games ahead of us in the standings.

They are, they're just on the run while at home.