Frayed Knot

Don't like that Morel swung on 3 - 0. Not in this situation anyway.

Alex Hoppe on to pitch. And, no, he has never pitched to Logan O'Hoppe ... although I think it's a crime that he hasn't. Oh, and tie game.

Benge as the ghost runner. Young - Semien - Ewing due up.

And now the clown car rules take over.

That's just the way I thought Benge would hit it ... but I thought it would go ten feet further.

Two back-to-back outings for reliever Senga ... both resulted in a HR (one game winning, one game tying).

So with Pete's 300th HR there's only one way for this game to end now. Hint: it involves Lindor batting in the bottom of the 9th

Good thing we didn't get burned by it, though.

Good thing they're only overturning calls when there's clear evidence. Meanwhile, a lot of LOBsters again tonight.

It's the penultimate week for MLB's regular season as it is for TWiB Notes. Biggest series of the early week is in Cleveland where the White Sox, who had seen their lead snipped down to 1/5 game over the Guardians, are in Cleveland where they took Game #1 to up their lead to 1.5 G (they had been as many as +5.5 in mid-August). And the bigger problem for the ultimate loser of the AL Central race is that 2nd place is hardly a guarantee of a WC slot. The Guardians currently hold the 3rd place WC slot but are just 1.0 G in front of Toronto, 1.5 in front of Texas, 3.0 ahead of Baltimore, and 4.5 on top of the Tigers. So even a slightly weak finish combined with any one of FOUR teams getting hot and it's no October for you. The Braves are at Wrigley while the Phils go to Washington so that gives the Phightin's a ray of hope given their current 4.5 G deficit. And while there are fewer moving parts in the NL, like the AL no second place NL club is assured of anything as the Phils Cubs, Padres & DBacks fight for three openings. The Snakes, who are hosting the Marlins, are the current squad on the outside looking in.

Scouts always said he had 'The Good Face'

If this Grant Wolfram guy isn't nicknamed 'Tungsten' then I'm thoroughly disappointed in his teammates. And his HS classmates for that matter.

One of the issues with living so long is that you increase the odds of out-living one or more of your children. Joe Mac out-lived two of his three. Only NYC/Philly sports yakker Jody survived him.

It's a tie game [or it was until a second ago] in the 8th inning folks. Get back in your frickin' seats!!

Nah. Just pissed off over the whole affair.

btw, the Dodger lineup on that first Strawberry game included, in addition to Darryl,: Gary Carter, Eddie Murray, Brett Butler, Juan Samuel, Once and future Mets abound. Butler, Samuel, Straw, and Murray hit 1-2-3-4 in the lineup. Carter pinch-hit in the 9th (and doubled).

I was there for both Seaver's first game back and Strawberry's. Definitely cheering for both (particularly Seaver) from the Shea faithful. Except for me, I wasn't cheering for either. Seaver doubled off Koosman in the 5th and scored on a Pete Rose single. (Reds 5 - Mets 1) Strawberry did HR (off Viola in the 6th) but also grounded out vs Johnny F. to end the game (Mets 6 - Dodgers 5)

Vlad Guerrero HR'd today in Rogers Centre (Sky Dome). It was just his 9th HR of the season and the First one he hit at home!! What most would have assumed was simply a slow start from Vladdy Jr. just never regressed to the mean for him this year. After OPS'ing 879 (143 OPS+) for 2021 thru 2025 and averaging 32.5 HRs/yr, he plummeted to 683/69 and the nine HRs to date this season. He's played most of the games this year (135 of 150) so that doesn't indicate injuries. Just a stunning kind of fall that you wouldn't expect from a seemingly healthy 27 y/o. The Jays got a combined 12.8 WAR from Guerrero, Springer, and Bichette in 2025. In 2026 they got 1.0 (V.G.), 0.7 (G.S.) and, of course, 0 from Bichette. That goes a long way towards explaining how you go from one play away (several times) of winning the WS to wavering at or near the .500 mark.

Not as bad as playing an AL West opponent in late-September (in TEX Sept 22 - 24)

'twould be nice if it were same game/same side ... but whatyagonnado?

Marlins tie up the Dodgers with two runs in the bottom of the 10th [IF 1B, IF 1B, Double] and are still batting with a runner on 2nd and no outs ... and now just walked it off with a 2R HR

We got Schlittler'd upon again.

In the game where Clay Holmes had his leg broke by a comeback (Spencer Jones) Schlittler also took a comeback off his leg via the bat of Luis Torrens so that's two now in two games vs the Mets. Sometimes you're lucky and sometimes not.

1st pitch expected to be around 1:55

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.