Frayed Knot

Marte has an OPS this season 15% above league average and has been even better since the ASG. But, hey, you apply your own standards.

WE HAVE A MEANINGLESS HIT!!

Since the Vientos double Monday night setting up the tying and go-ahead runs, the Mets have K'd 11 times in 15 trips to the plate. WE HAVE A HIT!! WE HAVE A HIT!! (it may be our last one for a while, but) WE HAVE A HIT!!

We've got a situation this week, and one that will come up several times during the remainder of the season, where our WC-wanting opponents will be playing each other. Currently: Cincy is at SDP (Padres won in 10 last night) and DBacks @ Giants (San Fran took the opener) The best thing to do in these situations is root for something approaching a split. What we don't want is some team behind us racking up sweeps. If the Mets play just mediocre/suck (y'know, like the last three months) then it might just be enough if no one else gets got. Now, true, we could still go total/suck and fall behind anyway, but this at least improves our odds of hanging on. Other series: Cubs @ Braves with the Braves winning last night; Rox @ LAD (Dodgers won the opener); StL @ Seattle (Mariners won) So as play opens tonight it's: LAD: +4.0 SDP: +3.0 (winner gets the division) NYM SFG: -3.0 CIN: -4.0 ARZ: -4.5 StL: -4.5

Tonight they were unlucky that Alvarez swung at three pitches outside of the left-handed batter's box.

What you're basically saying is that the Mets have won a bunch of blowouts which they have going 27-17 in games with a margin of five runs or more runs for the season. More specifically they were absurdly lopsided in August winning nine* of those 27 blowouts between Aug 2nd and Sept 2nd (including eight in the 19 day span from Aug 14 - Sep 2) while being on the short side of only three** such games. It's how they wound up leading the NL in both HRs and scoring in the month of August but went 11-17. That's the kind of thing that tends to fluff up your RS/RA ratio without contributing to many extra wins. The other thing, which we've discussed here elsewhere, was their lack of 'clutch' hitting early in the season. At one point they were 5th or 6th in OPS (in MLB, not just NL) but right around mediocre in runs scored despite OPS being the stat that most correlates to runs scored. A little more even distribution in the timing of their hits back in April/May might have led to significantly more runs scored and an even bigger lead back when the pitching was so good. That said, as Bill Parcells was known to say, 'You are what your record says you are". iow, We can 'Yeah but' ourselves silly, but it ain't gonna change anything. * Wins of 6, 8, 7, 5, 7, 10, 6, 10, 7 runs ** Losses of 8, 5, and 6 runs

You'd have to guesstimate where he'd be when the relay throw is received compared to where Mauricio actually was. 3B coach put up the stop sign when Mauricio was still five strides from 3rd. So IF Acuna were the runner and IF he breaks immediately without hesitation then ... maybe, but I still doubt it. You might send him with two outs and hope for a break but have to be more cautious with fewer than two. Acuna's faster than Mauricio but the gap isn't exactly Billy Hamilton vs a relay of Molina brothers. So he's probably rounded 3rd when the cutoff man gets the ball but not by much is my guess making it a 65-70ft run vs a 120-ish ft throw. Not good odds.

Darryl went after Keith on Picture Day ... or at least one picture day. This doesn't look like that one though. I don't recall anyone being tackled, held-down or whatever. IIRC the two potential combatants were kept apart by whoever was near and everyone stayed on their feet. This one looks more like hi jinx.

Mauricio hesitated slightly as he looked toward RF to see if that ball had a chance of being caught. Once he did that there was no way he was scoring as the ball was back to the cut-off man behind 1st base before he reached 3rd base. The ball simply got to the (short) wall too quickly. He would have been out by 60 feet had they sent him and probably still about 30 ft even without the hesitation. Even if there were two outs that would have been a terrible send. With one out it would have been criminal.

If (G.) Soto ever gets his control under, well, control, he could be a dangerous pitcher.

Bader is apparently Gaelic for 'Often Gets Thrown Out at 2nd'

Keith not listening to what Gary Just Said, example #4,000 and something.

This series can't make our season, but it can certainly break it. So we need to, y'know, win a few of these.

BoSox scored 3 in the 7th and 3 more in the 9th to beat the DBacks 7-4

6-3 Nats is your final in Chicago Cards heading to the 9th with a slim one run lead and, if they've seeing the boxscores lately are saying to themselves, "Good thing we no longer have Helsley!" Giants lose!!!!

Edgy MD wrote: Joe Morgan was terrific, but I have never heard Keith Hernandez say that he was the greatest player Keith ever played against. I could certainly make a case for best all-around player in the Keith era, even though many of Morgan's best years were mostly pre-KH

Elsewhere: Dodgers won (BAL) Padres up 7-1 (Rox) in the 5th Giants down 4-3 batting w/2 outs, top 8th in StL ... and now a Wilmer double (followed by a pinch-runner of course) But the Giants don't score.

Phils down 5-3 in top 9th, two outs, two on, and Mr. Schwarber at the plate. - base hit Schwarber, one run in, 5-4 Marlins, 1st & 3rd, Mr. Harper to the pentagon. ... and Harper grounds out and the game is over. Meanwhile out in the midwest, Josh Bell hits a PH/3R-HR to flip a 3-2 Cubs lead into a 5-3 Nats lead. Nats now have a runner on 1st and still no one out.

We made contact! We made contact!

The Padres also won (vs COL) so they're back to being 1.0 G ahead of the Mets. iow, bad night all around except for the StL comeback vs SFG We do, however, also need to consider the Dodgers as we examine the NL mix down the stretch. LAD has lost five straight and is just 1.0 G up on SDP so the Mets can move up by catching the non-division winner of those two teams. The Giants, even with all their hotness (prior to last night), still sit six out of the NL West race so are about as unlikely to catch either as we are to catching Philly. If anything, the Dodger loss last night was worse than that of the Giants as not only were they up 3-0 in Baltimore but Yamamoto was sitting on a no-hitter heading into the 9th. He even got the first two batters before serving up a HR to Jackson Holliday. Roberts then pulls Yammy to bring in Blake Treinan but the trouble was only just starting: Double - HBP - BB - BB (LAD 3 - BAL 2) - [Pitching change - Tanner Scott now in] - 2-RBI 1B ... Thanks for Coming, Please Arrive Home Safely!

mlb.com does a 'What to Expect' write up on Sproat: https://www.mlb.com/news/what-to-expect-from-brandon-sproat-in-mlb?t=mlb-pipeline-coverage They even include an action photo [FIMG=300]https://popicon.life/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/169sprout.jpg[/FIMG] I thought he'd be taller.

That second steal attempt by Lindor wasn't smart. Tong certainly done for the night now. Only three hits allowed, but four runs on those three. Battle of the bullpens for the 7th, 8th, 9th.

Mine was more a general statement than a specific one. But, yeah, that one too.

One last thing, the pen tonight: 3-2/3, 0 runs, 2 singles (one on the infield), 3 BB, & 7 Ks, all in relief of Peterson who had nearly blown leads of 4-0 & 5-1 and allowed two of the first three hitters to reach in the 6th. iow, probably not a good time to be calling Mendoza a pinhead for his mound management tonight.

One last thing, the pen tonight: 3-2/3, 0 runs, 2 singles (one on the infield), 3 BB, & 7 Ks, all in relief of Peterson who had nearly blown leads of 4-0 & 5-1 and allowed two of the first three hitters to reach in the 6th. iow, probably not a good time to be calling Mendoza a pinhead for his mound management tonight.