Frayed Knot

If you told me at this point that this inning would END at 10-4 I'd sign up for it. I'm fearing it could be considerably worse.

Giving it away ... again!

Sandy Alderson wrote: �We need to hit more [Home Runs] than the opposition. Right now, that�s not happening. That�s in part because we're not hitting enough, and in part because we're giving up too many.� Can't argue with that logic.

From the 'Whatta ya mean everything's not going to go as well as it did last year?' department: Boston reliever Koji Uehara gave up nine earned runs in 2013 including [u:2u4ucffc]just ONE[/u:2u4ucffc] over the 2nd half of the season, a stint which roughly corresponded to his time as the team's primary closer. He then went on to give up only one more ER in 13.2 post-season innings. Last night with a three-run lead and needing only one more out to close out the game and get a save ... he proceeded to give up FIVE

Niese - 2.3 Granderson - 1.0 Lagares - 0.5 Murphy - 0.5 Duda - 0.5 Eveland - 0.2

Say goodnight Gracie.

Eli Lapp in to pitch for the Dodgers Terry counters with John Book to PH

Fman99 wrote: KABOOM! That's how you start a road game right there. Yes, but it's not a good way to end our hitting for the night. Two singles since.

When Scott Van Slyke is making catches at the wall and now legging out doubles to Lagares, you start to think that maybe it's not our night.

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr wrote: Pretty though that DP was, it's not quite enough to keep the Doyers off the board this half-inning. Another rally started by walking a sub-.200 hitter. AJ Ellis in tonight's case Our hurlers were doing that all over the recent Cubs series. oe ... and now a 2-out hit to a pitcher

d'Kong76 wrote: ... even though they were from NY, the Giants weren't the Manhattan Giants after all ... Except that when the direct linear predecessor of the Dodgers (under various nicknames) first started playing professionally in Brooklyn (1884), Brooklyn was not part of NY, it was an independent city. Brooklyn, along with Queens (but not Hempstead who opted out) didn't join the rest of NYC to form its current boundaries until 1898, but by that time the name was established and obviously it stuck around for the following half-century.

Games in the GCL usually involve a minimum of paying fans--the friends and family plan is more like it--so suspending a game in that league would probably be done quicker there than it would in higher levels. But, even having said that, this situation sounds pretty scary.

Friday - 10:10 EDT -- Niese vs Dan Haren [10-10, 4.59] Saturday - 9:10 -- deGrom vs Zack Greinke [12-8, 2.75] Sunday - 4:10 -- Colon vs Kevin Correia [2-0 in 2 starts since the trade from Minnesota on Aug 9th (5 runs on 12 hits in 11 IP), was 5-13, 4.94 w/Twins] 3.5 game lead over SF in the West despite just a 10-10 August so far. Just took 2 of 3 from SD but prior to that were swept at home by the Brewers Injured: IFers Hanley Ramirez (expected back for Sunday's game) & Juan Uribe -- so we can expect to see lots of hot Justin Turner action over on that side of the infield [.314/.386/.441 over 250 ABs] LHPs Hyun Jin Ryu & Paul Maholm, and RHP Josh Beckett OF - Puig's in CF these days with Kemp banished to RF, Crawford in LF, and Ethier mostly the odd man out in their four-for-three OF round-robin IF = A Gonzalez at 1st, Dee Gordon at 2B, Turner mostly at 3B these days with a combo of rookies Miguel Rojas (118 ML ABs) & Esribel Arruebarrena (22 ABs) sharing SS for now. AJ Ellis catching.

Although we'll apparently gain Greinke for Saturday after it looked like we were going to skate on him. But let's not kid ourselves, any time you can miss Kershaw it's a good week.

Beckham was an 8th overall draft pick back in 2008 as a SS out of Univ of Georgia*. But he didn't stay at SS and now nearly six full seasons of .244/.306/.374 later it was probably time for the ChiSox to cut ties. What I remember when he first came up was his big, blondish mop of Kennedy-esque hair. Maybe cropping as he got older is what became his undoing, who knows. * although oddly enough was not the first SS from the state of Georgia or even the first Beckham picked that year. The unrelated Tim Beckham, a SS out of a Georgia HS, was the 1/1 pick that year by Tampa and, until looking him up just now, I had thought he was among the rare few 1/1 picks never to play in the majors. But it turns out he did get a cuppa coffee (7 ABs) late last year. He's just now getting back to minor league work after a lengthy injury rehab but is almost certain never to be the star you'd want out of a top pick.

The Giants actually won a protest to the league (first time in more than 20 years I think I heard) over the game that was rained out in Wrigley the other day when a wet tarp was unable to save the field and a 15 minute rain storm turned into a 4-1/2 delay and eventually the game being called in favor of the Cubs who led 2-0 at the time after the bare minimum 4-1/2 innings. So they picked up the game today from the point where it was stopped in advance of the regularly scheduled contest � except that it was delayed by rain and is just now getting started two hours late. David Price pitched for Detroit today on his first trip back to Tampa. He tossed a CG 1-hitter ... unfortunately for him he lost 1-0 Angels hurler Garrett Richards and his 13-4 record and 2.61 ERA will be out the next �six to eight months� after tearing his patella tendon in Wednesday night�s game. This comes just as the Angels & A�s, the top two teams in what�s looking like the toughest division, get set to play 7 of their next 10 games against each other starting on Friday. Yanx salvaged their final game vs Houston, losing 2 of 3 this week and 4 of 6 to them during the season. Today�s 3-0 CG shutout for Brandon McCarthy in 2:07 was the shortest NYY game by time since 1996. The 2:07 mark for them (and for too many teams for that matter) is usually about the 5th inning. And I think if you polled Yanqui fans like maybe ten years ago, most of them would have had no idea there was even a baseball team in Houston. Not only did the Nats just win their tenth straight game this afternoon, but now six of their last eight wins at home (including most of this current streak) have been via walk-offs (3 times in extras) starting with that final home game against us that they won on that 13th inning HR by Harper. I�ve been expecting them to pull away in this division all year now, but still, this is a clear example of the old, you�re never as good as you look when you�re winning � yadda yadda

So I was at least partially right. Not sure if they're also tracking L/R switching for batters too (I'll read the piece later) although I suspect TC would be fairly high on that one too. And double-switching, a move which certainly has its place but I think--well, no, I KNOW-- Terry over-does. I was reasonably sure it wasn't bunting.

L/R swapping/matching-up

I like magicians. I like watching magic. I didn't like watching this movie. I can't even specifically remember why at this point, but I think it was the over the top chase scenes and the like. Sure, the whole premise involves tricks and such, but can we at least get things to within a couple touchdowns of plausible?

They had a ton of injuries in '73, some of whom were just getting back in time for the stretch run, so I guess by the time September rolled around they figured they had an overload. But 71-91 suggests otherwise.

... we go for more than two full days without a game. In this case it's a day game followed by an off-day followed by night game - and on the west coast no less!!!! That's like 51 hours from last pitch to next pitch! I though that periods of more than 48 hours without a ballgame during the summer were prohibited by the constitution or something, but it seems like we've had a bunch of these this year.

Niese 2.4 Black - 1.5 Familia - 0.4 Carlyle - 0.4 Lagares - 1.5 Flores - 1.5 Duda - 1.0 d'Arnaud - 0.5 den Dekker - 0.8

Bob Apodaca: September 18, 1973 Jack Aker: June 16, 1974 70 Games To have a season start (much less get to nearly the mid-point) where no player is new to the team is just stunning. Since we've been keeping the 'Met Count' thread to track our way to the 1,000th player it seems like four or five in the first week is more like the norm these days even if it's just a couple of middle relievers! The hot stove much have been mighty cold that winter.

Well that one was tougher than it needed to be.

10 of the 11 runs scored so far have come with 2 outs.