Frayed Knot

You get the opinion that this game could go a few dozen innings without the Mets scoring. And now we have both Tejada AND Quintanilla in the lineup!!

It's encouraging, and sad at the same time, that I have more faith in Brown right now than I do in any other hitter on the roster.

I could say that we're at an advantage here as they have the bottom of their order up while we have the middle (3-4-5) of ours due up ... except that with this line-up that doesn't mean anything.

Interesting game for Murph. Hell, it's been an interesting inning!!!

NY Met bats: Making mediocre pitchers look good since April Tejada just put everything he had into one and it almost reached the warning track.

Dice has been OK

Innuresting stuff in DC. Nationals clawed back from 5-1 down to get it to 5-4. Zimmerman doubles in the 9th - Papelbon gets two outs -- now they're intentionally walking Harper (aka: putting the winning run on base) to get to Ramos ... and Ramos smokes a hard one-hopper to Rollins and the Phils/Papelbon hold on. Tough day for the Nats with Cincy winning. After knocking off a game yesterday, now they're back to where they were only with two games off the schedule. That's the tough part about coming back from so far, you have so little margin for error.

Zvon wrote: I've been half watching these games. Any official word on the extent of FFs line drive to the wrist injury earlier today? Contusion (bruise) but no break. I was shocked at the 'no break' news.

Why do we never get an answer, when we're knocking on the door? Gary doing deep into the old Moody Blues catalog for references tonight. IBsdHoTdOmc

This offense is a lethal combination of high strikeouts and little power. And when I say lethal I mean to themselves, not to the opposing staff.

So do you suppose that any hitter reaches 100 CitiField HRs EVER? I mean, aside from Ryan Zimmerman of course.

G-Fafif wrote: Rangers looking a little anxious to dip down into the scrum that was previously beneath them. Technically it still is, but when they finish getting blown out by A's tonight (most likely), they'll be only 1.5 better than Rays, 3 better than Tribe, 3.5 ahead of MFYs, 4 over O's. . Just barely as it turned out. Rangers, down 9-2, scored 6 in the 8th but had tying run Alex Rios thrown out at tying to go 1st to 3rd on a single to end that inning*, and then failed to score in the 9th as well so the final was 9-8 Oakland. * Close call but it looked to be wrong. Was definitely the type of call we'll see reviewed and probably overturned next season.

Cincy has got to be hearing footsteps by now Friday night they were in Milwaukee while the Nats learned at the last minute that Strasburg would be unable to go due to 'forearm tightness'* -- but then Kyle Lohse threw a complete game for the 5-1 Brews win while Ross Ohlendorf stepped in with 5 innings of one-run ball backed by 4 shutout bullpen innings for a 6-1 win vs the Phils. I believe all six Nats runs came via Ryan Zimmerman & Wilson Ramos HRs but I'm still checking into that.** * Davey says that Strasburg's missed start is "a non-issue" as far as the future goes, but someone in baseball once said that ALL elbow problems start as "forearm tightness" ** Only one HR each as it turns out - Pirates lost to the Cubs when a potential 2-Run / 2-out / 9th inning / game-winning HR died on the warning track. - StL beat Seattle (whoop-de-damn-doo ... we could beat Seattle) in the 10th when Ollie Perez was brought in with two outs and a runner on 1st base. He promptly went Walk - Walk - Passed Ball To be fair to Ollie, the passed ball hit the catcher right in the center of his glove - but of course it's the fact that he put himself in that situation in the first place that's the problem. Ollie not having as good a year for the Mariners as last season -- but he still just turned 32 y/o!!

So was it Bones who kept saying 'Hawkins me boy' or was it his rival whose name I can't remember right now? I don't think I've read that book since my father read it to me and my sister a bunch of decades ago, but the 'Hawkins me boy' line still sticks in my head.

* Sox jump ouit to a 4-run lead in the 1st but then stop scoing * Yanx chip away and tie it by the 6th * Saltalamacchia nails a GS to make it 8-4 Sox

As Billy Bones was known to say in 'Treasure Island': "Ahh, Hawkins me boy"

That (Stanton's 2nd HR) got out there so fast that in the pre-remodeled CitiField it would have been a single.

First lead since Sunday. And I believe it's Duda's first hit with a runner on base since August 2012* - although I'm still checking on that. * I was obviously "taking the piss" on this one, but it is just Lucas's 2nd of his 13 HRs this season that wasn't with empty bases.

Which begs the question of why the owners seem to want to keep the team for whom the stadium exists in the first place a secret. Or is it more a case where the Citi money came with the condition of having nothing else on the building except their brand?

Another game, and other day of getting 2-hit (or worse) through 5 innings by a mediocre pitcher. This team hasn't even had a lead since Sunday and have rarely even been tied in games since then.

I'm not much on trying to recreate what went on in the old stadium (aka: the orange and blue tiles) but y'know what would be interesting for the outside of the new place? ... In addition to the 30 or 40 places where it tells you who's paying for the sponsorship of the place, maybe in one or two or three places they could maybe indicate who plays in said stadium. After all, it's not like, after a half-century plus now, that both the orange NY logo and especially the Mets/Skyline/Baseball logo aren't highly recognizable and iconic symbols.

Yeah, I'm actually going to do a KTE for this series. We're 10 games up on the Marlins so haven't secured 4th place yet. We're also 5-10 against these guys and while we can't win the season series I'd really like to make it look more respectable. Also, had I now been assigned to do this I would have had no idea that this is a Four game series. FRIDAY 7:10 -- Brad (don�t call him Mister) Hand vs Niese Hand is making his 1st ML start and only his 3rd appearance of the year after starting 17 games in the minors this season and pitching occasionally for the Fish in 2011 & 2012 SATURDAY - An old-fashioned �Twi-Night� double-header!! I do hope Gary et al refer to it using that term early and often. Game 1 -- 4:10 - Henderson Avarez [3-4; 4.34; 1.27] vs Matsuzaka Alvarez, a 23 y/o Venezuelan RHP who was part of the haul from Toronto over the winter, was matched up against Mejia in a start on July 31 and came away with a win after giving up just 2 runs over 7.1 IP. Game 2 -- 7:10 (yeah right, not with DiceK pitching the first game it won�t be. Ten minutes after NINE is more like it) - Jacob Turner vs Torres Turner [3-6; 3.43; 1.42] is 1-0 vs the Mets this year in two starts, tossing 7 innings of shut out ball on May 31 in a game the Fish won 5-1; then getting hung with an ND on July 29 after the Mets came back from 2 runs down on the Miami pen with 3 in the 7th after Turner had left. SUNDAY 1:10 - Tom Kohler vs Gee Kohler, not a bathroom fixtures magnate but rather a 27 y/o rookie out of the Bronx and New Rochelle HS is 3-10 with a 4.80 ERA and 1.45 WHiP in 2013. Naturally one of those wins (his last one on August 1st) was against the Mets when he tossed 6 shoutout innings. Prior to that NYM bats got to him for 4 runs over 7 innings in a game the Marlins would win with 4 off Parnell in the 10th inning. Starting eight -- eh, you know, Giancarlo plus a bunch of other guys blah, blah, blah. Injuries -- No one all that important. - Catcher Jeff Mathis is �day to day� with a bruised thumb (You call THAT an injury?) and that Marcel Ozuna guy who killed us early in the year has been out for like two months now. We probably weren�t going to see wunderkid Jose Fernandez anyway since he was last seen mocking the Braves on Wednesday night. But that was already his planned last start of the year due to hitting up against an innings limit. Funny how it works out for us because we get to miss Fernandez and also works in our favor because they DON'T get to face Harvey

I remember in his original restaurant (73rd & 3rd) Rusty had a wall display where all 20-whatever of his baseball cards were lined up in chronological order. That was pretty cool looking.

G-Fafif wrote: I've been told by those who made some of the decisions that were antithetical to Metsian equity that, in so many words, a) people don't care about those things (that is we doubt we can sell an extra 'x'-thousand tickets right away if we schedule this or that); and the MFYs already do that and we're not the MFYs and that thing you're asking about is associated with the MFYs. It's often seemed to me that the Ws simply didn't care much about the Mets prior to when they owned them and specifically before they owned them completely. Looking back, in other words, would remind them of an era which they weren't a part of; or of a stadium that they hated; or of a co/majority-owner who they'd rather forget. The result was that putting as much ground between that era and "theirs" became a priority. aka: Jerry Grote? ... who's he?

Mushnick in the NY Post today mentions both WABC and WOR as being under consideration while calling ESPN's affiliate a longshot on account of the many conflicts that would exist (they do MLB national radiocasts, plus NFL, NBA, and probably college everything).