Frayed Knot

Left calf cramp say the radio guys.

TheOldMole wrote: What happened to Nieae? Unclear - the radio broadcast might give you better info. It's a hot, humid night in DC, could be just cramps.

Zvon wrote: Did anyone see the homer in the Skank game where the ball rode along the top of the wall? I've seen balls bounce off the top of the wall and go out (or come back in) but never ever saw a ball bounce for about 20 feet on the very top of the wall as it deflected off a glove and fans and stuff. Pretty amazin'. I just liked the fact that the Yanx got burned by a 321 ft HR for a change. The one Adam Jones hit four batters later wasn't a cheapie though.

No problems, we've got a man there.

Murphy vs Washington this season: .383/.413/.567 -- and that was before tonight where he's tacked on a single, double, and was robbed of a double.

bmfc1 wrote: Nice tie-in JCL to this IGT as the Nationals play "Take On Me" after "Take Me Out To The Ballgame." They put the lyrics on the screen and when they get to: "I'll be gone/In a day or two", the volume is lowered and the crowd sings along. That (the 'Take On Me' thing) all started with Michael Morse using it as his walk-up music and then catching on with the stadium in general, IIRC. I remember thinking back when he was still with the Nats that you can't be a 6' 5" power hitter and use for your walk-up music a song most associated with women doing aerobics classes in multi-colored leg-warmers back in the mid/late '80s.

Matt Second Dekker

So Black, Lutz & Byrdak have been promoted - but Carson sent back down as the front office claims the Vegas bullpen is too thin right now.

HahnSolo wrote: Didn't it used to be part of the collective bargaining agreement that you couldn't play a day game following a night game in a different city? I think that's been trumped by the clause in the contract called 'The ESPN Exception'. Seeing as how the network knew this game was slated to run on ESPN2 (while the main station shows fast cars turning left) I suspect the reason they opted for this match-up is that they knew the ratings were going to be diminished anyway so why waste it on "good" teams. They can't have Yanx/BoSox every week so they'll grab these teams tonight so that next Sunday they can show ... Yanx vs BoSox!! I suspect Eric Young Jr. is on the marquee because he's the only NYM player in the line-up that the network has ever heard of.

I'm not about to start a telethon for these guys, but two games in 17 hours in two different cities isn't a piece of cake no matter how you slice it. - That it's an ESPN game just adds to things by making the starting time an hour later than usual and that it's likely to be a longer game. - The bus ride to the airport, police escort or not, is still likely the better part of an hour (on a good day) seeing as how Reagan Airport, because it's right up against the city, doesn't operate at that hour so it's the 30+ mile trek out to Dulles. The bigger problem is that it's just another example of the sport ceding control of its schedule to a TV network. That 2 or 3 games per year can be changed, generally weeks or months in advance, is a minor deal. But what this shows is that MLB doesn't have any veto power when circumstances like a day game in a different city on a holiday half a day later dictate that this is a stupid idea. It also illustrates how ESPN used up too many games from their "name" teams early in the year and therefore had limited options over which games they could bump.

The O's managed to toss up that 7-spot in the 7th inning in spite of Buck Showalter IMO - bunting Manny Machado with 2-on and none out right in the middle of that rally!! Manny popped out the bunt right in front of Adam Jones hitting the 2nd 3R HR of the inning. At the time, the only out the Yanx had in that inning was on account of the bunt, and that wasn't even the first questionable bunt by the O's in this series. There was one the other day that bugged me too although I forget the exact circumstances. Showalter reminds me of Scoscia in that they're both obviously good managers who command of ton of respect but both drive me nuts with their in-game strategies at times. If, by some odd set of circumstances, either one were to wind up in Queens in the near future I think their small ball ways would have some here campaigning for Terry to come back.

MFS62 wrote: This might not have been mentioned (or noticed) before, But even if it has, it is worth repeating. The MFYs end their season with a three game series against the HOUSTON FUCKING ASTROS! Not just the Astros, but three each against White Sox, Giants, Blue Jays, and Astros. That's 12 of their final 26 games against last place dwellers.

That's a lot of potential pop Pitt has added in the last few days. Morneau showed up mid-game last night but didn't play and wasn't needed as they stomped the Cards again to take over sole possession at the top. btw, Byrd is 5 for 16 w/3 XBHs since the deal, Buck is 3 for 3 Byrd is wearing #2 which looks a bit odd on a bulky guy like him Dodgers, who finished August 23-6, added Michael Young from Phils for a minor league arm

Certainly helps them out that: - Tampa has lost six of their last seven and was 11-15 in August - Cleveland has dropped five straight while going 12-16 in August - Baltimore has dropped four of five to end August at 12-14 An illustration of how it's going for them happened Thursday afternoon when, within about two minutes of each other, Oakland lost on a 2-out/9th inning 3R HR (Torii Hunter/Detroit) while Tampa's potential 2-out/9-inning 3R HR was caught about 2-feet short of the wall vs Anaheim. Yanx have already passed both Cleveland and Baltimore and now sit just 3.5 & 5.0 behind Tampa & Oakland having only to pass either team ... and they STILL have a negative RS/RA ratio through all this. Then there's that upcoming schedule of theirs mentioned earlier.

Nats have a bunch of soft hits and some hard outs tonight - so I guess it all evens out.

Bad News: Opposing pitcher broke up the no-hitter Good News: The opposing starter didn't last long enough in the game to get an AB

G-Fafif wrote: Span 8 Zimmerman 5 Harper 7 Werth 9 Desmond 6 LaRoche 3 Ramos 2 Lombardozzi 4 Haren 1 Must be nice to be able to run the same starting eight out there almost every night. - Only Lombardozzi in for Rendon is a deviation from their usual set-up - Only Rendon in for Espinosa is a change from how they drew it up last winter. - Only Harper and his approx month-long knee problem plus Ramos being in and out during various spans have missed any appreciable time the whole season. And yet, somehow through all of that, the Mets have outscored the Nats by four runs this year in one fewer game.

The problem with Dykstra at this point is that Terry is having enough trouble getting ABs for Duda & Satin, especially while they're trying to see as much Ike as possible over the next month. Wright's return? coupled with Flores trials at 2B (with Murphy to 1st on occasion?) makes things even more crowded. On the pitching front however, between the absence of Hefner & Harvey, Torres moving into the rotation, who knows about Dice-K, and the impending shut-down of Wheeler, they will find use for any and all pitchers they bring up. It would be nice if another catcher is found and I assume we'll see Tejada. Other than that I'm not sure how many position players we'll see.

Saturday NY Times Crossword 11 DOWN - 5 Letters Clue = Orange and blue wearer, for short Answer = NYMET

Gee - 4.1 Rice - 0.4 Hawkins - 0.8 Davis - 2.1 Murphy - 2.1 d'Arnaud - 0.5

Torres - 2.2 Young - 2.4 Murphy - 2.4 Duda - 0.6 Recker - 1.2 Brown - 1.2

RealityChuck wrote: OTOH, pitching is different; you were expected to pace yourself as a pitcher and not throw every pitch as hard as you could. Now, you have to hit 90 on every fastball. and get a wicked break on every curve. That increases the strain. That's a big factor which usually goes unmentioned much of the time this topic is brought up. One of the things those pitchers didn't have to contend with was today's 6' 2"/215 lb middle infielders who can take a pitcher out of the park the other way. This isn't to say that yesterday's 5' 10"/170 guys could have been just anyone off the street, but they were often the size of the average guy off the street and the worst they could do to you most of the time was poke a single through a hole. I've heard Seaver himself talk about picking out the batters he could "rest" on while saving his best stuff for the two or three really dangerous hitters in the lineup. Today's pitcher doesn't have that advantage (or at least not as big a one) as very few lineups today are carrying hitters whose only job is to bunt, hit behind the runner, and play defense.

* Pirates roll over Shelby Miller and the Cards for their 78th win of the season. That city is due for a mini-celebration after 3 more wins. In the meantime, it's a dead heat atop the Central * Yanx/Os was a quick pitchers duel for the first few innings, then the game reverted to form meaning each team scored in every half-inning for a while and the Orioles lost in a game that took over 3 hours. Yanx now half a game behind Balt, have essentially caught Cleveland (they'll lose as soon as it stops raining in Detroit) and are guaranteed to gain a full game tonight on the Rays/As loser out on the west coast. I'm not liking this trend.

Found myself on the edge of the seat sweating out and wanting this win than any other recent game. For a while I thought that Lombardozzi HR was going to be the death rattle. A series sweep this weekend would essentially kill the Nats post-season hopes and I'll take Wheeler/Niese over Haren/Ohlendorf. And we got a break on that 3rd strike. 1st one was borderline, 3rd one was out beyond that.

Four full innings in under an hour ... what a concept!! In the Matsuzaka game the other day, where were they an hour in - top of the 2nd maybe?