Frayed Knot

Question courtesy of Gary Thorne on the Orioles broadcast earlier tonight.

Swan Swan H wrote: And with that, Murph leads off with a double. Hey, it's not a single. And speaking of not a single, Homer Bailey heads to the 9th in Pittsburgh with a no-hitter.

G-Fafif wrote: 1971: Willie Mays & Chris Speier And my vision of keeping this one up all weekend waiting for the answer ends in about 10 minutes.

G-Fafif wrote: 1958: Hank Sauer & Orlando Cepeda Yes I would have been guessing Bogart & Bacall before I came up with that duo.

That was the only one I got too. They even did it back-to-back (and presumably belly to belly) on September 14th in Anaheim Senior would only hit one more HR in his career (the next season)

Funny how the hitting returns to normal (our version of normal) when facing major league pitchers instead of whatever the Marlins & Pirates were throwing out there.

Orioles Jim Thome & Manny Machado recently became just the 4th pair of [u:3tx3qwtm]teammates to HR in the same game[/u:3tx3qwtm] where one was [u:3tx3qwtm]age 20 or younger and the other was at least age 40[/u:3tx3qwtm] Name the other three pairs - I'll supply the years they happened just to make this slightly less impossible 1958 - 1971 - 1990 - and also add that the younger of the pair in one case is in the HoF as is the older one from a different pairing.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot that we need to know the Braves - as if we don't already know the Braves. We know that they've beaten us 10 out of 15 this year even though we started out 3-0 We know that they clinched a playoff spot about a week ago and the #1 WC slot to, at worst, host the WC game. But we also know that as long as they still have the possibility of winning the division (they sit 4 back with 6 to play) they�re going to play every game pedal to the metal. Friday [u:2jotcajs]7:35[/u:2jotcajs] -- Niese v Hudson We faced Hudson just once this season right after the ASB and got to him for 4 runs over 4 innings, but were already down 5-0 before we scored and the Mets wound up losing the game 7-5 Saturday 7:10 -- Young vs Minor We faced Minor once this year and kicked his ass (5 IP, 6 ER) but that was back in April when the Mets swept them and all of us said what a horrible team Atlanta was going to be this year. Sunday 1:35 -- Mejia vs Medlen Medlen we�ve seen six times this year, the first four as a reliever and then the last two as a starter ... and we basically haven�t hit him in any of them. In total: 4 ER in 20 IPs and much of that was prior to him magically turning into some kind of cyborg who never loses. And we know all about his streak where the Braves haven't lost a game in which he's started since like the Eisenhower administration or something. Be nice to be the ones to break up that run even if it is a bit of a weird record due to being spaced out both before and after his missed year to TJ surgery. The only real injury that matters right now is that Bourne hasn�t been playing the last few days (sore thumb) but could return at any time. Friday night is Chipper Jones night (note that the starting time is later than usual and the actual game could start even later than that) where the team and fans thank him for his career and give him gifts like a gift-wrapped Hooters waitress and the like. And now that RA's 20th and Wright's hit record are in the bag, clearly the last thing we have to look forward to this weekend is seeing if Josh Thole can get that all-important 22nd RBI in just over 300 ABs and stay ahead of Jason Bay's hot pace (20 RBI in 187 ABs). Hey, you take your milestones where you can find them.

Not to throw cold water on his accomplishment or anything, but I saw a sequence high-lights thing of all nine Ks and the reason many of them were looking as that article says is that a lot of the strike-threes were pretty borderline. Nothing outrageous on a Eric Gregg-ian scale or anything, but a bunch of Royals were muttering back over their shoulders as they left the plate.

Mets � Willets Point wrote: Is there still a theoretical chance that if say the Orioles, A's, and Angels win the rest of their games and the Yankees go 0-for-6 that the Yankees could be on the outs? I'm sure there are other permutations, I just like daydreaming about a new "Greatest Collapse Ever" that involves the Yankees. Yes, any or all of those teams (but not the Chi/Det Central loser) can catch or pass the Yanx - including both Tampa & Baltimore even though they finish against each other although at that point you start to get into pretty specific needed outcomes. Bottom line is that with 6 games left to play for each of the contenders: the Yanx have 90 wins so obviously that's your minimum benchmark if they lose out Baltimore right now sits at 89 wins Oakland = 88 Tampa = 86 LAA = 86 The odds of all that is of course pretty slim, although we just need two of them to happen or, failing that, either Balt or Tampa to catch them which would be enough to throw them into the dreaded play-in game and make them burn Sabathia just to move on, or burn him in a desperate last-ditch effort to win the division and have to play the play-in game with say Ivan Nova on the mound.

The thing about Fister in that game, above and beyond the strike-outs, is that he carried a one-hit shut-out thru 7 but then started the 8th: 2B RBI-2B GO RBI-GO 1B WP RBI-1B and couldn't finish the inning That the pen then gave up a game-tying HR to lead off the 9th meant he didn't even get the win when the Tigers won via the always-popular 'walk-off fielder's choice' in bottom 9

Yanx get shut-out in Toronto Baltimore gains a half-game by sitting out tonight and so are just 1 game out But Tampa beats the ChiSox on a 9th inning HR by Evan Longoria so they gain a full game in the East and pull to within 3 games of Baltimore and 4 in back of the Yanx, but just 2 games behind Oakland (who lost to Texas) for WC #2 And the ChiSox are now 2 full games in back of Detroit

In the TC bid yeah, but not so much in the CY bid. A one win gap (assuming it stays there) isn't so big particularly when that one win is 21-v-20. Me thinks the gap between 20 & 19 is much "larger" in the heads of some voters than is any other single one-game span so RA, in a sense, got closer today even though both pitchers notched a 'W' Both also had their ERAs rise today on account of 3 earned runs although Gio's was higher to start with and rose even more because he only went 6 innings vs RA's 7.2 Going to be an interesting vote as at least 5 starters (Gonzalez, Cueto, Dickey, Cain, Kershaw) have legit claims and all could get one or more 1st place votes, and then throw Kimbrel into the mix.

3 earned for Gio tonight in the very 1st inning in Philly. He actually retired the first two outs on just four pitches total but then lost his control and threw in a bases-clearing double (Darin Ruf) for good measure. He then tossed up a blank in the 2nd but his pitch count has got to be way up there already.

metirish wrote: My first 20 game Mets winner in my Met fandom.... You never forget your first time.

Fister?, I hardly even know her!

Even Darling admitted he was horrible in Washington. Apparently he was a last-minute pick-up for that broadcast team just as they were moving to DC and he came in totally cold and unprepared. I had heard those stories also and was pleasantly surprised when he started in NYC and seemed not at all like the rumors.

Did 'A Barlett Giamatti' ever use a different handle before/after or was it always just that one?

Tigers blow a 4-0 lead but then score in the bottom of the 9th with the help of [u:1wthh375]the 5th KC error[/u:1wthh375] of the day. First place alone for them for at least one more day. Oakland is in Texas and currently down 9-4 in the 4th

Ronnie was right, a summer of tanning out in Sag Harbor has left him with a white-ish upper lip that doesn't look all that different from the white-ish 'stache that was there previously.

seawolf17 wrote: I know I'm in the minority here, but I definitely, unquestionably find a trade for RA over the winter. There's nobody on this roster who has more value right now. Keith was making the case for that a few weeks ago. Not trying to say that it was a 'Had To' move, just one that was likely to fill the most holes elsewhere while not touching the good young players you'd want to keep (Niese, Harvey, etc.)

But the O's hit 7 HRs in a rout of Toronto as the Yanx & Baltimore continue to either both win or both lose on the same day for seemingly the 45th day in a row. Now, unfortunately, it becomes the Yanx turn to kick the shit out of the Blue Jays (4 game series) before they get ... Minnesota again!!! Detroit completed a sweep of KC while the ChiSox were losing to the Native Americans which puts the Tigers in 1st place alone for the first time since their late July sweep of Chicago (they quickly fell back) and prior to that it was May 1st. One could argue that this is the long anticipated surge that most expected at some point from Detroit except that even this 3-game streak makes them only 6-5 over their last 11. Their main weapon lately has been the White Sox losing 7 of 8 (to KC, LAA & Cleveland)

Or you can look at it that he's facing the pitcher least likely to cause damage were one to get away form him.

Yeah, he lost his swing three years ago and has been unable to get it back.

And now a minimum of three more seasons before someone else even cracks the top ten.