Frayed Knot

Parnell owes Tejada a month's worth of dinners for that one. Nice turn by Murph too.

Good thing we double-switched when Rauch was brought in so he could just be pulled after one batter and 7 pitches. And has Parnell retired anyone during the month of September?

One of the many things I despise about the DH is its use as a semi-DL for aging players with minor injuries. Well, tonight Jeter is the DH to rest his injured ankle, and Eduardo Nunez just gakked a routine grounder to give the Rays a big insurance run. We'll never know whether Jeter would be playing SS were it not for the DH, or if he would have made the play that Nunez did not, but with the decision to 'sit' him at DH Girardi got to watch Nunez's buffoonery with Jeter just watching, and you can be sure that every Yankee fan knows Jeets makes that play. When Nunez came up swinging the bat last year some of the MFY mouthpieces were naming him the 'heir apparent' for Jeter at SS - but he's a truly atrocious fielder and spent most of this year in the minors on account of it even with ARod on the shelf for a lengthy run in mid-year while the Yanx traded for Jayson Nix instead. But once they brought him up with the September call-ups he's been getting time in the field semi-regularly because Girardi feels the need to rest the "veterans" down the stretch even when they're not nursing an injury. As a result, Jeter, ARod or Cano have served as the DH in each of their last 13 games. Do that often enough, and it's not a question of IF you're going to get burned by it but when. I just consider it icing on the cake that it happened tonight during the 9th inning of a close and important game.

Benjamin Grimm wrote: Has Chuck Taylor ever appeared on a Topps baseball card wearing a cap that's not made of paint? More importantly, has Check Taylor ever appeared on a Topps baseball card wearing Chuck Taylor's? Probably not. CF Carlos Gomez - .249/.296/.452/.748, 16 HR, 47 RBI, 32 SB Remember Carlos? He�s never been known for his bat, but rather his speed. However, his 16 home runs this season are as many as he had in 2009-2011 combined. Still doesn't walk, and therefore makes a lot of outs, but has turned into an overall better player than I thought he'd be.

Fman99 wrote: The WBC can die in a fire, were it personified or objectified properly for that to occur. So I should put you down as 'Undecided' on this topic then?

Among the players on the roster for the German team trying to qualify for the WBC: Toby Gardenhire Born in 1982 in Manhasset L.I. Spent six years in the Minnesota minor league system Qualification: Father born in West Germany

Niese continuing the past week's tradition of putting lead-off runners on in every inning. Not totally his fault though. A couple of bloops plus a Tejada error have caused much of the trouble but two GiDPs have bailed him out.

Fman99 wrote: Just tuned in and I missed a week's worth of runs. What the hell. You not only missed a hitter with a RiSP, but also an out that knocked in a run, and a HR with a real live runner on base. You could have watched all week and not seen any of those prior to tonight.

Swan Swan H wrote: Hell, if nobody started an IGT I may as well snag one when they already have a lead. 2-0 Metsies on a walk to Murphy and doubles by Wright and Duda around an RBI tapper by Ike. You're like a middle reliever trying to vulture a win.

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: It's far from perfect wrt scheduling, player participation, etc., and I knida wish it weren't under MLB's direction, but all that said I think it's important for the longterm global health of the game. And it does beat spring training. This is where I'm at too. It's not perfect and will never be perfect (not even sure what perfect could be) but the suggestions to "fix" it that have it being played in November, or in mid-winter, or whenever, are going to have just as many drawbacks as holding it in March. I also think that the comments from those (like say Keith) who seem almost violently against it are hyper-boling and hyper-ventilating at the same time. Even the teams who stay in it the longest are playing, what?, like six to eight games max, and are doing so during a time in which they'd be playing games anyway - even if somewhat more relaxed ones. So while announcer Keith is, I'm sure, fondly remembering his days of ST as a relaxed time filled with half-days of work followed by beach or golf and wouldn't want to give that up, I've a feeling that if player Keith were given the option to participate and, let's not let this fact slide, get extra paid for it, he wouldn't be so quick to trash the concept.

Soxx suxx, what can ya do? They were lucky enough to get the first game win via the walk-off. Taking two of three was probably too much to ask although they did hang close in all of them. Doesn't help when Pedroia, one of their few real players they have left up there, has to leave in the middle of game 2 because his wife is popping out a kid. When are these players going to learn that they have to abstain from sex in the off-season?!? It's not like I was watching the entire game(s) so maybe there's a logical explanation, but how does Joe Madden [u:2eppi0u5]Twice[/u:2eppi0u5] wind up losing his DH and needs to have his pitcher batting in the middle of a pennant race - especially during September expanded roster games? And it's not like I'm watching every Rays game so that's just twice that I happened to see in the last week. It happened in yesterday's game and I saw one last week where the same thing occurred. For all I know there may have been others. Rays in the Bronx this weekend. Price v Sabathia tonight. Ivan Nova returns tomorrow. Pettitte expected to return on Tuesday. Final game of ChiSox - Tigers got rained out last night. They'll make it up on Monday but lose the scheduled Verlander-v-Sale match-up. Both teams now get a break between now and Monday as the Sox go to Minnesota and the Tigers to Cleveland. Oakland finally lost a road game after 12 straight as tried for a 4-game sweep of Anaheim. Texas lost too so that race tightens up a bit. Oakland now hosts Baltimore for the weekend (cross-country flight following a 14-inning game for the O's) Anaheim is in KC, Texas hosts Seattle.

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr wrote: With that sense of humor on him, it's got to be a nonstop, breezy, carnival ride being married to this guy. I suspect MF was voted least likely to be able to make fun of himself in HS. The stupid thing is, one quick self-effacing line and this story is essentially over before it starts but he can't do that. He'd much rather deny the undeniable and pretend the whole thing never happened. Plus, as I mentioned in the other thread where this was discussed, his first reaction upon snapping out of it seems to be to get on the intercom and blame the behind the glass guys for allowing it to happen. Couldn't be his fault. It's like when callers start out by asking Mike not to cut them off too quickly and he hides behind the defense that he never cuts folks off because Mad Dog worked the controls when they were together or the producers take care of it during his solo gigs. Except that story quickly fell apart once the YES simulcasts started because they clearly showed Francesa making the hand-gesture each time as a signal for the guy to be cut-off. So I guess technically he's right, HE never presses the 'drop' button that ends caller's points in mid-sentence so he sticks with the story that it's not him. Now, at least parts of the national sports media have picked up on the sleeping story and are making jokes about it.

The late night development from last night was that Oakland took its third straight from Anaheim (game 4 is this afternoon) and now have a full two-game lead on the theoretical loser of the Yanqui/Orioles log jam and are five games ahead of current WC #2 Tampa. Hell, they're closer to winning their division right now (3 games in back of Texas) than they are to missing the playoffs entirely.

Ceetar wrote: No, that's not the sub-title of the TV movie bio-pic: The Dan Uggla Story Instead, researchers have found that the errors-charged total in ML baseball since 1876 is approaching 500,000 and should indeed reach that round-number milestone sometime this weekend - even as the trackers themselves admit that the actual number is almost certainly inaccurate due to incomplete early records. So while this doesn't have the same cache that the millionth run scored had when the MLB poobahs made a whole promotion out of that once they realized they were closing in on the mark a few decades ago, this mark will still get "assigned" to some unlucky player who'll be the victim of both bad hands and bad timing at some point over the next few days. With the September call-ups in dugouts, there are currently over 800 choices to choose from. Bet on it being Dan Uggla. I'm betting on it being Derek Jeter. What, you think his sprained ankle last night was coincidental? He knew the mark was approaching and no way was he going to let it stain his record. Pretty good fake limp if you ask me. Either that or Giradi can just opt to "rest" Jeter and his ankle via the DH role [crossout]until the danger passes[/crossout] I mean until it's fully healed.

No, that's not the sub-title of the TV movie bio-pic: The Dan Uggla Story Instead, researchers have found that the errors-charged total in ML baseball since 1876 is approaching 500,000 and should indeed reach that round-number milestone sometime this weekend - even as the trackers themselves admit that the actual number is almost certainly inaccurate due to incomplete early records. So while this doesn't have the same cache that the millionth run scored had when the MLB poobahs made a whole promotion out of that once they realized they were closing in on the mark a few decades ago, this mark will still get "assigned" to some unlucky player who'll be the victim of both bad hands and bad timing at some point over the next few days. With the September call-ups in dugouts, there are currently over 800 choices to choose from. Bet on it being Dan Uggla.

It's one thing to go on a nice run towards the end of the season. It's another thing to go on a nice run towards the end of the season [u:5ym3966r]AND[/u:5ym3966r] to get across-the-board help on an almost nightly basis. Wednesday Results: Phils win -- 15-5 over their last 20 games Braves lose -- (10-10) Cards lose -- (8-12) Dodgers lose -- (7-13) Pirates lose -- (5-15) Another Quintuple Happiness day for Philly phans! And of course the Phils only have to catch three of those four teams to snag a WC spot. The funny thing would be to have them do just that - and then get passed themselves by the Brewers who also won last night and have also won 15 of their last 20 games and are tied with the Phils WC Race Atlanta StL -5.5 games ------------ Dodgers - 1 back of StL, 6.5 back of Braves Pirates - 3.5 & 8.0 back Phils & Brewers - 4.5 & 9.0 back D'Backs - 5.5 & 10.0

This snapshot of the last 6 games probably provides as good an example as we need of our suckiness: 6 games w/9 runs scored in total 44 hits plus 17 walks -- a not very robust .220 BA and .280-ish OBA but not uniquely horrid for a small sample size and not something that should be 1.5 runs/game horrid What kills things (Part 1) is that 36 of those hits were singles with 3 doubles & 3 HRs thrown in What kills things (Part 2), as anyone who watched even a little could figure out, it was the (lack of) timing of those hits - They were 5-for 43 (.116) with RiSP - As bad as that was, only three of those five RiSP hits managed to knock in a run - No hit scored more than one run as all 3 HRs were solos and 3 other hits (1 single, 2 doubles) knocked in a single run each - The other 38 hits came either with bases-empty or with a man on 1st only

Is there some way to let him know that maybe getting one of these hit to coincide when there are runners on base every once in a while would be OK too?

Great play by the 20 y/o !! I don't even know who to root for in this series. Tampa winning tonight could tighten it all up and they have the Yanx next.

All five Yanx runs tonight via HRs I wonder how many of their fans are going to complain after the game about their one-dimensional offense?

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: Bullshit call goes MFY way. I wonder if Texiera will ask about Alfonzo Marquez' plans for later. Think Ross was mad enough? I first saw the ump's dark hair and, matched with the bad call, assumed it was Angel Hernandez. oe: and now Bobby gets tossed too.

5-3 Yanx in the 8th in Fenway -- but Jeter out of the game after hitting into a GiDP and then limping awkwardly past 1st with a bad ankle / foot / leg??

I've run out of words to describe how pathetic this team is.

And is there ANYONE who didn't see that one coming?

It was a one-handed swing and the ball stayed up long enough for any one of the three OFers to catch it ... and without needing a glove. So if that's what we're hanging our hats on here then we're in worse trouble than I thought.