Frayed Knot

This half-inning may not end for a while.

What's that now, 7 lead-off runners on in 9 innings? on edit: "only" five

bmfc1 wrote: Crap. It must be nice to send up a power hitter as a pinch hitter. I'm wondering what it's like to have one in the starting lineup.

So let me get this straight; your last name is Moore and you name your kid Tyler?!?! So how often did he get called 'Mary' in his time?

RA leads off next inning. He's got to put up a zero here then tell Terry that there's no way he's not finishing this game.

Ha, Zimm and those yips. I remember discussing this last time we played them. He's totally changed his motion to where he seems only able to throw well when he's on the move. Kind of like Robert Redford as 'Sundance': "Can I move now? I shoot much better when I move."

Credit to the idiots in the stands not acting like idiots on Muffy's double. 90+% of the time someone touches that and Ruben has to stay at 3rd.

Put this another way: - Suppose the Phils go 16-5 In order to snag the final WC slot the remaining contenders [u:16llzaps]would have to finish no better than[/u:16llzaps]: StL -- 10-11 LAD -- 11-10 Pitt -- 13-9 and everyone else from Milwaukee (tied with Philly) on down would have to not out-pace the Phils Not easy, not likely. Also not umpossible.

Dickey settled down since the 1st. Unfortunately for him, 1-0 is an insurmountable lead. On the other hand, Zimmermannnn is up to 83 pitches thru 4 innings. On the other other hand, we can't hit their bullpen either.

bmfc1 wrote: All those bunting drills that Shorty had them do in Spring Training worked out well, eh? What are you talking about? Those bunts were our hardest hit balls of the week!

Zvon wrote: Nats score first. Wasn't watching and I'm not surprised it involved that Harper kid. Werth's single and Zimmerman's Sac Fly were well hit. Harper's double in bettween was not.

Swan Swan H wrote: Since 2007 the Phillies have won 102, 97, 93, 92 and 89 games. To get to 89 wins, which is probably what they need to get in, they would have to win 52 of 78, exactly .667, or a 108 win pace. That's not a hot streak, but half a season at the same pace as the 1986 Mets. They need to be better than they have been in the past five years - way better, with one exception - over three full months to reach the probable lowest number of wins to get into the playoffs. They're dead. The Phils went just 9-10 during the rest of July after this post. But then, despite trading away Victorino & Pence prior to the deadline, turned in a 24-14 mark since August 1st including a 7-2 September In all that's 33-24 meaning they'll need to close with a 19-2 record to reach Swan's 89 win threshold. However, they have climbed to within one game of .500 and currently sit just 5 games out of the 2nd WC slot - behind both the Dodgers (4 games) and Pirates (2.5) in line. It could be that it will take less than 89 wins to get in in the NL this year So while it'll still take a real hot streak and some help for them to pull it off ... they're not dead yet.

Doesn't all the rain and fog block out the Seattle skyline like 342 days per year anyway?

Tigers delayed their surge for at least one more night by getting stomped 6-1 by the ChiSox - now are 3 full games back. Rick Procello of Detroit seemed to be cruising along with a 1-0 lead until a 6th inning error set up back-to-back HRs by Rios (3R) and Pierzynski (Solo) I neglected to note yesterday that the A's & Angels started their 2nd head-to-head September series last night. Angels swept last week in Oakland handing the A's (43-18 since July 1) their only 3 losses in the last 16 games In Anaheim this time, Oakland draws first blood by beating Dan Haren 3-1

Not that winning the Central is even in the cards for them anymore, but the Pirates started a series in Cincinnati last night. Tied in the 14th, the Pirates loaded the bases with no one out ... and failed to score (FO, GO, GO) And you can probably guess the rest -- Cincy wins it in the bottom half on a wild pitch followed by an infield single with two outs. That's now 4 straight losses; 9-21 since Aug 9th; 2-7 in September; 2.5 games out of the 2nd WC slot ... and [u:1uhby9um]only 4 games over .500[/u:1uhby9um]

Young - 2.5 Edgin - 0.5 Rauch - 0.3 Francisco - 0.4 Murphy - 2.1 Wright - 1.0 Davis - 1.2

RRamirez - 0.4 Cedeno - 1.4 Duda - 2.0 Wright - 1.2

Over the last (not quite) four full games and 36 innings (9 + 9 + 10 + 8) the Mets have 26 hits + 14 walks, but just 6 total runs A large part of the problem is lack of power -- 21 of those hits are singles, with 4 2Bs plus Hairston's HR tonight But then a huge chunk of it is just some real lame RiSP hitting. Two or three will-timed [u:1woejtxc]singles[/u:1woejtxc] and they could be 2-2 over these four games.

Well considering that the game, just like the season, not only seems like a lost cause but is dragging along time-wise as well, I can't say as how I blame them.

themetfairy wrote: I think we can call it a day on the Kelly Shoppach experiment. What, for one dropped pop-up? He's a helluva lot better than whatever else we've got there now.

By this point the remaining goal for this game is to avoid being no-hit. I give it them a 60/40 shot at it.

Mick-Q hasn't looked long for this game since the very beginning. Yeah, the Shoppach drop was a killer, but he's nibbling around most hitters and, as a result, has thrown a bunch of pitches. He's totally pitched around Harper twice and has had several loud outs in addition to the two bombs.

A nice hitting night tonight would help to fuck up Gio Gonzalez's CY chances. I'd be in favor of that. RA I suspect would be too.

There also seems to be some truth to the concept of different parts of the game taking turns at sucking and therefore sinking the team in different spots. And, yeah, while you can claim some version of this with just about any team, this NYM season seemed particularly vulnerable to each aspect of the team killing their chances at various times. - Early on it was the bullpen. Not just bad but almost unbelievably bad to the point where not only were leads blown but potential catch-up games were lost as 1 and 2 run deficits turned into insurmountable 5 and 6 run gaps. It both killed what was, at that time, a pretty good starting staff (minus Pelfrey) but also the offense which was near the top in OBA pile. - Post ASG it became the starters. Gee was lost for the season; Santana, even before he was officially lost, was essentially lost; and even Dickey became just merely good for a stretch and not the near automatic win he was both before and since. - And starting around August 1st it became the offense. Wright went from MVP co-fave to ordinary; Duda & Nieuwy stopped slugging and then stopped playing; Murph went into long funks; Tejada slid back a bit; Thole went from meh to to 'I wish I could hit like Ordonez'; and Torres, leaned on even more with the subtraction of Duda-huis, saw his minimal contributions sink even lower. Meanwhile the starters have (mostly) bounced back and the pen has been -- dare I say it? -- Good!

[u:2a3294to]EAST[/u:2a3294to] So the big matchup of the weekend contained some exciting ball but, in the end, a 2-2 split and still a 1-game lead for the MFYs Tampa had the tougher task hosting Texas, but managed to take 2-of-3 with one extra-inning game going each way before a James Shields shut out and three BJ Upton HRs did in the Rangers on Sunday. Skanks now head to Boston for a three-gamer starting Tuesday. Teixeira not only ended the game the other night and got robbed doing it - but he re-injured his calf on that play and is likely out for the week, and maybe longer. Rays also get today off but then go to Baltimore and then to the Bronx for three games each - and will at least start the week with David Price questionable as to his next start [u:2a3294to]WEST[/u:2a3294to] The West got a bit more interesting this weekend as, while the Rangers were losing 2-of-3 in Tampa, both the A's & Angels got out their brooms. A's took care of Seattle including a Saturday thumping of King Felix. And the Angels took all three from Detroit including a Saturday thumping of Verlander. Oakland now just 3 games behind Texas; LAA 6.5 [u:2a3294to]CENTRAL[/u:2a3294to] And while Detroit was getting swept out west, the ChiSox took full advantage of that situation by ... losing 2 of 3 to Kansas City and only upping their lead from 1 game to 2 A four-game head-to-head starts in Detroit tonight and the loser of this division has lots of WC competition ahead of them. Adam Dunn 'day to day' with strained oblique (cue Keith rant about too much exercise) [u:2a3294to]WILD CARD[/u:2a3294to] #1 - A's #2 - Baltimore 1.5 games back ------------------------- Tampa & LAA both 1 game behind Baltimore Detroit 4.5 games back