Frayed Knot

Redding - 1.6 Parnell - 0.7 Rodriguez - 1.0 Francoeur - 2.6 Murphy - 1.9 Pagan - 0.5 Sullivan - 1.2 Beltran - 0.4

Tigers get shut-out by Jake Peavy and the ChiSox while Twins beat Royals so it's down to 2 games. And the best part abut this race could be the schedule. Tigers have two series against Chicago (this one and the one to end the season) and the Twins have two at the same times against Kansas City. In between is a 4-game series against each other, in Detroit.

* WC leader Rockies get a walk-off win via a 9th inning Sac Fly from Yorvit Torrealba * Giants (with Lincecum going) get 2-hit by Zambrano and the Cubs and fall 5 games back in the chase * Braves keep pace by beating Nats (still 3.5 back) but he Marlins (heh, heh) fall back to 5 * All the division leaders lost so got no closer to clinching (not that any of them are still in doubt)

Friday, September 26 - Shibe Park: Mets 5 - Phillies 0 -- Jerry Koosman vs Woody Fryman After a champagne shower and a well-earned day off, Met get two runs in the 1st coupled with one in the 2nd and two more in the 5th, backed by yet another complete game 4-hit shutout. Rinse. Lather. Repeat. Koosman, this time, goes the distance as only one Philly batters even reaches 2nd base and the last 11 batters go down in a row. On the offensive side, Clendenon hits a 2R HR in the 1st (his 3rd in 2 games). Dyer�s leadoff double in the 2nd sets up an unearned run; and 5th inning singles by Otis & Pfeil knock in the final two. Post-clinch lineup: Gaspar - RF Heise - SS Jones - LF Clendenon - 1B Otis - CF Pfeil - 3B Dyer - C Weis - 2B For Bob Heise, who played pieces of both �67 & �68 for the Mets, this was his first start of the year (he had just one AB prior). He�d also start the next two but that was it for his NYM career as he was dealt in the off-season to SF for Ray Sadecki & Dave Marshall Game Time = 1:58 97 - 61; 1st Place; 7.0 Games Ahead -- Cubs ... ahh, who cares

When we got more runs than they got, is that what's called 'a lead'?

Have not heard of this guy before - but he gets the only NYM mention in BA's top 20 Appy Lg prospects list # 9 -- Cesar Puello, OF, Kingsport (Mets) B-T: R-R Ht.: 6-2 Wt.: 195 Age: 18 Signed: Dominican Republic '07 With the caveat that there are questions about his makeup, Puello's potential for five major league average tools affords him the benefit of the doubt for now. Signed by the Mets for $400,000 out of the Dominican Republic in 2007, he's a strong athlete with a solid 6-foot-2, 195-pound build and loose actions. He stole 15 bases in 20 attempts this season, and his plus speed rates as his best present tool. Puello starts with an unconventional stance�one manager likened it to him sitting in a chair�but he has a pure, righthanded line-drive stroke. The ball comes off his bat well, and he already has natural power to left field. As he learns to use the opposite field, he'll be more effective at the plate. An aggressive player by nature, Puello showed an undisciplined approach at the plate, and some league observers questioned his maturity. His mindset works well in right field, where Puello charges balls with abandon and likes to show off his plus arm. AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB CS AVG OBP SLG 196 37 58 10 0 5 23 10 51 15 5 .296 .373 .423

A bench (as planned) with Sheffield, Castro & Tatis on it contradicts the intentionally shunning power theory. Virtually no one gets power from their defensive replacement/5th OFer or backup middle infielders. The Reed - Pagan - Sullivan triumvirate were supposed to be competing with each other for one spot, not all the roster at the same time much less frequently in the starting lineup at the same time.

Tiggers win (almost blew a 3-run 9th inning lead) whilst Twinkies sit - so the lead is back to 3 full games. Detroit goes to Chitown for the weekend; Minny heads to KC The Red Sox (5.5 back) could make things slightly interesting in the East but they'll need a sweep in the Bronx this weekend to do it. Lester vs Joba to start things off. Texas is further out of the WC (8) than they are out of the West (7). IOW, they're D-E-A-D

Colorado lost again to the Pads moving everyone in the WC chase a half-game closer ... except the Giants who were busy losing 3-2 to the sCrubs (Brian Wilson served up a 2R HR in the 9th). Dodgers also won 7-6, serving up the Nats' 100th loss (although they had to eke it out even after scoring their first four hitters of the game), to build their lead over the Rox to a near-impossible 6 full games WC: Braves -3.5 Marlins -4.0 Giants -4.0 and the Rox get StL this weekend (Cards magic # = 1) while Braves get Nats, Giants continue with Cubs, Marlins get ... Mets!!

They perform well in everything except the Billy Beane numbers --- homers and walks, and so they don't score. They're below average in walks (497 vs a lg avg of 523) but absolute bottom of the NL barrel in power; a .122 Isolated Power in a league where average is .151 and no one else is even below .132. Basically that means that, although their BA may be high, they have the smallest pct of their hits going for extra-bases as compared to every other team ... and it's not even close.

Twins & Tiggers both win to keep that race at Detroit +2.5 Nathan saved the game last night as he has 6 of Minny's last 7 wins. But, man, are they going to regret that game on Sept 2nd where he came in with a 2-run lead against the ChiSox and, after getting the first two outs, gave up back-to-back HRs to tie the game, and then back-to-back walks before getting pulled. Those inherited runners both scored and the Twins lost a crusher which you knew right then was one they were going to look back on if they ultimately fall short this year.

Philly (and Lidge) blew another lead last night, this time to the chasing Marlins. Fish were down 6-3, but got a 7th inning run off starter Hamel, one run in the 8th off Madson, and gave a one-run lead to Lidge in the 9th who promptly went: 2B - Line-out - K - BB - RBI-1B, RBI-1B Not that it'll matter much to the NL East race - Phils still have a 6.5 game lead - but the WC still has a chance to get interesting: - Rockies lost to SD last night after almost blowing a big lead the night before - meanwhile, the Giants won, the Braves won, and the Marlins won - Braves & Giants are 4.0 games out, the Marlins 4.5

Dessens - 1.0 Parnell - 0.7 Feliciano - 0.2 Pagan - 1.2 Castillo - 0.6 Beltran - 0.8 Francoeur - 1.0

Wednesday, September 24 - Shea Stadium: Mets 6 - Cardinals 0 -- Gary Gentry vs Steve Carlton Clinching Day at Shea!! ... and, unlike some future clinching chances which took several chances and involved great drama, there was absolutely no suspense here at all. Facing a future HoF pitcher for the second consecutive night, the Mets start off the first inning: Harrelson - single Agee - walk Jones - K Clendenon - 3R HR Swoboda - walk Charles - 2R HR and that was it for Carlton. In the 5th, Clendenon�s 2nd HR of the game in the 5th closed out the scoring. Gentry took that lead and merely tossed a 4-hit (all singles), 2 walk, complete game shutout. Two of those singles came leading off the 9th (Brock & Davalillo) but he then struck-out Vada Pinson and got Joe Torre to ground into a 6-4-3 DP and the celebration was on. Game Time = 2:02 95 - 61; 1st Place; 6.0 Games Ahead -- Cubs beat Expos 6-3 hours earlier in an afternoon game in Wrigley but all they could do at that point was sit and watch.

It's really tough to suck this bad without trying.

Leadoff hitter on ... we're doomed!!

2-for-17 w/RiSP ... and only one of those actually knocked in a run.

Just amazing! This time it's two on with no outs and it only takes Hudson two pitches to get out of it untouched.

I can't figure out whether we should have more runs at this point because of all the runners they've left on -- or fewer runs at this point because all we're doing is hitting dinky grounders that are either just sneaking through or being mis-played by the Bravos.

We finally get two of the core players in the lineup at the same time (Wright & Beltran) and neither one of them can hit right now. David is absolutely killing the lineup lately except for that one game in Philly

Figueroa - 4.0 Green - 0.3 Feliciano - 0.3 Castillo - 1.4 Schneider - 1.0

Tuesday, September 23 - Shea Stadium: Mets 3 - Cardinals 2 -- Jim McAndrew vs Bob Gibson Bud Harrelson�s one-out single in the 11th inning off starter Bob Gibson pushes across Swobooda with the winning run. The reigning CY Young pitcher looked to give the Cards an edge over the Mets 4th starter, but McAndrew went 7 allowing only 2 un-earned runs. The Mets struck first when Garrett�s 2-out single plated Harrelson in the 4th. Cards get their two in the 5th on 2-out singles by Brock & Flood, a Boswell error and a Torre single. Mets tie it in the 8th; Agee singles, Garrett bunts him over, Shamsky singles him in. McGraw takes over in the 8th after Hodges PHs for McAndrew. He gets out of trouble in both the 8th (Gibson lines out with the bases laoded) and the 10th (McCarver�s one-out double is stranded) and is still in in the 11th to get the win Game Time = 2:35 (yeah, that�s 11 innings) 95 - 61; 1st Place; 6.0 Games Ahead -- Cubs lose to Expos 7-3

I still want to find out how a liner to 1st moves a runner to 2nd.