Frayed Knot

The Ten-Game winning streak is over Sunday, September 14 - Forbes Field: Mets 3 - Pirates 5 -- Nolan Ryan vs Steve Blass - Pirates score three times off Ryan in the 4th - Mets come back with two in top 5 via RBIs on Agee�s single and Shamsky�s Sac Fly, and then one more in the 6th as Ryan�s single drives in Charles. - But the Pirates go ahead with two in the 7th on 2-out singles from Blass and Matty Alou and the Mets never answer. Game Time = 2:11 88 - 58; 1st Place; 3.5 Games Ahead -- Cubs lose to St Louis 2-1 on a 10th inning Lou Brock HR with starters Bob Gibson & Ken Holtzman still in at the end During this 13 games in 10 days stretch (11-2, starting with the 9/5 DH vs Philly) the Mets used a total of 9 different pitchers: Seaver started three times while Ryan, Cardwell, Koosman, Gentry & McAndrew got the nod twice each. Only two 'pure' relievers were used the entire time: McGraw getting the call three times, Taylor twice, while Ryan also relieved once. There'd be one more game (a Monday make-up in StL) before the next off-day but two from the same crew (Gentry & McGraw) would cover it - so that's the same 9 pitchers for 14 games over 11 days ... and this was during a stretch with 3 DHs, no off-days, and expanded rosters!

My final word on the whole Jeter/Gehrig deal: I just flashed back to '95 and the time when Ripken was closing in on Gehrig's streak record. At the time a concept started to spread among some MFY fans and a few others that Rip Jr. should "honor" Lou by getting right up to his mark (either one game short or tie it - the details varied) and then sit out. "It's the right thing to do" became the mantra as if breaking the record he set would somehow dishonor him. I wonder if Jeter should have "honored" him by ceasing to swing for hits ... or by retiring?

The Frenchman is a sucker for those high fastballs.

Gotta run for Schneids, no? oe: yes they are

Not to mention dicking ourselves.

Yeah, but I can't believe we're getting dicked by a 74 year old Pedro

I think this is the first day we've rested Francoeur. He missed a game or two, I think, when he injured his thumb but he's been an everyday guy virtually since the day he got to the big leagues.

I know the part about going to Malverne is true. Can't speak as to the SAT score.

For those of you who missed Gary reciting this very odd stat during the game; ... the Phils have now won 10 games against the Mets this year and had a different winning pitcher in each one of them. And in case you're wondering: Jack Trachner (his only win of the season) CH Park (one of two ex-Mets) Scott Eyre - one of his two Ws Rodrigo Lopez Jamie Moyer Joe Blanton JA Happ Pedro Martinez Cliff Lee and now Kyle Kendrick in what is his only win of the season I don't know if that's a "record" but I can't imagine there have been longer streaks. btw, the 6 NYM wins have been by Pelfrey x 3, 2 by Santana, plus Feliciano's win on Saturday

Castillo has been oddly racking up Ks towards the end of the season. April - 6 May - 7 June - 4 July - 4 August - 21 Sept - 9 to date

I was just about to say that with Thole, Castillo (PHing), and Reed due up if we're going to do this it's going to have to happen by stacking a bunch of singles. And as I say that Thole cracks one off the RF wall - although it winds up as a single anyway.

Exhibit #2 is NYDN's Bill Madden telling us how the Yanx are back on top after "rediscovering their formula". What horseshit! Madden has been killing the Yanx for years over not having a good enough feeder system to supply fresh blood and therefore being forced to rely on over-priced FAs while having their lunch handed to them by the smarter, system-oriented Red Sox. But now that the Sox are a million games out the Bronx boys are suddenly doing things the right way. After all, "The erosion of the Yankees' championship mantra could be explained by their big acquisitions since their World Series appearance in 2001: Jason Giambi, Alex Rodriguez, Randy Johnson, Carl Pavano, Jared Wright, Kevin Brown." So, Bill, just what is the difference between those big-money acquisitions and the current crew of Sabathia, Burnett, & Teixeira? ... aside from hindsight I mean. He tries to claim the change is that this winter Cashman got tried-and-true 'AL pitchers' (as was major failure Jeff Weaver who he conveniently left off his earlier list) but that's a little too easy. The real difference is that not only the after-the-fact evaluation that the new guys playing well (Sabathia, Teixeira & Swisher anyway, Burnett only sometimes) but, at the same time, the team is getting bounce-back years from virtually the entire lineup: Jeter, Posada, Matsui, Damon, Cano, Cabrera and, although maybe to a lesser extent, Pettitte. On the other hand, If the new guys were struggling (or injured) while all those 35+ holdovers (at SS, C, LF, DH, LHP & closer) were showing their age instead of inexplicably finding the fountain of youth there'd be no end to the potshots being taken at Cashman for not learning his lesson of 2001-08 about over-paying for outside talent while their drafting continues to flounder. Classic case of bending the conclusion to fit the circumstances.

Saturday, September 13 - Forbes Field: Mets 5 - Pirates 2 -- Tom Seaver vs Luke Walker Always nice to come off a double shut-out and THEN trot out Tom Seaver. Seaver actually had the gall to give up a 3rd inning run as the Mets were getting 2-hit thru the first 6. They tied it up in the 7th on a walk, single & groundout. In the Met half of the 8th they loaded the bases on three walks - the last of which was an intentional pass to Clendenon to get to Swoboda. Ron promptly smacked a Grand Slam. Seaver gave up two singles and a run in the bottom of the 8th - but struck out Jose Pagan with two on to end the inning. Also gave up a leadoff single in the 9th but got a GiDP and the threat was over. Game Time = 2:37 88 - 57; 1st Place; 3.5 Games Ahead -- Cubs lose to St Louis 7-4 btw, if it seems like Swoboda�s name is popping up a lot in these little game-synopses it�s because it is. For a guy who hit a very ordinary .232 during August and September of that year (right around his .235 BA for the season) he hit 6 of his 9 HRs down the stretch and had an absurd 30 of his 52 RBIs. Talk about making your hits count! Pirate starter Luke Walker played about a decade too early to have the nickname �Sky� hung around his neck.

Wright - 4.0 Beltran - 2.5 Tatis - 1.8 Green - 0.5 Rodriguez - 0.9 Feliciano - 0.3

Bart Hubbach - NY Post: In a season full of missteps by the Mets, arguably their biggest mistake will be staring them in the face tonight. Pedro Martinez, who wanted nothing more than to re-sign with the Mets, will instead take a 4-0 mark for the arch-rival Phillies into this evening's conculsion [sic] of a day-night doubleheader against his old team Spelling mistakes aside, I suppose it's possible that Hubbach was screaming for the Mets to re-sign Pedro this year ... but count me among the skeptical. I believe the meeting of pro-Pedro advocates is meeting this afternoon in a phone booth near Times Square so maybe someone's who's in that area today can swing by and if he's there you can let us know and I'll apologize. But absent a high-noon spotting (or a link to an early season column showing otherwise) this bit of second-guessing stands out even in a business where second-guessing is the norm.

A come from ahead win!!!

Seven or eight more and I'll feel safe

Oh good, it's the two-out baserunner brigade.

Nothing like 5 2-out runs to ruin a good start.

This is Castillo's 15th start at lead-off with his .400-ish OBA. Pagan has 60, Cora 23 It's amazing how stubborn managers are to move a guy off his "natural" position. (what is someone's "natural" position anyway? Is that the one they were in coming out of the womb?) Even though Jerry floated the idea of Castillo batting there pre-season, he still barely did so even after Reyes was lost for the year. On the other hand, [u:4gozidsg]Charlie[/u:4gozidsg] Manual hasn't moved Rollins and his year-long sub-.300 OBA out of there either, even with a likely replacement like Victorino in his stable.