Frayed Knot

All other NL East games were daytime affairs today and so all are in the books more than three hours prior to our games even starting. Braves won (PIT), Nats won (ARZ), Marlins won (TBR), leaving the Phils as the only loser (CHW) Also today saw the Cubs, who lost to SFG 18-3 yesterday running their recent record to 4-15, notch a victory with a 3-2 10-inning win in which they never led until the walk-off single scored the ghost runner. They twice tied up the game, once on a PC-A HR in the 6th to tie things at 1-1 and then with a PC-A HR w/2 outs in the 9th to tie it at 2-2 Crow-Armstrong is a having a decent bounce-back season from the horrid final two months of 2025 which saw him finish with a sub-.200 BA / sub-500 OPS from August 1st on. And what a schizo team the Cubs have been this year. They've already had two 10-game winning streaks and one 10-game losing streak, which is tough to do in barely over 1/3 of a season.

Clearly a case of misplaced priorities. I watched the first five innings live then the final four this morning so it's always good to see that they didn't blow a 2-0 lead whilst I slumbered and my Saturday is off to a happy start. Probably going to shift the entirety of tonight's game to viewing with my Sunday morning omelet.

The earth needs to spin slightly more than 1/8 of its full rotation yet before everything is aligned for game time. And then tomorrow it will be an even longer wait.

That's Coors

Originally said to be a "bone bruise" this is being called a 'stress fracture' which sounds like it might not be as bad as the type you'd get running into a railing or something but, still, they're talking about 're-evaluating' in four to six weeks. Maybe the Yanx should give Judge some of whatever it is that Frankie Alvarez is taking to get back so quickly. Hopefully whatever it is is legal. Matchups of interest for the weekend: Braves host Pirates; Phils host ChiSox; Rays @ Marlins; Nats in Arizona; Yanx host Red Sox

Well that's quite obviously the one we just played at. So, on the one hand, we just saw it. On the other, we hadn't seen it for years prior to this week.

Yanx managed to avoid a sweep with a 2-1 win over Cleveland in a just completed game. Judge missed the entire series. Heard a stat yesterday about the Yanx & Judge and while I don't remember the exact totals the team is something like a cumulative 130 games over .500 in the last couple seasons with Judge in the lineup but below .500 when he's out. Yanx actually managed to gain ground on 1st place while losing two of three as Detroit chose a series in Tampa to awaken from their slumber. The Tigers had lost 21 of 25 coming into that series but swept the 1st place Rays three straight. Phils complete the sweep of the Pads with the cumulative score befitting two of ML's weakest offenses: 12 - 8 was the three game run total. The Phils, who were briefly behind the Mets, are now 4 games over .500 despite a negative 22 run differential.

Another SD twist is that they've just DFA'd Nick Castellanos one a day after he got a nice tribute upon his return to Philadelphia. Like much of the Padre hitters, Castellanos was hitting poorly: .191/.221/.339 // 560

SDP would have to eat so much money in a Tatis trade that it would make the Texas/ARod bill look tame in comparison. And if a cap and/or increased disincentives to spend do wind up being part of the next CBA then dealing him might become near impossible.

Oh that's Washington

61 hits this year for Junior, 52 are singles

HOU

Pads started the year 19-9 but are 13 -19 since including 1-8 over their last nine with an afternoon game in Philly starting in a few minutes. The only problem with that 1-8 stretch is that seven of those losses came vs NLE squads. First they got swept by the Phils in SD. They then flew east and lost 2 of 3 to the Nats followed by two straight in Philly. Both losses in the Vet [insert name] Bank Park were by 3-2 scores which kind of sums up the Padre offense: it's not good. Manny Machado is 'slashing' .172/.263/.344 // 607 and he's played every day so I'm going to assume he's not hurt. Tatis Jr (who I noted was playing 2B when I checked in last night) has ONE HR and an Isolated Slugging figure of .054 (lg avg is about triple that). CF Jackson Merrill currently sports a 604 OPS following seasons of 826 & 774 ... and the NOffense doesn't end there. Overall the Pads are in a virtual three way tie for last place in RS/G at 3.85 (SF & KC = 3.84) six slots and 0.2 RS/G behind the Mets. And when you're looking up at the 2026 Mets and find yourself saying, 'Damn, I wish we had their offensive prowess, you've pretty much hit rock bottom.

What made it look like a piano was those 'black keys' which are the open areas to the mini-ramps leading down to concessions/bathrooms. What always struck me odd about that chart was not lining up the Mezz & Upper decks with the Loge in the two corners making it look like each succeeding deck was increasingly smaller.

I missed noticing the mound path, but instead got it on the straightness of the CF wall and the bullpens, those black rectangles in the corner (more or less), and also the small black space where the pool is. I'll have to think about #3 and, besides, shouldn't hog three in a row anyway.

The symmetry and also the single deck OF seats were what drew me to Chavez Ravine (does that name change now? ... although, in looking it up, I see it wasn't named for recent subject of cancel culture activities labor activist Cesar but someone much earlier who originally owned the property, something which should have occurred to me earlier) For #2 I'm going with ARZ

So a decisive win each way with the Mariners winning the series by taking the Rock-Paper-Scissors tie-breaker. Losing two of three obviously isn't what you want but ultimately they faced a good team on the road and played them more or less evenly. So now, as Bill Belichick might put it, 'On to San Diego'

And J.P. Crawford is just ... say it with me folks ... a triple short of the cycle.

So is merely the act of asking for the timeout a violation or was 'Strike 3' caused by a delay in him getting back in the box following his request? While I was typing Gary also seems confused thy this. If simple asking is a violation w/penalty then I think that's a bad rule. If doing so made him late to get in the box then tough cookies, dude.

Some less than hard-earned runs by the Mets this afternoon: - throwing error - a (poorly executed by the defense) double steal - pinball double off 1st base All three coulda/shoulda have been inning-ending plays so that's a potential three runs that never existed

In my mind, the Mets are somewhere around a negative 186 on that type of 1st/3rd double steal trick. So this one makes it -185

LAD

Angels OF Jo Adell, he of the triple HR robbery night of a few weeks ago, opted to give one of those thefts back in last night's game. Embarrassing, but he's still at Plus-2 for the season.

It's just another sleepy, dusty, delta day.

It's a Dick Stuart inning!