Frayed Knot

Edgy MD wrote: Damn, it's rough right now to get some runners on with two out and see [CROSSOUT]Álvarez[/CROSSOUT] New York Mets coming up ... Fixed it for you

The A's have: - an infield single which set up a three-run inning (1st) - an infield error which was followed by a 3R HR (3rd) - an infield single which temporarily scored a runner from 2nd base (later overturned) (5th) - and an infield single which did score a runner from 2nd base and set-up another run (6th) So basically 8 of their 9 runs were linked to four separate batted balls in a six inning span that didn't leave, or shouldn't have left, the infield.

It was also a clean slide ten minutes ago. And even if there was a 5% chance of getting that flipped, is it a smart move? When the downside to not challenging is runner on 1st and two out and the downside to challenging is not having a challenge for the rest of the game, I'd argue it was borderline stupid. That it took so long to adjudicate is beyond borderline stupid.

And remember, all replay decisions will be made quickly.

Edgy MD wrote: Boyle chased!! He had reached his boyling point. So we finally got a couple runs, then have a couple runners on with three chances to get even closer ... and no one hits a fair ball for the rest of the inning.

Mets had a chance at a three run inning there ... but they don't do those.

Put another way: the Mets have scored two total runs in the last 29 innings and have given up at least three runs in a single inning six different times during that span.

Since the one good offensive outburst of the entire road tripe (the final game in Denver) the Mets have been out-scored 29-2

An RBI hit ... I had forgotten what those looked like.

Anyone catch the ML debut of William James 'Will' Wagner last night? The Toronto 2nd baseman went 3-for-4 with a double and RBI in the Jays 4-2 win in Anaheim. I assume papa Billy was there but I haven't heard for sure.

Well this is off to a good start.

A's are still 19 games under .500 but 20-13 in July/August. Much of that came at the expense of the Angels (8-1 during that span) but beating LAA is something the Mets couldn't figure out how to do.

The stands seem remarkably full for a team that's like 12 - 167

Yanx down 5 - 2 to the ChiSox, bottom 7th in the Windy City. I'd laugh at them but we have to play the Sox next week and I'm taking no chances that a mocking now won't come back to bite us later. oe: 6 - 2

So Michael Kay is going to be on the same station as the Mets. That's an interesting turn of fate. It means that Met games could very well be running promotions for his show and his show for them. And this time he won't be able to bitch to station mgmt over them cavorting with the enemy.

Repeat after me folks: You are allowed to start a new TWiB thread for a new week You are allowed to start a new TWIB thread for a new week Anyway, Seattle is betting on the smaller but more recent sample being more telling than the larger one leading up to it by giving a two year extension to the just recently picked up CF Victor Robles. In just shy of 2,000 PAs w/the Nationals Robles rung up a 667 OPS [81 OPS+]. Washington waited for 7+ seasons for his offense to even come close to matching his defense but finally gave up and simply released him on June 1st. Seattle picked him up only days later and have been rewarded with a GG-caliber CF hitting: .303/.372/.450 // 821 [140 OPS+] ever since even though that's in just 123 PA across two+ months. It seems like Robles has been around a while now but was only 20 when first promoted and so won't turn 28 until next May. Maybe that's an indication that the M's snagged him right as his prime and his promise are kicking in. Time will tell, but although the deal isn't official yet, they are apparently willing to bet a two year contract plus an 2027 option that they're right.

Frayed Knot wrote: Out-scored 22-1 in the series. But other than that it was pretty close. Everyone who saw that coming Friday morning report to Window E for your winnings. Remarkably still only 0.5 games out of the playoffs and only 0.5 games behind Los Bravos. So there's that. Getting skunked by one of the best pitching staffs in MLB would be a bit easier to swallow if we didn't simultaneously get skunked by one of the worst offensive squads in the game. Allowing 7.33 RS/G to a team averaging less than 4/per coming all season AND they were missing their two best hitters.

I have two memories of Mike Cubbage and neither has anything to do with him being on the field. 1) One set of grandparents retired to a big old farmhouse in central Virginia and that's where we'd go on family vacations every summer. We loved it, a week's worth of woods, streams, ponies, etc. But it was also very isolated which the grands loved to the point where they didn't even own a television. My one problem was that I was cut off from baseball and the Mets for the week which was akin to culture shock. The only connection was a lone newspaper, The Charlottesville Daily Progress, which at least had the standings and box scores listed -- although depending on where the game was being played not always with the previous night's games included often leaving me ignorant for two days at a time -- and, at best, a one or two sentence recap of each game. 'Reds held the Mets to four hits and knocked Seaver out in the 5th for a 5-1 win. It was their 5th straight victory'. With no ML city within 300 miles of there (Baltimore) that was about as much news as one could expect from the CDP. The only actual articles about baseball they seemed to run by the mid-70s were about the local boy made good, one Mike Cubbage of Lane HS in Charlottesville. 'Charlottesville's own Mike Cubbage went 1-for-4 with a double last night to bring his BA to .243' ... as if news about some part-time rookie infielder for Texas and later Minnesota did ME any good. 2) in the early years of free-agency the rules were that each team had to 'draft' which FAs they wanted to chance to negotiate with. The owners, wary of the new fangled concoction forced on them by a court ruling, wanted to limit as much free in free agency as they could and Marvin Miller, knowing that decreased supply led to increased prices, was only too happy to let them do it. But we all know that 1970's era NYM ownership wasn't going to play by these socialist rules and make insta-millionaires out of the hired help if they could help it. So one of the first toe-dips into drafting a FA was none other than 30 y/o Mike Cubbage and his 702 career OPS. He got 90 plate appearances for them and, despite a fine year at Tidewater in 1982, never played in the majors again. To this day wherever I hear the name Mike Cubbage my first thought is: Charlottesville.

Down 8-2, the Rox scored seven in the bottom of the 8th to top the Braves 9-8 ... so, y'know, there's that. ML teams down by 6 or more runs entering the 8th inning had lost the last 1,409 straight games.

Could ANY ending have been more appropriate than a called third strike? Well, except for a GiDP maybe. Out-scored 22-1 in the series. But other than that it was pretty close.

Every time they get multiple runners on base with less than two outs you just know they're going to find a way NOT to score. The only thing that changes is the specific details.

It took the third batter of the inning before they announced who the new pitcher for the Mets was.

Keep in mind that this team has out-scored only the White Sox and Marlins this year but are out-scoring us 15-1 thus far in this series. And it might be 25-1 before this inning is out.

Well we're going to lose this game by double digits ... but at least we avoided the triple shutout. That counts as progress these days.

=MFS62 post_id=166006 time=1723423342 user_id=60] And their definition of entertainment is much different than that of sports fans.