Frayed Knot

First HR in Texas Ranger history after the second version of the Washington Senators moved to the D/FW area acc to the FOX folks.

Scherzer exits with an injury after just 3 innings. "Back tightness" ... may or may not be related to being hit by a come-backer in the 2nd.

Game Three tonight as the action shifts to Phoenix. Scherezer gets the call for the Rangers against some rookie Pfaadt guy for the DBacks.

Pham is phour phor phour tonight. But before we start crying ths blues too much, he was 3/29 prior to that.

btw, the Game One comeback by Texas brought the home/road record in this season's playoffs to 15 - 22 So, yeah, some of your teams will have to play a short series against an opponent you finished 15 games ahead of in the regular season .. but we're giving you the home field advantage!! Snakes up early again tonight (2-0) in a game that's moving much quicker so far as compared to the opener. Even with the added commercial time they've got four innings in the books in just under an hour.

Not a good night for ex-NYM relievers.

Real extra inning rules ... what a concept!!

Ex-factoring in the other direction: Paul Seawald, brought in to preserve a 2 run lead, starts the bottom of the 9th: BB, GO, HR ... and they're tied at 5

Anytime you make the kind of vet(s)-for-prospects deal at the deadline there's virtually no chance of "winning" the deal in the short term so that whole concept never really occurred to me as Texas, or Houston/Verlander, advanced in the playoffs. Once the Mets decided to reverse course and at least shore up the org from the bottom up, even if stopping short of doing a complete tear-down/rebuild, the focus isn't on those two anymore for me.

The bigger difference between Bellinger and Jason Bay is the difference between Bellinger and Bay as ball players. I have no idea why one is being compared to the other. Not even the Burnitz comp is this far off.

So we've got the fifth seed (though tied for third best AL record) Rangers vs the 84-win / sixth seeded Diamondbacks who finished the season with a negative run differential (first time since the '87 Twins) as contenders for the World Serious. Some in baseball think this kind of unexpected matchup combined with a three week long buildup leading up to it makes the WS more interesting. I disagree on both counts. I'd rather see a matchup of better teams with a smaller volume of games acting as a prelim. As far as Scherze goesr, I have neither real positive nor negative feelings toward him, and he's already got rings with several other franchises so I care even less if he gets another w/Texas. My feeling going in is that I'm kink of pulling for the Rangers to get their first but sometimes in these years where no obvious rooting interest is involved I'll find myself mid-series pulling for one side or another almost without realizing it at first. And with somewhere between four and seven baseball games left in the year I tend to root for a longest series possible so rooting interests sometimes fluctuates from game to game (in other words, rooting for the max but not necessarily for Max).

His OPS+ in 2020 was 112. Down from his monster/MVP season in 2019 but hardly dreadful plus small sample size/Covid season and all that. So it's two bad years, 2021-22, followed by a return to form this past year. 2021 was at least partly due to injury from the 2020 post-season. I have no idea why 2022 was so awful and it merits looking into. He's also 28 y/o -- Burnitz II was 33 (and was never the player Bellinger has already been) -- has been ROY, MVP, SS, and GG (which he's capable at winning at 1B or the OF). I understand the caution but not the hard 'No's

The Bakery Closes The judges also would have accepted: - Dust Bowl Era Ends in Texas - Dust in the Wind or - Johnnie B. Gone* *

Remember that it's only bad publicity if they spell your name wrong. I didn't hear what led up to this pronouncement (not a satellite radio subscriber and so haven't heard him in many years) but in this case I really didn't have to. Like many of his brethren in the sports yapping world, and even more so than most of them, Russo puts far too much emphasis on home field/court/ice advantage. So while he probably believed that Philly had an edge because they were the better team, he's also starting from the POV that any team losing a Game 7 on their home turf is a rarity. He's wrong of course, particularly so in baseball. But, like I said, he's part of the time-honored position in his profession of citing home field as the reason when the home folks win while ignoring it and placing the blame elsewhere if and when they lose.

Wow!

And we're about to find out about Seawald.

This Ginkel dude is nasty!

Not only a Yuge out there (Duh!) but if the Snakes play their cards right they don't have to face Harper again. With six outs to go not even Schwarber or Turner are guaranteed an AB

More nervous that ARZ is relying on a lot of relievers with thin resumes. Saalfrank is Exhibit A

Second game in a row where Alvarado has gotten dinged around (Good!). Philly now going to Wheeler but, down two in the 7th, is it too late?

Melvin follows the Bochy path in the SD to SF trek.

I don't have that kind of patience. Today i looked at the teams involved and knew i was in trouble. So i plugged in the right hand column, got Sammy Sosa in the center square (Paul Lynde wasn't available), then stared at the others for like ten minutes befor hitting the 'Give Up' button.

Lefty Specialist wrote: Not a huge fan of the Rangers, but F the Astros. I was definitely pulling for the Rangers over the 'stros. And besides, I get a kick out of this being the Rangers third trip to the WS in the last 14 years and the contrast with the Cowboys not even reaching an NFC Conference final in the last 28

Frayed Knot wrote: So no repeat in the AL Stay tuned for the status of the NL No repeat champ as well for the 23rd straight year! B-b-b-but I thought only a salary cap could bring about that sort of shared wealth.

So no repeat in the AL Stay tuned for the status of the NL