Frayed Knot

So today Mendoza can be blamed Both for leaving Peterson in too long and for pulling him too soon.

And just as I say that ...

At least, in contrast to many other Peterson games where once he started down a bad path he could never right the ship, here he a couple of very clean second and third innings. And now b-2-b HR days for Juan

A secondary issue with the Mets sucking so badly is that you not only lose interest/patience with them but with the sport of baseball in general. Who wants to see other players doing marvelous things on the diamond when your team does the nightly equivalent of screwing up a two car parade? And that's not even to mention that the clubs pacing their respective leagues so far are the Yanx and the Braves. So after a week off and a late start to this one, TWiB Notes is back to try and catch up with various goings-on elsewhere. - Yanx finally lost today in Texas in what were three low-scoring games [4-2; 3-2; 0-3] getting shutout today by Nathan Eovaldi + relief help. It's always fun when Eovaldi does well vs the Bombers as he was pretty miserable when he played there and they couldn't wait to get rid of him. Guess he wasn't a 'True Yanqui'. The Tuesday game featured deGrom getting out-dueled by Cam Schlittler who is off to a hot start and doesn't look to be slowing down: 7 starts; 4-1; 0.51 ERA; 0.74 WHIP; 6 BB/42 IP - the Braves, who are scoring the most runs in all MLB, host Detroit but tonight draw Tarek Skubal. The tribe counters with righty JR Ritchie (sounds like J.R. Richard's nephew or something) making his second ever ML start amid all the Atlanta pitching injuries.

And, yet, would that game make the 'Top Ten Most Miserable Losses of Late 2025' list. Probably, but there'd be some stiff competition. Upon further review: the way the Nats scored those early runs just might secure this game 'Top Five' most miserable status. Top 1st: Walk; K; WP; Bloop single (1st & 3rd), GO but couldn't turn DP. 1-0 Nats Top 2nd: IF Single; Single + E9 (Soto) runner scores from 1st/batter to 3rd; E-3 (Alonso) runner doesn't advance but now 1st & 3rd/still no outs; K; K; WP/run scores; GO So that's one BB, two wild pitches, two errors, two soft singles, and one DP not turned resulting in three runs in just the first two innings. On the offensive side the Mets out-hit the Nats 11 to 6 but left 11 on base (including two ABs w/bases loaded/tie game/bottom 9th), and were 3/16 w/RiSP

THIS is the line/stat (from the linked article) that really jumped out at me Which was then followed up with:

I doubt umps are going into a F.F. AB thinking that they can call several inches off the plate a strike because he's not going to do anything about it. Pitchers/catchers may try to (if they even heard/remember what he said) but he always has the option of a surprise challenge. I see his statement of not challenging as less of a vow and more of an attitude, and I think it's a good one to have.

In Cade Cavalli's lone career appearance vs the Mets he threw 5 shutout (5 hits) innings last September 20 in a game that was one of the daggers ultimately causing the end of that season to bleed out. The Nats led early getting three runs (1 earned) off McLean. Finally, with the Nats odds of winning at 95%, back to back 8th inning/two-out doubles by Marte and Vientos brought in two runs. When a Soto single w/one out in the 9th tied it the odds of a Mets win were now up to 83% as Marte & Nimmo were due up with one out and bases loaded ... they both K'd on four pitches. The Mets then did squat with two ghost runner innings and lost the game on Daylen Lile's 2R inside-the-park HR in top 11 (clip of it shown in last night's game)

The previous NYM challenge wasn't smart either but, yeah, the one by Vientos was really dumb, and selfish. Freddie Freeman said early on that he wasn't going to challenge anything all year, that he was going to leave all the challenges for his defense. Now there might be a particular situation here or there where it would be smart of him to break that pledge but overall he has the right attitude.

So the only NYM pitcher who can consistently get to the 5th inning and beyond is the career reliever.

Found 'im!

Already more runs in 4 innings than in the entire Colorado series. Viva Vivas!!!!!

We got our run early today. Then followed it up with three straight pop-outs.

A mini-KTE: Gary has talked several times recently about the Nats scoring the most in MLB but also giving up the most runs on the other side of the ball. That's not quite true anymore, but it's close: at 5.38 RS/G that puts them T-3 w/the Cubs and a ways behind the Braves (5.72) and Dodgers (5.66). On the pitching side the Nats are 2nd worst at 5.9 RA/G ahead of only Houston who is coughing 'em up an even 6.00 runs per. LF James Wood leads the NL in all three 'True Outcomes' of HRs, BBs, Ks, as well as GP & PA. He is currently sporting an OPS just under 1000 and, oh yeah, he won't turn 24 until the end of the season. Now they've also got some turkeys in their lineup including C Keibert Ruiz and his OPS+ of 59 (it's starting to look like he's not going to be what they hoped when he was considered the main cog from the Scherzer/Turner trade) and Luis Garcia Jr has rotten numbers (82 OPS+) even if he weren't a 1st baseman, so a smart pitcher can maybe pick his spots strategically. What our pitchers will do I have no idea. Also of the 15 position players they've used so far this season ALL are 28 or under, eight are 25 or under, and three are 23. That all adds up to being a perfect set-up for roller-coaster baseball on a nightly basis. They're also 3.5 games ahead of us in the standings.

They are, they're just on the run while at home.

Ummmmm, this game, and series, is at CitiField Tue - 7:10; Wed - 7:10, Thu- 1:10

They're even challenging stupid today. Now, this could come down to a 9th inning situation and if the Mets wind up the victim of an Eric Gregg strike (a pitch in the LF batter's box to a RH batter) they'll have no recourse.

Yeah, hits! Is a new manager going to wake up sleeping wood? In 27 games (#28 is in progress) they've scored two or fewer runs 13 times; three or fewer in 17; four or fewer in 20. Keep in mind that 4.5/G is around average. Any of that changing by booting Mendoza or is this just demanding bloodlust whether it accomplishes something or not?

Four runs through 21 innings vs Rockies' pitching.

Twice today NYM BBs have been changed into a K via the ABS challenge, and both were by maybe 1/8th of an inch.

Well, the Rox figured out how to turn two singles and a walk into a run. The Mets, OTOH, failed twice in the opening game to turn three runners within one inning into a run [BB, BB, 1B & 1B, 1B, BB]

Mets strand a pair in the bottom of the 1st. No, this is not a cut-n-paste post from the earlier thread.

Senga through the 1st inning untouched. Soto singles with one out in the bottom half.

0-4 w/bases loaded and not a single fair ball hit [K, K, Foul Out, K]

Robert employs his no-GiDP strategy too!