Frayed Knot

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!

The Guardians draw first blood in the meeting of ALE/ALC leaders by thumping the Yanx and Cam Schlittler 9-4. It was Schlittler's shortest outing of his career as he allowed 5 earned in 4-1/3 IP. You might even say his game went into the .... nah!! too easy.

It's not so much that this is a bridge too far as much as it is a bridge unnecessary. Trying to monitor subjective calls with objective methods is a fool's errand and likely not going to be an improvement on what we already have. Leave it alone, no one was asking for this.

Gary: Patrick Wisdom is the "Solomonic pinch-hitter"

Nice to see M C Hammer still able to milk his lone moment in the sun all these years later.

5 full innings in 1:10

That showed some impressive power. Mark Vientos starting to smell like a DH vs LHPs again.

Muffy

Yup, although just 4 points behind the 29th place Padres and 19 in back of the surprisingly bad 28th place Phillies who have Harper, Schwarber and Marsh with OPS+'s of 137, 154 & 125, AND who have all played virtually every game this season [59, 56, 54]*. Contrast that with Soto/Lindor who have combined to play a mere 66 including just nine games in which both appeared. * But, man, the rest of that lineup is putrid. Get a load of Realmuto [OPS+ = 65], Stott [76], Trea Turner [71], and Alex Bohm [67] Y'know, jus' sayin'

Back after a week off (because no one took this up whilst I was away) we'll have some results and developments to follow as we complete our final week of late night starts as well as kick off the third month of the season. - the best record in MLB Braves are kicking back at home until Tuesday when they'll welcome the Blue Jays and then the Pirates for three game series. - the 2nd place NLE Nationals -- currently 4.5 G ahead of NYM -- will try to dominate the visiting Marlins as much as we just did this past weekend, before they head west later in the week. - the 3rd place Phils (30-29) will give our next opponent a test drive (T-W-Th) before the Padres fly back to Sandy Eggo on Friday to host us. Be a shame if that Thursday (day) game went 16 innings and/or their flight was delayed. Elsewhere ... - the 2nd place (1.5 G behind TBR) Yanx, coming off a 13-8 drubbing of ATH on Sunday in which they scored all 13 runs in the 2nd inning!!, have CLE - BOS - @CLE on their immediate agenda. The odd part about that gauntlet is that the Sawx series looks like it'll serve as a weekend breather for the pin-stripers sandwiched by six games against the 1st place (34 - 27) Guardians - Pete's rookie HR record looks safe for another year as White Sox (32 - 27 !!) slugger Munetaka Murakami was put on the IL with a hamstring injury. Murakami had slugged 20 HRs in his first 57 ML games prior to the injury, a pace which projected to right around 57 dingers for the season so he'll need to be a quick healer if he wants to go Alonso hunting in September.

Closest release to the plate I surmise, aka: extension from the rubber.

Yes, the RS/G figure took the biggest jump, even enough to counteract that pathetic three games/two runs combined series in Miami. And some of the other raw numbers are up a shade too even if only enough to where they're now closer to jumping a rank or two if improvement continues. Until then, baby steps.

Actual question: where are those charts from and those numbers in the middle there, are those percentile rankings?