Frayed Knot

In a game full of borderline B/S calls, the first challenge finally comes in the 7th inning on an obvious bad call.

Yanx in the game: 5 runs on 3 hits Yanx just in the 6th inning: 4 runs on 1 hit

Phils have taken the first two vs Pittsburgh, including scoring 3 in the 9th then 3 more in the 10th for a come-from-behind on Friday. Today's finale features Wheeler vs Skenes

Mets aren't in the Bronx Zero mercy, And to a war hero too!! I hope just they didn't make him spend a night in the box.

Reed-thin [6' 4" / 177] righty Elmer Rodriguez to play the party of the other part. This will be the third ML game/start for the 22 y/o from Puerto Rico who got some back half of top 100 lists prior to this season. So far his line is a combined: 8.2 innings, 5 earned/10 hits, 8 BBs, 5 Ks. iow, he's a promising but still raw hurler. Back to SNY/GKR for the only time this series.

This has nothing to do with defending David Stearns. I haven't said a word that defends anything about him and neither has anyone on this thread.. This has to do with you inventing a standard -- he isn't getting ML rotation quality pitchers on the waiver wire or via minor league free agents -- that is so ridiculously unrealistic that it calls into question whether you have any knowledge about how player procurement works. And, that rather than defend your position when asked about it, you clam up and hide only to pull the same bullshit again and again at each subsequent opportunity.

Let's not get crazy here.

Mets = 9-5 over last 14 Yanx = 3-7 over last 10 Phils, who were briefly behind us in the standings, just reached .500 So it's not totally over folks. Things can change, sometimes rather abruptly and without warning..

Bellinger's gonna Bellinger.

NYM contributions by ex-Yanx [Soto, Weaver, Holmes] > NYY contributions by ex-Mets [Blackburn, Rosario] ... so I'm calling that a win.

Weaver looked quick -- and a nice stretch. They should use him as a pinch runner on days he's not scheduled to pitch, I don't care how many fingers he breaks sliding into bases ... OK, maybe not.

Nice read by Bichette on that grounder.

Partly because the last two nights have been 'network' games and partly because they're Yanqui games, the pace of them both has been slow and both are/going to be over 3:00 despite neither being high scoring.

Dream Weaver, I believe you can get us to the ninth eighth Gotta work on my rhyming.

The K of Rosario lowers the need for a triple play down to just a double play.

Soft double followed by soft two-base error followed by HBP followed by lucky bunt.

This might have been better had I started this right at the nadir of our season at the end of that 12-game losing streak (at least we hope that was the low point). But it didn’t occur to me until week or so ago so this is a ‘joined in progress’ project. “It’s gotta get better” is a phrase we’ve used early in this season to describe the lack of hitting and scoring. Towards that end I’m going to try and check in on this on a semi-regular basis so we can see how much things are ‘regressing to the mean’ or if that actually happens at all. So two charts here: one tracking our ranking among all 30 ML teams in the various offensive stats, and then the raw numbers in those same metrics compared to league average. The data shown is for the season-to-date games including those on the date listed. Not a lot of change so far but you don’t expect there to be much after only nine days. I’m aiming to update this thing twice a month, hopefully on or around the 15th & 30th. Dang it! The subject heading was supposed to read NOffense but it auto-corrected on me and now I can't edit.

The 'feel' from the old board, as it has been for the past 26 years, is one of discussion. We haven't hung around this long by not giving a shit what each other thinks. Feel free to say whatever you want but also be prepared to discuss it and back up what you say if necessary. Yet, despite doing this act of mocking Stearns each time some minor league roster filler doesn't have the resume to match the one just lost, you repeatedly evade any query as to what kind of player you think is available on the waiver wire or as a minor league free agent. Not that it stops you from going into the same act the next time you see an opportunity or from dodging any conversation when challenged again. That's not discussion, it's graffiti. Do better. Or at least make an effort.

Forcing Rodon into 88 pitches just to get through 3-2/3 is a decent sign.

The network guys didn't mention this but Gary would have been all over it: Rodon winds up giving up one run on his own Wild Pitch and then a second on his own error. First run counts as earned, second is not.

He did this where?

I think he's already tall enough.

This act of yours got old months ago.

It's a 'Let's pretend it's a rivalry and maybe no one will notice' kind of thing.

Eh, it's OK, it's not like he was our best pitcher this year, and there are plenty of obvious replacements is Jonah Tong who, in his last start, was dominant allowed seven runs in 1-1/3, plus Senga will be ready to return any day now in a few months and there's a good chance tiny long shot that he regains his All-Star form.