Frayed Knot

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!

In fairness to this HP ump, out of the five (of 7) overturned calls I believe all of them have been within one inch and at least two were just 0.1" one way or the other.

The Mets, meanwhile, got three of their first four hitters on base ... and then just one of the next 18 with almost nothing hit hard aside from the solo HR

And some RMPL

McLean retired 8 of the first 9 he faced and picked off the one who did reach on just a soft single.. But starting with the 4th inning, he put down just 5 of the next 12 he faced allowing on four hits (all hard) plus two walks and the error. This has become a worrying mini-trend so far this season for him.

See also: Red Sox Clean House

What Gary Really needs to tap the brakes on is quoting a hitter's RiSP numbers as if it's a good predictive metric. And that goes double for Keith.

Semien finds a way to avoid a GiDP