Frayed Knot

Colors: lighter use (under 20) or heavier use (20+) And Manaea threw 3.1 innings on Friday so 61 is only slightly high for that length.

In a season full of expectations / with a payroll so uncommonly high A hot start was needed to bolster emotions / That it might be our time Then when Juan stroked a first inning single / Before limping his way into third It was the first clue, with the year still brand new / And it was when we first heard Of the year of the calf When a dozen straight losses followed / And Mr. Smile also suddenly lame You wonder what we did, to deserve this skid / Where they lose every game It clearly raised lots of questions / How to score with their two big bats gone But don’t bother asking for explanations / They’ll just have to plod on In the year of the calf Feel free to add verses if you got 'em

Must have worked, the Sawx laid a 17-1 whoopin' on the O's today. Not sure if they had scored a combined 17 over their last dozen games prior to today. on edit: Not quite, but they scored 3 or fewer in eight of their last ten ... sounds like another team from the N.E.

Well, the Mets lost the first game of a series to the Giants earlier in the year and went on to take the series 3-1 They also recently lost the opening vs the Twins but still won that series 2-1 So there's no reason they can't win the final two at home against the Rox ... no reason that is except that we're missing our star player, and the starting pitching is often a mess, and the closer isn't closing well. And finally the part about them not being a particularly good team might also keep them from completing a DH sweep. But other than that ...

Hey, people have died in bizarre gardening accidents.

iow, Prednisone treats the symptoms but not the cause.

And our winning streak is over. More importantly, so is mine.

Weird game for Rockies batters: 15 Ks, 10 hits (9 of them singles and at least four of those softies). The biggest crime for NYM pitchers are the four walks issued.

Yeah, I couldn't tell either.

New rule for ABS challenges: if a batter challenges a pitch which winds up entirely within the strike zone your team loses their ability to challenge for the next week.

Also avoiding line-outs to an infielder.

Sure, just hit your grounders between infielders rather than at them. They've successfully pulled it off several times this inning alone! Not sure why they didn't choose that option earlier in the game.

So the details are: - walking boot - next evaluation at least three weeks away So this smells an awful lot like July at least

A decent (5th) inning for Peralta all things considered: ersatz bunt, a bingle banked off the base, seeing-eye single, walk, weak grounder (run), three-pitch K including a successful ABS challenge. Lots of pitches, but deserved better and limited the damage.

Small sample size obviously, but how about Pitt's Konnor Griffin, all 6' 3" / 222 of him, appearing 7th on that linked running speed list. Of course it helps to be just 20 y/o (today). Think this guy's going to be a menace for years to come?

Yeah I figured it would a tough answer, particularly given the anonymity of the lineup, so I inserted the 'starting ten' to serve as a clue. I looked up his stats because I remember Loenzen being a good hitting pitcher back when it wasn't illegal for pitchers to hit (he last had an AB back in 2021). He hit 7 HRs in just 133 career ABs And since Lorenzen was a former 1st round draft pick (38th overall by the Reds in 2013) I chose the overall 1/1 pick (2016 / Phils) Mickey Moniak* as the party of the other part just to see how the two stacked up and the answer was, rate-wise, kind of similar ... which says much better things about Lorenzen than it does about Moniak even though he's off to the best season of his career so far for a guy who'll turn 28 in a few weeks. * McKenzie Matthew Moniak (aka: emineminem)

Pop Rox* Kwiz: Name the two players from among Colorado's starting ten tonight who own these career stat lines: 147 PAs: .233/.282 /.429 1,441 PA: .247/.286/.457 * Weren't 'Pop Rocks' a candy brand?

Just read where Hardee's is closing dozens of locations nationwide (the one nearest me went under two or three years ago) and that the chain itself is in overall danger. Besides, I don't think Hardee's Jr. has a very good fastball so I'm glad the Mets didn't bring him up.

Yeah, that wasn't intentional ... it just sort of happened.

Fri (7:10): Michael Lorenzen vs Freddy Peralta Sat (4:10): Jose Quintana vs Kodai Senga Sun (1:40): TBD vs Nolan McLean Mets welcome in the not-as-bad-as-they’ve-been-but-still-in last-place Rockies In 2025 the Rox were second from the bottom in RS/G (yes, playing in THAT stadium) barely ahead of 30th place Pittsburgh while also being DFL in RA/G and by a long shot. Their run scoring is better though still sub-par this year but their run prevention dropped from 6.3 RA/G in ’25 to 4.6, only a shade below league average. Veteran Michael Lorenzen, in his first season w/the Rox, goes in the opener On the offensive side, every non-pitcher they’ve used (except backup catcher Brett Sullivan) is under 30 and there aren’t too many familiar names: C - Hunter Goodman 1B - TJ Rumsfield 2B - Eduourd Julien SS - Ezequiel Tovar (can’t forget THAT name) 3B - Kyle Karros … and, yes, son of Eric LF - Jordan Buck CF - Brenton Doyle RF - Troy Johnston DH - Tyler Freeman And the only utility player of note is former 1/1 draft pick (PHI/2016) Mickey Moniak. Now in his third org., he’ll hit for some powah but has trouble keeping his OBA above the .300 level.

Never in doubt.

Oh Huascar, Huascar, Huascar

Now a clean inning here and we can all say it together: Winning Pitcher Huascar Brazoban

Bo knows bases-clearing triples