Frayed Knot

Going for three in a row, and against a WC rival no less, after gaining a game not just against the Snakes last night but also on the Nats, Cubs, and Cards, while holding serve vs the Fillies and Brewers. Robbie Ray [12-7; 4.03; 1.32] faces off against Steven Matz in the hottest lefty-on-lefty rivalry short of Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders in a loser-leaves-town steel cage match (I'm betting she kicks his ass)

Benjamin Grimm wrote: The only real "must win" games are the ones where you face elimination if you lose. The games the Mets are playing now are more like "it-would-be-really-advantageous-to-win" games. Yup! Not that that stops many football "analysts" from discussing which of the 0-1 teams are facing "must win" games this Sunday, but many of them are a special breed of dummkopf and they have much air time to fill. I mentioned earlier in the thread about Gary throwing out the number "three of four" down the stretch as a likely minimum target. At the time there were 21 games left which I then translated to 16-5 (.761 win pct). That was on Sunday morning prior to them losing the final game against the Fillies at which point you're up to needing four of every five (16-4). The good news is that we're 2-0 since then (thanx to some brilliant IGT'ing) bringing us to a 14-4 target. Not sure how much that improves the odds over 16-4, but it's something. Doable? Probably not, but stranger things have happened. Would be nice if we didn't have the Dodgers next and the Braves last in that lineup, between them taking up fully one third of the remaining 18 games, but we do. @Rox (3) @Reds (3) and Marlins (4) make up the rest. It also doesn't help that the two big teams are, to a small extent anyway, battling each other for the home field rights in a theoretical NLCS Game 7 some six weeks from now. Dodgers currently hold a four game edge in that 'race'

I guess this means that the Mets' plan to get rid of Syndergaard this winter is both alive and dead.

Christian Yelich fouled a ball off his knee tonight in Miami: Broken kneecap, out for the season!!

Phils win; Nats lose; Brewers win Cubs just getting started out west (SD) but are already up 2-0; StL losing in Denver 2-1 in the 6th And you may already know that the DBacks lost Oh, and the Dodgers clinched the West tonight. Over in the AL: the Yanx lost in a walk-off to the worst team in the majors this year (Detroit who have already lost 100) and in a game where they hit six HRs. 12-11 was your (all too typical) 2019 final. And finally Houston, who are coming off wins of 21-1 (SEA) and 15-0 (OAK) are tonight getting thumped by Oakland 20-5 and that game is still early in the 3rd quarter

Wilson was definitely saying something and pointing to 2nd. But in a rundown you still have to keep your eye on the guy at 3rd and Pete must have thought he was too far off the base at that moment. Maybe his biggest problem was not even glancing at the runner on 1st as he was going towards the base for the force. It's like that guy was totally out of Pete's thought process and/or his vision even though he was standing on the base as Pete trotted towards him (being off the base would have made him an easy target for a tag-step DP) but once he (the runner) realized that Alonso was paying him no mind is when he took off for 2nd. But Pete never even seemed to consider him.

Wilmer was blowing a bubble AS HE WAS SWINGING at that final strike. How can you do that?!??!?

Whew!

Five batters faced - two retired.

This is just like his Philly inning so far: 24 pitches from Wilson and he's retired one batter. oe: gets his 2nd out (of the 4 he needs) on pitch #26

And here we go: leadoff runner on

So after Frazier's second double in the 4th inning: 2nd & 3rd, up 3-1 (should have been 4-1), still only one out, runners on 2nd & 3rd ... the Mets haven't had a baserunner since.

And it's somehow taken over an hour and a half to get through these 4 innings. The two replays are but a part of the problem.

I wouldn't over turn this one for the same reason I wouldn't have overturned the earlier one.

Half are blonds ... which puts it far below the usual athlete 'WAG' score.

So the Twins are looking like they're headed for an AL Central title. The Indians were charging for a while but Mini soda now holds a 5 game lead and, unlike ALC winners in some years, are on pace for a solid 100 win season and the right to think that maybe, just maybe mind you, they could put up a challenge to the Yanx or Astros. So this past week has seen RHP Michael Pineda draw a 60-game suspension for PED use (masking agent apparently - but at least no pine tar suspension on top of it) and now OF (and former 1/1 draft pick) Byron Buxton is having shoulder surgery and is gone for the remainder of the season and maybe early next year. iow, early 1st round exit once again.

Cooks.com has a 'Southern Fried' preparation using just simple ingredients (salt, pepper, flour, eggs, accent) that anyone can make at home ... providing you first know how to find one, buy one, and then skin one. The Food Network chips in with a 'Filipino Fried' dish, marinated in soy sauce of course. Not sure the the southwestern Diamondback is the same variety of rattler found in The Philippines however. Very different climates. Backwoodsbound.com looks to have plenty of them plus the usual assortment of squirrel, frog, raccoon, turtle recipes because ... well because of course they do. For the Mets tonight, a key ingredient will be young Diamondback Zac Gallen. "It's great (b)eating the older, more seasoned ones" said Mickey Callaway in today's presser, "but I really like to have me a big helping of the younger more tender cuts every now and then. Thems good eats!" A serving of Gallen would be a good chaser following Monday night's devouring of Ketel Marte. Jacob deGrom was so enamored of the dish that he had three helpings all by himself although did manage to leave one serving for his late-arriving friend Seth. The Mets have announced that they'll let Zack Wheeler carve the first slices in tonight's dish. Other table participants to be announced shortly.

Of course you can coach 'em all you want, but they still have to play. I'm not sure if 'unprepared' is the right conclusion from this particular project - unless it's just a way of saying that they started their run basically after it was TLTL. The whole point here was that the staff, which everyone in creation KNEW was going to be top-notch, started out so poorly that I thought it would be worth tracking just to see how quickly it would start moving up the ladder. Which it did, just not as quickly or as thoroughly as I ultimately thought or hoped. Obviously the final autopsy of this year's club is going to point much of the blame on the pen, and specifically on the two guys they expected to anchor it. Familia and Diaz haven't merely been worse than expected, they've been a giant leap below wherever anyone's 'worst case scenario' would have placed them. And then the bigger problem still is that neither one has gotten any better as the year has gone on, not consistently so anyway.

Frayed Knot wrote: 5 outs on 17 pitches for Lou Geaux 6 on 21

5 outs on 17 pitches for Lou Geaux

4th GiDP of the night for the home squad. It's like this team is part of a conspiracy to limit leads in those games where they're out-hitting the other side by a large margin (and ones where JdG is pitching).

Let no one say that Boston doesn't know how to deflect a potentially negative story such as Dombrowski's firing: Papi returned tonight to throw out the first pitch. Dave who?

Edgy MD wrote: Wow, the Mets get baserunners after Alonso's homer. Again. Of course the four batters hitting in front of Pete -- in every inning except the 1st anyway -- are Nimmo, Rosario, deGrom, and McNeil, so there at least should be some baserunners on board for him.

Let's see you match that Wilmer!

Edgy MD wrote: What the bean is Wilmer doing wearing 41? He just figured he'd add a 1 to his previous number. Now one would think he'd come up with '5' using that logic but that's not Wilmer logic.