Frayed Knot

Yup. They wanted at least six out from him and he got the first five straight. But then, with two outs/bases empty, came IF single, HBP, then a first-pitch 3R HR. So it's not like they smacked him all over the park, but he was undone by that one pitch. Raisel Iglesias then countered with a quick/clean 1-2-3 top 9th for the save.

Game 1: - Ozzie Albies triples in the 6th to give the Braves a 2 - 1 lead - JT Realmuto's 2-out/2-RBI triple in the 7th flips the lead to Philly 3 - 2 - Austin Riley's two-run 3R HR oin the 8th ff closer Duran gives Atlanta a two-run lead - Phils get the leadoff runner on in the 9th but that's followed by a GiDP - fly to LF and the Braves win!!

Aaron Judge will NOT be on the Yanx' roster for the first round vs Boston.

I saw the thread title and was worried MLB had roped the Mets into playing a regular season series in Egypt next season.

Also listed as a Peacock only game, not that us east-coasters are going to see a lot of it anyway. Cubs pitcher is currently list as TBA. Padres counter with former Yanx reliever turned good starter Clay Holmes Michael King: 32 starts, 3.21 ERA / 1.18 WHIP

The six AL playoff teams are a definite case of Big Three/Little Three. The big boys [TBR, NYY, BOS] are a combined 71 games over .500 while the little three are just a collective +14. And one of those Big Three will be eliminated in the 1st round and two of the three are guaranteed to be gone prior to the ALCS. And so it starts with these two. Boston calls on Payton Tolle, the immense [6' 6" / 250] rookie left-hander, just two years removed from being drafted (2nd round - 2024) who went 9 - 6, 3.03 / 1.096 in 26 starts. Yanx counter with likely AL CY winner Cam Schlittler. And then maybe the bigger news is will/how much Aaron Judge plays. Yanx won 7 of 13 during their regular season play.

This game is available only via Peacock apparently. I guess NBC figures no one will watch anyway so why take up network airspace. Chicago pitcher is listed at TBA. Houston going with AJ Blueballs Blubaugh, a rookie making his first start of the season (he had 3 GS in a trial run last year). Like Philly, these teams had to go down to the last day of the season to secure and/or fight for a spot so they couldn't exactly set-up an ideal rotation.

Game 1, Tuesday 9/29, 2:00 EDT, NBC & Peacock Jesus Luzardo vs Chris Sale You figure the Braves would have the edge in most games with Sale going, but more than usual in this case as the Philly pitching, which was great though top-heavy to start with, now has less depth to it. They used Wheeler on Sunday just to make sure they'd even get to playing meaningful October baseball. Plus Nola pitched (badly and briefly) on Saturday, and Sanchez pitched Friday (well, but not well enough because Philly's offense is also feast of famine). So what about Luzardo? Well he also pitched Sunday though just one inning in relief. The bigger problem is that that inning was his first appearance since September 7th. He pitched a CG 2-hit shutout that day but then when on the IL with left shoulder inflammation. Not exactly coming in on a roll in other words.

The final report card, Minor movement as you'd tend to expect towards the end of the year and with only 12 days since the last check. My purpose in starting this way back when was the idea that they HAD to get better, even if only by accident, as the year went on. And, yeah, they did, but certainly not as dramatically or as completely as we hoped. The lengthy absences of Soto and Lindor were a factor but every team has injuries.

aka: less than one more productive position player per team

That was my point all along. Of course the East lost a majority of games to the West, there's no way for the division to be under .500 otherwise. But assuming Edgy's math above is correct: the '73 NL East won out-of-division games at the rate that a team going 78 - 84 over a full season wins them [77.6 wins/yr if you want to get technical). That's not a good team but also not a horrible one. This year's AL West crew was collectively akin to a team winning 68.7 G/yr, 2+ games worse than 1973's last place Phillies.. One team lost 100 games, another just missed (64 - 98), and even the 3rd place team was worse than the '73 NLE was as a whole. 1973 NL East: a mostly mediocre crew [top five clubs a collective 10 G-under .500] with one bad team (- 20). 2026 AL West: a whole lotta suck (83 G under .500)

I'm going to wait for the movie.

So the Phils finally won a game down the stretch here and snagged the final NL WC slot in doing so. They tried very, very hard to blow a four game lead with five to play but couldn't even accomplish that correctly. In the AL the Astros are about to win [9 - 0 Houston heading into bottom 9th in West Sacramento] but it doesn't matter because the Rangers already lost so the 'stros are division winners even IF they have the worst 9th inning ever (and they didn't: A's went down 1 - 2 - 3). What the Houston win does do is avoid the embarrassing case of a sub-.500 division winner ... even if having an exact .500 division winner is scarcely better. So NL seeding: Brewers #1, Dodgers #2 so both sit out the 1st round Braves #3 vs #6 Phillies in a best of three all in Georgia while the #5 seed Cubs head to #4 San Diego In the AL: Rays #1 and Cleveland #2 get the Byes* #3 Astros host #6 White Sox and the #4 Yanx host #5 Red Sox (that one might draw some minor interest) Exact times of games will be announced once the commissioner asks the Yanx what time is most convenient for them. Then the other games can be jiggered around that.

Apparently we're the only team that doesn't hit the Nats' bullpen.

Ugh Ronnie.

GKR talking about this year's AL West and 1973's NL East, but they were really very different stories. The NL East that year was a collective 30 games under .500 that year, 20 of that belonging to the Phillies [Mets +3, StL even, PIT -2, MTL -4, CHC -7, PHI - 20] iow, it was mostly a division bunched towards the middle rather than a basket of deplorable.s. This year's ALW is a collective 81 games under .500 with no one above break even. At the moment it's HOU & TEX and one game under, then SEA at -9 followed by ATH at -33 and LAA at -37 Now part of the is the current set-up. A smaller pct of games within division can lead to wider dispersal. But in 1973 both Atlanta and San Diego had worse records than Philly iow, in '73 the NL East bet up each other to a greater degree than they did get their collective asses kicked by the West. This year's AL West simply suxx.

Somebody within the org said that Verlander was their #1 choice ... but of course everyone knows who the right pick is after the fact.

And both games that were moved up in an attempt to avoid bad weather ... are being delayed by bad weather.

The Tigers wound up winning that game but Verlander didn't get the 'W' The daughter also threw out the pre-game first pitch - to catcher J. V. Verlander ends his career 10 Ks ahead of Max Scherzer [3,560 to 3,550] among 'active' pitchers. Scherzer's going to start today for the Blue Jays. He says it's not for the purpose of catching Verlander and, as mentioned above, he also hasn't said this is it for him (tho I suspect it is). In 17 starts this year Scherzer did reach 10 strike outs once [10 Ks in 7 IP on 8/30] but that's the only time he got past 6 innings and his only game with more than 5 Ks so he's not likely to catch or pass J. V. even if that is his goal.

Mets @ WAS is starting early, as is Orioles @ Yanx. And then there is Cubs vs Red Sox in Tampa, all moved up and/or out due to the storm ... and meaninglessness. All other games today (including Cubbies/Sawx) start at 3-ish PM EDT

So, DUH!, Phils wind up losing (12 - 1 was the final) but Diamondbacks lose too meaning Philly needs a win OR a DBacks loss to clinch the final WC slot. So 75% chance for Philly, 25% for ARZ Phils did Not wind up using a position player to pitch but they did use seven actual hurlers, one inning from starter Nola plus six relievers splitting the other eight. They'll go with Zach Wheeler today (making him unavailable for playoff Round 1 if they get there) and hope he can give them some length and, y'know, a win. Houston AND Texas both won on Saturday, so they enter the final day in an 80 - 81 dead heat. H-2-H edge goes to the Astros so they, like the Phils, have a 75% chance of making it by needing a win OR a Rangers loss. So will we have a .500 ALW division winner or a sub-.500 one? Those are your only choices and, once again, remember this when fans and writers start talking about what great four-team divisions they can design after the next expansion. Cleveland won while the White Sox lost making the Guardians the AL Central champs which in turn locks the ChiSox into the #3 WC team.

10 - 0 thru 6 Philly phans in the stands really must be enjoying this one. They're probably getting ready to start chucking batteries at their players ... car batteries!! Things could be worse, though, they could be getting rained on. Oh wait, they are!! Padres have taken a 3 - 2 lead

Phils have used five pitchers to get through five innings ... and all that's gotten them is a 7 - 0 deficit. They might wind up pitching a position player in this ultra-important game just to have some arms around and at least semi-fresh for tomorrow's even more important game. The other problem, besides their pitching right now, is that they've scored two runs in the last 32 innings. DBacks lead 2 - 1 in the 3rd inning of their game vs SDP

So the Phils (vs Tampa) didn't move the time of their game today, I guess they figured they're far enough 'in -land' to avoid the worst of this storm even as NYC and Boston were getting swamped. The 7:15 start was pushed back until 7:50 due to some lingering rain but they're underway now ... and Tampa immediately jumps out to a 3- 0 lead in top o' the 1st. Aaron Nola has been put in charge of saving their season. Not that the Phils can eliminate themselves tonight but they can sure put a spot in jeopardy. One game up on Arizona but without the tie-breaker in their favor, they need to be at least one game better than Arizona on Sat + Sun. Snakes are at home vs San Diego and will start within the hour. The DBacks were five games behind the Phils just eight days ago but have run off six straight wins since while the Phils have been tripping over their own dicks. And the Phils go down 1 - 2 - 3 in bottom one.

The final week of TWiB was kind of shoved aside by the 'Post Season Picture Comes into Focus' thread. All games on Sunday are scheduled for 3 PM Eastern, no matter what time zone you're in, so that any last day drama for playoff hopeful teams will play out in different cities simultaneously. They've been doing this for several years now and it's actually one of the good ideas MLB has come up with in this century.