Frayed Knot

Lugo wasn't perfect tonight ... except when he had to be.

Right move for the Nats to IW Alonso ... but that doesn't mean it'll work out for them.

Turner and pooch

Frayed Knot wrote: Now I KNOW we can get to Fernando Rodney. But I didn't know it would be by LUIS!?!?!?!

Now I KNOW we can get to Fernando Rodney.

Edgy MD wrote: Johnny Lunchbucket wrote: All of our enemies won their games last night. To think of how close we came to a bad bad night. I hat baseball night. Geez Yabbut ... the Nats were at least one enemy who didn't win. And while the Phils won it came vs the Giants so that's not nothing. Any number of teams have the ability to muck things up down the road. Also don't overlook the Cubs losing. We have to beat out at least one of the three NLC teams and quite probably two of them. Only 2.5 and 3.0 games up on MILW & StL, they're hardly immune to being dropped into the muck by even a short bad stretch.

I think that lineup can run wild and look pretty.

The Alonso challenge, which [Mickey] really had no chance of winning. He seems to use these specifically on bad challenges as "Hail Mary" attempts to get a break And often quite early in the game. If you're going to try for a 'Hail Mary' reversal, do so in a crucial late-inning situation where a call going your way can possibly turn a game. Just re-watched the bottom of the 9th. -- What a fucking bolt by Frazier!! I know I'm not breaking any news here but I'm not sure we've seen him hit anything that hard or that far and only fair/foul kept us in suspense for those two or three milli-seconds. It came right after Keith said how well TF has hit LHPs this year. -- Doolittle faced eight batters including three LHBs (which is probably what prompted mgr Martinez to keep him in the game) retiring just two of them and that includes the one who was trying to make an out. Oddly, the only man he actually got out was McNeil. He's faced the Mets more than any other team this season and they're pasting him to a .471/.514/.735 // 1249 clip [16 for 34 plus 2 BB and a HBP]. 19 Runs given up this season; 10 of them to the NYM -- That was a pretty tough pitch Conforto hit and he hit it a lot harder than I initially thought. Inside corner fastball from a LHP, that pitch jams most lefty swingers (and probably Conforto in most ABs) but he "turned on it" as Keith would (and did) say enough to get the barrel on it and it was no 'lofted' fly over a drawn-in OF. That was a liner landing on the warning track that beats any defense except maybe an extreme 'No Doubles' shift. Eaton never came close to laying a glove anywhere near it. I see where they gave him credit only for a single so I guess he only reached the vicinity of 2nd base -- Maybe the funniest thing in that dog pile out behind 2nd base was that Dom got out there on his little scooter thing to join in.

Problem: I have to get up early tomorrow but I'm too keyed up to be getting to sleep for a while yet after all that. Solution: Bourbon

=LWFS post_id=18300 time=1565404266 user_id=84] Lagares is 3 for 5 against Doolittle with a walk, apparently. I'll trust that over a bunt.

Biggest game of the year ... biggest win of the year. Nuff said! And it was won by a naked man.

A bunt isn't the wrong move in that situation ... but only if you've got somebody who can bunt!!!

You'd like to end it here ... but the battle of the pens is DECIDEDLY in our favor going forward if they don't.

Frayed Knot wrote: We can get to Doolittle ...

Fourth infield hit by the Nats tonight.

Need at least a run here Pete. We can get to Doolittle, but you don't want to have to do it down by two.

Nats finally got burned by their OF shift.

Well, we got Strasburg out of there anyway. I suppose I shouldn't be shocked that he was pulled even after a quick 7th and a low-ish pitch count ... but I kinda am.

Double damn!

Frayed Knot wrote: So now this is where, after forcing the Nats to choose between a PH and Strasburg (and they rightly went w/Strasburg IMO), you fuck up the whole strategy by having the bats force him out of the game this inning anyway. aka: Ye olde Double Whammy! Damn! Looked like we were on our way to just that after the first two batters.

Edgy MD wrote: I'm in Rockville Centre visiting my mother. Eating at an Italian restaurant called Nick's. They have three TVs: Yankees, Fox News, and preseason football. Not even a home team in the football game. Who watches news in a bar? I think the last time I watched the news in a bar was after the Reagan assassination attempt. While I was there a local TV film crew came in to interview people to see if they were there specifically to catch up on the latest. Except that no one would talk to them because most were skipping out of work in the middle of the afternoon. Myself, I wasn't there to watch the latest OR to skip out on work but I wouldn't talk to them either on account of not being real anxious to say that I had merely stopped in to collect my coat I had left there the previous evening. Don't quite remember how I wound up doing that -- especially seeing as how it was March in upstate New York -- but, y'know, it was a bar.

Nice 2-strike hitting by Conforto and GREAT read by Rosario.

So now this is where, after forcing the Nats to choose between a PH and Strasburg (and they rightly went w/Strasburg IMO), you fuck up the whole strategy by having the bats force him out of the game this inning anyway. aka: Ye olde Double Whammy!

We haven't had one of these in a while. But this series is important enough to warrant one, as is this time of year. And while no one game is crucial yet, we need to keep the ship at an above-.500 pace vs these other contenders in order to make the recent stretch vs the sisters of the poor even a little bit meaningful. We last saw these guys in late May (20-23) when our four-game sweep of them looked like it might leave them for dead at 19-31, in 4th place and 10 games out. They were so dead that they won just 46 of their next 61 games. More recently they've gone 6-7 in their last 13 games against mostly decent squads: LAD, ATL, ARZ, SFG We'll miss Scherzer, currently IL'd with a back strain (specifically the rhomboid muscle ... bet you didn't even know you had a rhomboid muscle!) unless they decide to dramatically bring him back for Sunday's finale as he bursts out of the bullpen WWE-style to a rousing roar of ... no wait, they'll be on the road, so scratch that idea. Instead it's Strasburg, possibly in the midst of his best ML season, vs Stroman on Friday Lefty Patrick Corbin goes on Saturday's 7:10 start vs Syndergaard and Sunday's 1:10 match features Anibal Sanchez vs deGrom (so we won't score) Currently IL'd: the previously mentioned Scherzer; also Howie Kendrick (hammy) but he may be back on Sunday; Ryan Zimmerman (plantar fasciitis - extended absence); as well as the usual variety of subs & relievers Matt Adams has been playing most of the 1B and Brian Dozier mostly 2nd, although Asdrubal Cabrera is now a (re)-Nat so he could be at either/or. Anthony Rendon missed their last game with a toe injury and his immediate status seems to be up in the air. Juan Soto is really good, especially since he's still about 14 years old. The more highly touted Victor Robles is less so, but those two and Adam Eaton man the OF almost every game. Turner & Rendon are at SS & 3B every day; Yan Gomes & Kurt Suzuki pretty much swap catching. Their pen is worse than ours -- yes, really! -- as they've gone through any number of dudes trying to find a workable combination including bringing in multiple guys at the trade deadline. Even Sean Doolittle at the back end has had his troubles.

I don't care whether they opt for 'Mets' or not. But at least have a little imagination and don't farm out your naming rights to the 'Branding' company on the other side of the country that already re-did everyone else's name to where you wind up being like the 48th variation on a theme ... Hey I got an idea, let's give them a two word name!!! One which, if you squint real hard, can vaguely be tied to upstate New York'. But, then again, this is the ownership group that, just in the last few years, 'hit upon' the ideas of races on scoreboards and the playing of 'Sweet Caroline' during the 7th inning stretch.