Frayed Knot

Three-HR games have been in the news often this week. No player has ever had more than one Four-HR game, but multiple games w/three has happened. So who has the most of those ever? Glad you asked. 6 - Sammy Sosa -- 18 ML seasons; 9,896 ABs 6 - Johnny Mize -- 15 / 7,370 5 - Alex Rodriguez -- 22 / 10,566 5 - Joe Carter -- 16 / 9,154 5 - Carlos Delgado -- 17 / 8,657 5 - Dave Kingman -- 16 / 6,677 5 - Mark McGwire -- 16 / 6,187 5 -- Mookie Betts -- 6 / 3,018 Actually 3,019 ABs now that he just struck out in tonight's game* But, shyeet, that's less than 1/2 to 1/3 the # of ABs as compared to the guys he's either tied with or just behind for most ever. * an actual scoreless 1st inning tonight!!

You'd have to think that one theory has to be that he's the pre-replacement for the soon to be dealt Syndergaard or Wheeler (or both!). Another is that maybe Stroman is to be packaged with some current NYM and flipped before ever suiting up. A third is that this mini-streak has changed their thinking and they're now in Go-For-It mode.

Stroman is, of course, a local boy -- Patchogue-Medford HS by way of Duke U. (and he actually graduated!) Can be a FA following the 2020 season Is 6-11 this season although with a sub-3.00 ERA and a 1.23 WHIP Was 8th in CY voting in 2017 before having a rough 2018 And he's short (5' 7")

News just breaking, no deets yet although this apparently does NOT involve Syndergaard. Stayed tuned to this station for further updates.

Diaz wanted to make sure it was a save situation. It already was when he came in: tying run on base, at bat, or on deck. If none of those situations exist, a reliever can't then "create" his own save opp.

And they win the damn thing 8-7 !! I think the original 'Win the Damn Game' score was 9-8, but I could be wrong there

Not often that ten consecutive different batters come to the plate in the 1st inning. At least they didn't pull what they did the other night -- and it was starting to look like they would -- and that's runs in the 1st inning and then shut-down mode after that. Wouldn't have worked as well today seeing as there was no deGrom on the mound. The Pirate defense, this whole series really, has been a mix of atrocious interspersed with some really good plays in between. Mets could definitely have been held to fewer runs with better gloves out there today ... or they could have scored a bunch more.

Tampa Bay was in 1st place and 17 games over .500 as recently as June 10th They've now sunk to 9 over and 3rd place after blowing a 6-run/8th inning lead vs Toronto tonight.

Besides, Miguel Andujar sucks. That team improved because of his injury. A one-year wonder at best.

Matz thru three on <30 pitches I bet some of his 1st innings (hell, probably MOST of them) have been that high or higher.

Edgy MD wrote: Mookie. That is all. Mookie grounds out in his (almost sure-to-be) final AB. 'Settles for' three HRs and a double. 10-3 Sox heading for top of 9 I was so sure that, after the pasting they took last night, the Yanx were going to win three consecutive close games and win the series despite being out-scored by several touchdowns. Considering that Yanx pitchers have allowed 48 runs over their last four games and yet the team won two of those game, it's not an unreasonable fear. As of now they're being out-scored 29-6 over the first 17 innings of this four-game series.

Wow! 9:35 game end. Tonight was the 5th sub-2:30 game* of the year for the Mets A quick sampling on a decade by decade basis of sub-2:30 NYM games for the season 1969 = 91 (including one 10-inning game) 1979 = 76 1989 = 27 1999 = 9 2009 = 19 * Twelve nine-inning games have gone over 3:30, plus 6 more extra inning games

Wound up with just One LOB after leaving 14 on base in the previous game.

Every Met who was reached base so far tonight has scored: 5 hits, 0 BB, 1 HBP, 6 Runs So no LOB and no runners erased (via GiDP, CS, caught advancing, etc.)

=41Forever post_id=16825 time=1564186472 user_id=69] Well this is cool! Jacob Resnick @Jacob_Resnick The #Mets now have 5 players aged 27 or younger with 10 home runs in 2019 (Alonso, Conforto, McNeil, Rosario, Smith). That is the most in one season in franchise history.

=bmfc1 post_id=16826 time=1564186504 user_id=73] Didn't Payton miss 2B while returning to 1B on a flyball?

JayPay (46) still looks to be in pretty good shape.

Austin Romine is pitching now and not well. The wacko part about all that was that Aaron Boone and the Yanx went into that game with a two man bench and one of those was the backup catcher (Romine - actually both catchers were backups since Gary Sanchez is, like the Beastie Boys, currently IL'in ... see what I did there?). Gio Urshela was the other. That left them with a nine man bullpen but of course Boone didn't actually want to use any of his respectable penners. Needless to say, none of the position players got to take the remainder of the game off as is common in one-sided affairs. So Tanaka, despite coughing up 7 in the 1st and eventually an even dozen runs overall, stayed in thru 3-1/2 and 87 pitches and was only pulled then because the HP ump threatened to invoke the 'Mercy Rule'. Stephen Tarpley (1.2 IP, 4 runs, 5 hits) and former NYM farmhand Luis Cessa (1.2 scoreless, although by then the Red Sox were batting from their opposite side just to see if they could do it) were the only real relievers Boone used. Romine (lettuce pray) wound up charged with 3 runs in the full inning of work. In Anaheim, Orioles utility man Stevie Wilkerson (I went to HS with a guy by that name) fared much better as a pitcher. He wound up with a 1-2-3 Save in the bottom of the 16th throwing balls at about 45 mph. After BOTH teams put up a 3-spot in the 15th, Baltimore went ahead again with 2 in the top of the 16th. Wilkerson closed it out. Trade Diaz for him NOW!!!! The 6 hour 19 minute game ended sometime after 4:30 AM EDT

Nelson Cruz, currently with the Twins, is on a 3-HR night and is batting for the 4th time in only the 6th inning. No one has had a four-HR game at his age (39) or older. But it's 2019 so a lot of that kind of goofy records are going by the wayside these days. (he just K'd)

Last time Tanaka faced the Sawx it was in London when he gave up six runs in the 1st inning. But that was London and a jury-rigged stadium; no way that would happen state-side. Nope, today he gave up seven in the 1st inning ... and then things got worse. The Yanx perfect record (2-0) in games where they allow 12 or more runs is in trouble tonight (although there are still [CROSSOUT]seven[/CROSSOUT] six outs to get).

Tulo: from debut (8/30/06) thru 2014 (8+ seasons): 4,064 PA (approx 500/season); 299/373/517 // 891; 125 OPS+ from 2015 (age 30) to present (4-1/2 seasons): 1,351 PA; .263/.322/.430 // 752; 97 OPS+ and he also went from a Plus defensive SS to a barely adequate one, although, like his idol Jeter, he never played an ML game at any position other than SS (or DH) His contract, signed about a zillion years ago w/the Rox but mostly paid by Toronto at this point, was scheduled to run thru 2021.

Seeing as how the whole purpose of trading for a 25 y/o with four years of control was for the long term, I suspect this idea of trading Diaz is just rumor and is based on the idea that bullpen help is a hot commodity. So, sure, if you can get a king's ransom for him then go ahead, but I think they are more interested in seeing what he might bring back rather than wanting to cut and run from last winter's deal.

Familia doing one of his: 'I'm not going to retire anyone' acts tonight.

But getting out of that top-7th scoreless keeps us very much in the game. Gotta stop looking at strike-threes down the middle though.

The Mets aren't baseballing very good tonight.