Frayed Knot

I was hoping the Astros would kick ass in this game AND rake the Yanx bullpen. Instead, they're giving most of the pen an extra day off after their heavy workload vs CLE

Keuchel's pitches are rarely even near the middle of the plate; he just hits corner after corner.

Ceetar wrote: https://www.baseball-reference.com/play-index/event_finder.cgi?request=1&year=2007&year_to=2017&id=ellsbja01&divisory=1&from=button&type=b&event=17 It's not conclusive in my eyes, but certainly suggestive. That 24 of the 31 came with two strikes makes is more than a bit suggestive IMO The usual excuse of 'well, he has a long swing' doesn't explain why it suddenly gets longer when you would normally want it to get shorter. It's also occurring much more often as his career goes on. I'm surprised more isn't being made of this by MFY opponents.

Yeah, Houston was my least favorite team in my first years of baseball following. I had absorbed the idea that the expansion Mets were at a disadvantage when it came to competing against all those established teams, but the fact that they kept finishing behind the Colts/Astros bothered my little brain each season. 1969 plus hopefully a bit of maturity (though I doubt it) cured some of that and, as Rick might have said to Ilsa, we'll always have 1986 It still seems wrong that they're in the AL and they went from a dull and dark crockpot of a ballpark to one that seems too tricked-out by half. But Selig pretty much used their ownership change to force them into the league swap and I suppose either ballpark beats their original one where the flights of fly balls were in danger of being altered by mosquitos.

So it's safe to say that the Max Scherzer experiment didn't quite work out last night. In fairness to him he got more than a bit unlucky, but the bottom line is four runs/two earned in just one inning and he gets charged with the big 'L' And all of the damage came after he retired the first two guys on just six pitches total. Then the roof caved in: - infield single - bloop single - double (that one was at least hit semi-hard) - 2 Runs - IW - K, but passed ball and then a throwing error allows a run to score and runners wind up on 2nd & 3rd - 1 Run - Reach on catcher's interference * - HBP - 1 Run - and finally the 3rd out on a pop-up * speaking of catcher's interference, Ellsbury got on again this way in that Game 5, this coming off a season when he passed Pete Rose for the all-time lead (in about half the plate appearances). I'd like to know how often he just happens to do that when he has two strikes on him. I'm betting it's a lot more common than with no or one strike which would add credence to the idea that there's a degree of intent there. And while there's something to be said for getting on base any way you can, this 'method' is one that whacks the catcher's hand with a club and I'd be tempted to stick one in his ribs or even 'buzz his tower' the next time up if I even thought he was doing that intentionally.

For such a good team over the last 5-6 years, the Nats have had a horrid record of futility come October.

There's no way I would have overturned that challenge based on what I/we saw.

By virtue of the Indians losing, Houston gains the home field edge in this one. Game 1: Tanaka vs Keuchel -- 8:00 (or thereabouts) Friday, FS1 Game 2: Saturday 4:00 -- Severino vs Verlander Game 3: Monday 8:00 Game 4: Tuesday TBA

And now another mound conference.

One thing Manfred has said he wants to reign in is mound visits - and I'm all in favor of it. Commercial breaks between innings and during pitching changes are one thing, but at one point I timed it at a full two minutes between the final pitch to one batter and the first pitch to the next simply because the team in the field decided they needed a committee meeting before proceeding. That kind of stuff can't continue. And as I type a new mound meeting is going on.

Contrary to Gerald Ford, their long Nationals nightmare is definitely NOT over. They've just been inventing ways to allow runs tonight. And the Cubs, while hitting better tonight than in most of this series, still aren't exactly ripping the cover off the ball. Ooof, I think HP ump Jerry Layne just got that four tip in his ears and in his eyes.

Chad Ochoseis wrote: ... Lindor was a few inches away from a Game 3 home run; I'd take 3-18 if two of the three hits were home runs. I can't bemoan guys getting robbed of HRs on balls that are hit some 320 ft. Sure it's frustrating when you know that Jeter once hit a HR to a similar spot only six feet shorter, but pop-ups that are questionable to get out of the park in Williamsburg, PA can't be treated as if heroism denied. Plus Lindor had the killer GiDP last night, stifling the only Cleveland rally of the night just two pitches into Robertson's relief stint. He's dead to me now (until he becomes a FA four years hence then I might re-think it)

But are we sure that Brooklyn is off the table? Well I was talking about how some fans thought the "solution" to the Tides ending their agreement with the Mets was to just unilaterally make Coney Island their AAA squad. As far as if Brooklyn is off the table as a future AAA site? -- well it would certainly clear the population base minimum although the stadium capacity would need to be upped by 50% or more. Not sure how practical/possible that is. But that still leaves the MFY veto and I don't think they'd view Staten Island as a very good locale for AAA so would probably balk at the swap. Would they agree if the Mets told them that they'd raise no objection to any future Yanqui AAA team in Yonkers? White Plains?, Jersey City? Yeah maybe. Not really sure if either ML team even wants their AAA team that close. Short-Season A ball is one thing but AAA seems like a bit of overkill, no? What they have now (or will have) are satellite NYM & MFY bases in mid-NYS in the Mets case and NJ & Eastern PA for the Yanx which expand their fan base rather than concentrate it. On the other hand Atlanta went for the smaller nest option so who knows. On the travel thing: NYM brass would mention the part about how much easier it was to get flights out of LV as compared to most if not all AAA cities as an advantage to having their team way out there ... but I think we all suspect that was just them trying to dress up the situation.

Benjamin Grimm wrote: The Mets have said they'll promise to keep the team in Syracuse at least through 2025, when the current stadium deal expires. At that point, if the Mets leave Syracuse, they'll presumably take the team with them, maybe to somewhere closer to New York City. Essentially what you're buying when you buy a minor league team -- in addition to the lease with the city and other tangible stuff -- is the working agreement with the particular league. If they were to want to leave after the stadium deal is up they'd have to find an area which would be approved by the league which has various population and stadium minimums the new place would have to meet. And then of course there are the territorial restrictions and veto powers that other ML clubs have surrounding "their" cities. I bring those conditions up just in case anyone wants to revert to a favorite demand of Mets fans from back when the agreement with Tidewater was ending that the Mets should simply "move their AAA team to their Coney Island location" -- as if the team was theirs to move in the first place, or as if the Yanx wouldn't object, or as if the CI stadium comes even close to IL standards. When they moved to Buffalo a decade or so back they reportedly chose that over Syracuse because they liked the stadium better. So now that that park has aged another decade (although it only dates back to 1997) I suspect that as the years on this current lease starts to tick down the usual pressure on the city to cough up at least some of the money to either spruce up the existing place or replace it altogether will start to ratchet up. Not sure where else they could threaten to move to though. Ideally they'd want to keep it in the north east but you'd need a decent sized city without a team there now. Are there really that many of those they could find bigger/better/closer than Syracuse yet far away enough from NYC, Boston, Philly, Baltimore, DC, etc.?

Aaron Judge in the series: 1/20 with 16 Ks Tony Gwynn in 1995: 535 ABs, [u:25colwnc]15[/u:25colwnc] Ks Just sayin'

Centerfield wrote: Benjamin Grimm wrote: Sigh. My only remaining rooting interest is in seeing the Yankees eliminated. Now I'm in the strange position of wanting the Houston Astros to be the American League champions. You don't want to see Washington lose? As I watch these games I find myself rooting against the Nats but that's pretty much out of habit from the regular season. In truth though my feelings on it aren't all that strong and I suspect I'll probably be pulling for whoever the winner out of this series is over the Dodgers.

Hey Francisco Lindor: nice Grand Slam but you were 1 for 17 otherwise. You want to be counted among the great young short stops in the game today? Not with that shit you're not. And Jose Ramirez: you were supposed to be the secret weapon, the best player no one knows about. Well guess what? You're still invisible to most baseball fans because you barely showed up in this series [2-for-20, both singles] And Corey Klubar, I'm not even speaking to you. Two starts totaling 6.1 innings total and you served up 9 runs including 4 HRs?!? Shit, I can get Matt Harvey to do that for me. Go get a freakin' Klu, eh!

I just became a real big Houston Astros fan. Better them than the Red Sox (IMO). Thought the Indians were the AL's best team this year, thought Houston was the second best.

You almost KNOW they're going to score one or two this inning (but not three).

Gardner and the Cleveland defense seal the deal here.

3-4-5 in the seriously, I just used a racist word when I really meant "Guardians"' order next inning: Ramirez, Encarnacion, Santana, Jackson, Bruce

Hey Lindor, that one stunning Grand Slam aside, they needed a lot more out of you in this series. Ditto Kipnis.

Two months ago Chapman look totally lost to the point where he temporarily lost his closer's job. Been real good since then though.

He's throwing hard in the pen now ... looks like Girardi will go to him in an attempt to get the final six outs. No way Betances is seeing this game and of course this being AL ball there are no PH circumstances to take into account.

If Cleveland bats are going to do this they're going to have to do it against the back of the Yanqui bullpen including Mr. Chapman.