Frayed Knot

[crossout:3d1f89sq]55[/crossout:3d1f89sq] 56 with ten games to go (assuming the Fish don't bat around in this inning and give him another AB today)

And just in case you thought that maybe a 3-run deficit could be erased two games in a row, Eric Goeddel decides to open bottom 8th with back-to-back HRs by the dynamic duo of the .194 hitting AJ Ellis and the 1st HR of the year (250 ABs) for Miguel Rojas

Yup, Twins jumped out to a 3-0 lead vs the Yanx and Luis Severino in the Bronx this afternoon - and then promptly gave up [crossout:16jwnxi1]10[/crossout:16jwnxi1] 11 to assure that a sweep is in order and the history of suck continues. I also wonder how the Twins feel about deciding to cut bait in August and deal off Jamie Garcia, only to then get beat by Jamie Garcia in a game against the team you're fighting for a playoff spot.

All Marlins runs have scored with two outs. Most of their rallies started after two were out.

The Cubs being in the midst of a seven game winning streak -- which included a 3-game sweep of the Cardinals -- pretty much put a lid on any tension that the reigning champ might fall short of the playoffs. The remaining interest comes in that the three possible Central contenders still face off against each other over the final 2 weeks Milwaukee's hanging in at only 3.5 out but almost certainly need to win at least 3 of 4 in their home series vs the Cubbies starting on Thursday. Cardinals are 6 games out Cubs sked: 1 more in Tampa, 4 @ MILW, 4 @ StL, 3 hosting Reds Brewers: 1 @ PITT, 4 vs Cubs, 3 vs Reds, 3 @ StL Cards: 2 @ CINCY, 3 @ PITT, 4 vs Cubs, 3 vs Brewers The only other race remains the 2nd WC where the Central loser could still catch stumbling Colorado [2-4 including back-to-back losses to SFG] who are down to a 1.0 game lead over MILW and 3.5 over StL Rox: 1 @ SFG, 4 @ SDP, 3 vs Marlins, 3 vs Dodgers DBacks: 1 @ SDP, 3 vs Marlins, 3 vs Giants, 3 @ KCR

Yeah well fortunately Boston keeps squeaking past Baltimore -- two extra inning wins in a row -- otherwise the Yanx would already be on the verge of being able to sit out the WC round. I'm sure the Yanx would rather play the Twins than the Angels but that's based on the Twinkies history of barely showing up vs the MFYs in important games (like these last two for instance) and little or nothing to do with Trout. Mostly it's a top pitcher you fear more in a one-game play-in and they'll take Severino over anything either of those choices can thrown at them. For Minnesota they'll probably try to line up the decent, through hardly great, Ervin Santana for the WC game if they can; for Anaheim it seems to come down to either their leader in games pitched this year which is Ricky Fucking Nolasco [6-14; 5.12] or their best ERA guy who is something named Parker Birdwell [3.71 in 17 starts]

Bour's HR just creeps over the wall, Cabrera's (w/one on) falls just short. Lagares's liner (w/bases loaded) goes right at the 2B-man, Ichiro's just sneaks over Reyes's glove. Change up those few ABs and not only do the Mets win but it's a borderline laugher.

I wouldn't mind seeing the Twins either but I have no faith in them vs the Yanx. Just take tonight for instance, the Yanx have scored 4 different times all with two outs, twice following Minn errors which extended the innings. It's like they think up new ways to lose whenever they see pinstripes.

Edgy MD wrote: Frayed Knot wrote: I really wasn't in the mood for four hours of baseball tonight. Tell it to Kenji. That guy was an hour by himself. It was Junichi Tazawa but, yeah, that's part of it. If the pitch clock ever becomes realized it's going to have a major impact on the Asian pitchers. I can't think of one of them that isn't deadly slow. Then combine Asian with reliever and it's like you're moving backwards.

I really wasn't in the mood for four hours of baseball tonight.

Edgy MD wrote: It seems like the Reyes we used to have liked the low pitch, especially batting lefthanded. This guy we have now likes it up. Hence the plethora of pop-ups this season (although not this evening). The other thing about later career Jose is that his walk rate now (slightly) exceeds ML averages. The odd part is that his OBA remains low because his BA has dropped so far.

That will make it two streaks of multiple games missed for Rosario -- five games earlier with the finger and now three games (at least) here with his tummy assuming he misses tomorrow -- and he just got here!! Plus he's only like 12 years old and hasn't been trained by Bawris so we can't blame any of the usual suspects of old age or abuse. Also, now just 6.0 games ahead of Philly for last place as they were beating Kershaw last night (4-3 on an Aaron Altherr GS) while we were doing diddley off of Dan Straily who had given up around 50 or 60 runs over his last half-dozen starts. Season ends with three in Philly - so who says there's nothing left to play for!

I'm not sure what an "Alderson Puppet" even means.

It's certainly an odd Red Sox team in that they're at the low end of the power scale - DFL in AL HRs in fact. Also inconsistent pitching beyond Sale at the front end and Kimbrel at the back. They're throwing Price into the bullpen, probably for the remainder of the season, now that he's off his latest DL stint. That makes for one very expensive set-up man but it's probably the right move considering his season.

HahnSolo wrote: Didn't [Gardenhire] also get routinely bashed in our MFY threads for questionable decisions? YES!!!!

What a dud the AL WC race is turning out to be. There was a time a few weeks back when the #2 WC team was changing over daily with at least six different teams involved and all were close enough to where if only one of them got even a little bit hot they were in a position to throw the Yanx into that mix and make every one of their games do or die. Instead it was the Yanx who got hot (12-5 in Sept) while every one of the other contenders has been around or below .500 for close to three weeks now (with the Orioles completely tanking). As a result, the Yanx are not only 5.0 games up on the nearest pretender but they're in the midst of a series with those Twins who last won a playoff series back in 2002 and last beat the MFYs in an important game sometime during the Jim Kaat era (playing era, not announcing). Behind the Twins, only the blah Angels are close (-1.5) and then it's the sub-.500 crowd all 4.5 games back or worse. The Yanx meanwhile have a better shot at catching and passing the BoSox than they do of even having to be the road team in a WC game. The two don't play each other again this year (good thing for the Sox) but that 3.0 game BOS lead doesn't seem safe to me. The Indians winning streak was fun to watch but it also put any notion of a race there to bed as they and the Astros have already clinched the Central & West. Remaining Games: NYY: Twins (2), @ TOR (3), Royals (1), Rays (3), Jays (3) BOS: @ BAL (2), @ CIN (3), Jays (3), Astros (4) MINN: @NYY (2), @ DET (4), @ CLE (3), Tigers (3) LAA: Indians (3), @ HOU (3), @ CHIW (4), Mariners (3)

The Marlins BABiP tonight is just shy of .600 (16 for 27) I mean they're smacking the shit out of the ball now, but these "real" hits are just on top of all the bleeders and seeing eye hits that they were piling up earlier.

I heard that Rosario ate a bad meal late last night at the Spanish food joint that Duaner Sanchez never reached due to his cab wreck -- so at least it's just a bad stomach and not a busted up shoulder.

That wouldn't take much. One good thing is that the Mets almost certainly beat Miami to Miami last night as the Marlins got a later start and had a longer flight in returning home from their home series in Milwaukee.

The point Mags is making is that the popular move -- in this case keeping the home-grown star -- isn't always the smarter business move. The Cards were willing to walk away from their extremely popular superstar's demands and they've been the better club since because of it. That said, there were differences in the two cases: Wright signed the winter he turned 30 for a seven year deal; the Angels inked Pujols for ten years at age 32 and for a lot more money. Now one could argue that Pujols was the better player and deserved more, but the two years prior to his FA deal had already seen slips of 90 and then 105 points of OPS (or OPS+ level of 173 to 148 to 138) so that he was no longer quite the player he had been and therefore worth neither the length nor the per/year cash. That a player who was already trending downward and would turn 32 before ever suiting up for you would continue to fall could have and should have been easily foreseeable. And then there's the injury factor. The biggest problem with Pujols is that he's essentially been giving LAA replacement level while hardly missing any time at all. In only one of his now six seasons w/the Angels (2013) had Albert failed to reach 600 PA David of course has been exactly the opposite. And while signing aging players always carries a risk, getting less than 300 ABs in total from ages 32 to 34 is totally out of the realm of predictability. Money owed starting in 2018: Mets = $47 million over three seasons; Angels = $114 million over four (at which point the ten year "personal services" contract kicks in).

I wasn't a big fan either - especially not after I saw it twice right after it opened. First was with my entire batch of siblings figuring it was good for all ages. It may have been the only time we ever did that and I seem to remember the younger set liking it more than the older (we would have ranged from 8 - 19 at the time). Then, about a week or two later, my sister closest in age to me complained that I never went out with her friends (we traveled in different circles) so I should go to the movies with them. I forget what that group was going to see but it was only after getting in the car that I was informed that the group had changed their minds and were going to 'Close Encounters' instead as several had yet to see it. This time didn't bother me as much as I slept through most of it. The other thing I remember about it was it was re-released some years later with a re-cut ending and maybe some other changes, a change which (in my memory anyway) was greeted with mostly critical acclaim as it supposedly cleaned-up some of the muddled scenes and whatnot, all of which brought me to wonder where all those critics were who were praising the movie the first time around and were only now calling out the flaws in the original. Shit, I was saying those things all along only to be called a cro-magnon for not liking it the first time. Maybe I'd think differently I saw it again (never have since those first two - well, 1-1/2 - times) although I'm not heading to a theatre a third time just to find out.

Didn't see any bit of the Yanqui game today so am just now checking the box score. - O's lead 6-4, closer Zach Britton in to pitch the bottom of the 9th - Ellsbury hits a one out double then moves to 3rd on Gardner's GO. Two outs, tying run at the plate = Aaron Judge - Showalter elects to IW Judge!!, a move that not only puts the tying run with at least decent speed on base but brings the winning run to the plate in the form of Gary Sanchez, a guy just as likely as Judge to park one out there and win the game. Both are RH hitters (Britton throws lefty) so there's seemingly no advantage on that front and I wouldn't thing either has been around long enough to have compiled a meaningful track record one way or the other against Britton Sanchez wound up striking out to end the game so it all worked out and the O's win their first game in like three weeks -- but has anyone got a clue as to what Buck is thinking there? I've said before that opposing teams seem to put on their Stupid hats when playing the Yanx. And while I'm pretty sure that most of the time that's just my MFY hatred showing its head - I'm starting to think that maybe not.

Frayed Knot wrote: Mega small sample size alert here, but Phil Evans looks like he's got a decent pair of hands out there. Rosario on the other hand ...

Mega small sample size alert here, but Phil Evans looks like he's got a decent pair of hands out there.

It should be noted that the stadium organist played 'Okie from Muskogee' for ... Aoki of course. I doubt Norichika had a clue to the connection.