Frayed Knot

Cespedes = 0-for-7 in this series so far. Biscayne Bay, where the Cuban gentlemen sleep all day -- the Dan of Steel

Oh they're tacking Ray. They're most definitely tacking.

I threw out a guy at 1st [u:pxjkllsg]from LF[/u:pxjkllsg] in a softball game. I had a gun back in the day.

I'd like to pull for the O's but I've never believed in them. Their pitching suxx.

Yanx lose 4-3 to the ChiSox on a two-run, two-out walk-off single. Sox scored one in the 8th then the two in the 9th despite getting just one hit thanks to 6 MFY walks plus a HBP plus a Wild Pitch -- Domingo German, Clippard, and Bettances were the culprits. And I see where it took Jacoby Ellsbury until his 2nd day off the DL to get on base his favorite way, via catcher interference; aka: hitting the catcher's glove with his swing. In doing so he tied Pete Rose for the obscure all-time lead with 29 although Ellsbury racked his up in less than 1/3 the number of ABs as Pete. This latest "accident" came with two outs and one on in the top of the 9th and almost led to a tack-on run by the Yanx but Headley K'd with 2 on to end the inning. In 2016 alone Ellsbury reached this way 12 times and it's his 3rd already this season despite less than 150 ABs. I'm not sure the rest of the league combined has totaled that many. If I were the Sox today I'd drill him. "You wanna get on base that bad chump? ... Well then here ya go!"

So AJ Ramos is throwing to JT Realmuto while pitching to TJ Rivera ... at least that's what's going on initially.

And now Nimmo does what Nimmo do.

Put THAT in your bear claw and smoke it!

For the moment Gsellman gets replaced by Wheeler who is expected to be off the DL in time for the weekend series v Philly Beyond that it means that Montero's good recent start earns him at least a temporary promotion to the rotation with Pill in reserve and pray we don't need anyone beyond that. Or, as Graham Parker might put it, we need temporary duty and hope to God that it doesn't rain. Px8laM6lwzw

Lefty Specialist wrote: Holy shit- Ronnie just angrily threw the Mets training staff under the bus....."they need to train baseball players, not weightlifters with six-pack abs." His diatribe was more generally directed at training staffs all over baseball, but it certainly didn't absolve the local boys.

Annnnnd, we'll need a new pitcher for the 4th.

Apparently we are permitted to get two-out hits as well. Previous evidence indicated otherwise.

6-1 Nats after 5 (yes, it's taken them over 2 hours to get in 5 innings). Another bad outing by Arrieta: 4 IP, 6 Runs (5 ER) on 6 Hits and 6 Walks

Yeah, Hansel Robles continuing to pitch even worse in AAA than he did at the ML level isn't an encouraging sign: 13 ER on 9 BBs + 20 hits (incl. 4 HRs) in 14 innings isn't good no matter what league/stadium it's in.

John McEnroe, as seen on CBS's 'SUNDAY MORNING', wearing a Met hat while tutoring young tennis-ians at some program he runs.

The Cubs tried really hard to blow that one last night. They led 5-0 into bottom 9 until finally (and by 'finally' I mean like four hours after it started) Ryan Zimmerman K'd with the tying and winning runs on 2nd & 3rd to end it. Part of what helped the Cubs open it up (was a 1-0 game until the 8th) was Murph making a bad decision in the field (seen that movie before). With the runner going he decided to try for the DP anyway and wound up getting neither out. Both runners later scored. The Nats are tops in the whole NL is scoring runs and, even with their bullpen, are 4th best at preventing them so calling them "vulnerable" is probably a bit of wishful thinking especially since they'll shirley land a closer type before July is out whether it be re-acquiring Melancon, or the long-rumored David Robertson from the ChiSox, or maybe even .... Addison Reed. The only chance I see them of slipping up is if their rotation gets somehow decimated. They've gone through the entire season to date with only four token starts from anyone other than their main five and, while four & five (Roark & Ross) may be shaky at times, their big three are as good as anyone's so unless something happens to one or more of those guys ...

Meanwhile, the Cubs and Nats start a four game series tonight in DC Mon: Butler vs Gonzalez Tue: Arrieta v Scherzer Wed: Lackey v Strasburg Thu (4:05): Lester v Ross P.S. I saw that the Nats offense went wild again in Joe Ross's last start (Saturday). 18 runs this time vs Cincy That was his 4th win of the season and they've come in games where he's been given 14, 10, 6, and 18 runs to work with (not necessarily all with him still in the game) And as if that wasn't enough, he was also the starter in games in which the Nats scored 15, 23 (you may remember that one) and 10 runs where he failed to pitch well enough or long enough (or both) to qualify for a win.

It makes sense for them to try it anyway. Rodriguez was released over the weekend by Detroit, partly on account of his 7.82 ERA coupled with a 1.66 WHiP and partly after complaining that his role as a set-up man rather than full-time closer was the primary cause of those ugly numbers. Also his K numbers are falling despite this K-happy era, as is his hit rate, and his HR rate is WAY up. But the Nats pen has been so bad in EVERY role that the still only 35 y/o K-Rod is probably worth a flyer and may even get his chance to close seeing as how everyone else they've tried has either sucked, been injured, or both. P.S. -- imagine where the Nats would be had they won the rights to Kenley Jansen this past winter? They may have even been the highest bidder but KJ accepted less money to stay w/the Dodgers. On a side note, Jansen gave up his first walk of the season on Sunday although he fixed that by hitting a run scoring double. Another oddity in that (4 hour 19 minute) 12-6 Dodger win vs Colorado is that 6 of the 18 runs were scored via wild pitches, 5 for the Dodgers and 1 for the Rox

but [Rosario] and Dominic Smith now have surprisingly similar stat lines: Rosario: .319 / .362 / .472 // .834 with 7 homers and 48 RBI, mostly batting third. Smith: .320 / .371 / .472 // .843 with 8 homers and 45 RBI, mostly batting fourth. That's almost freaky similar. The comparison still favors Rosario due to the positional value. At this point one has to think that the timing of Rosario's promotion depends on what happens to one or all of the middle-aged middle-infielders currently in residence -- namely Cabrera, Walker, and Reyes -- over the next five weeks. I'm less sure that we'll see Smith this season even if Duda winds up getting deadline-dealt.

Under most circumstances you'd see a seven game California road trip which itself was ending up a stretch of 18 games in 17 days (last day off = June 8) and figure that going 3-and-4 isn't too bad. Except that in this case we didn't even look like we belonged on the same field over the first four games before beating up the worst team in the league without their best pitcher in the closing three. Plus it's not like we're in a position to settle for merely treading water while watching another week melt off the schedule. Still, considering the way the week started ...

Do you suppose those seagulls are saying to each other as they circle the park: "Damn, these games are taking longer and longer every year and keep pushing our dinner later and later"

Another FB that Span failed to get to.

Tebow is, indeed, bound for Port St Lucie. “His last two or three weeks trended pretty well and given all the other circumstances, age and so forth, we felt this was the right time to promote him,” general manager Sandy Alderson said. “I think we’re pleased with [Tebow’s] first half of the season, ... It’s not like he’s tearing up the league, but at the same time all indications are positive in terms of various things that we look at, in terms of chase rates, exit velocity.”

Yup! They've left a lot of tack-on opportunities out there. Fortunately that never comes back to bite us.

Nice outing from Montero. I think he'll always nibble a bit too much but he has to to some extent and today he kept the walks to a reasonable level. Plus most of the hits were kinda soft and there were only one or two hard outs ( a couple of liners to Bruce come to mind).