Frayed Knot

Unbelievable!! Blevins was one pitch away from a 1-2-3 seven-pitch inning after he got 0-2 on Mazara, but he never got the third strike.

In Blevins I trust.

Benjamin Grimm wrote: Delino DeShields??? That would be DD Jr. iow, you've not gone through a time warp. Papa De last played in 2002 Golf Clap for Mr Wheeler. I think that's probably it for him tonight.

Ceetar wrote: Well yeah, that too. But seriously, I'm watching the end of the Yanx/Red Sox last night and a crowd shot in the 9th inning shows the Boston fans behind the dugouts in YSIII all looking at the game through their phones. Now I know we live in a 'Pics or it didn't happen' society, but geez, you spend hundreds to get that seat so you can see a live baseball game and you're watching the crucial 2-out / one-run game Kimbrel vs Judge matchup through a screen approximately (quick guesstimation here) 1/150th the size of your home television. I don't get it. If the camera/broadcast is on those fans, you're not watching the game either are you? 95% of them looked up. I saw a whole bunch of peeps watching Albert's 600th HR through their tiny screens and they kept those things in their eyes the entire time. It's like their reasoning is: so while history unfolds before me, I'll put this thing in front of my face as it happens because being able to prove that I was there later on beats actually seeing it occur.

Wheeler now at a pitch count that's lower than the average through six innings. Would love to see him get through at least the seventh and better the odds of our nightly game of bullpen roulette.

Rockin' Doc wrote: Nice 4-6-3 DP to end the inning. Cabrerra got away with the neighborhood play as DeShields was baring down on him. He was probably still on the base because every force play at 2nd gets challenged these days even if the fielder is off by fractions of an inch. Meanwhile, another one by Jay Bruise

So Nolan has a statue* outside of the stadium down there even though his tenure as a Ranger was far less than his was as either an Angel or Astro and only slightly longer than as a Met. G/IP Angels = 291 / 2,181 G/IP Astros = 282 / 1,855 ------------------------------ G/IP Rangers = 129 / 840 G/IP Mets = 105 / 510 * I hope it's not anchored to the ground seeing as how they'll have to pick it up and haul it over to the new place in a couple of years

Wheeler is actually down to almost a normal pitch count despite that long first inning. 2nd, 3rd, and 4th have gone much quicker for him.

What's the average number of pitches thrown by Met starters in the 1st innings of games this year? Thirty? Thirty-Five? Forty? Wheeler gets away with "only" 27 in bottom one, but that's only because he got three outs on his final two pitches in that frame.

Edgy MD wrote: John Sickles has him as their fifth-ranked prospect, giving him a B+, which strikes me as high for a #5. Mostly a case of a stacked Atlanta system. Sickels had him at #62 overall pretty much right smack in the middle of the rest of the B+ gang Was originally a 1st round (15th overall) pick of the Angels (2014) out of the baseball hotbed of the Univ of Hartford, dealt to the Braves in the Andrelton Simmons deal. Sunday is the day we would have seen Bartolo

Yeah, what the aim of the whole plan was is still unclear to me although it obviously has the ultimate goal of bringing in more cash, particularly on the near 300 days/year with no games. By coincidence I was just reading an article about how both aging malls and some newer big box stores are looking to turn their parking areas -- in many cases overbuilt and now far larger than what they need -- into extra retail space.

I don't seem to get as bent out of shape over announcers as many fans do. Oh I have a few on either end of the spectrum that I find either great or grating, but the rest are just sort of white noise in between and whatsisname in there last night barely registered. Or maybe I was just too pissed off at the way the team played to even notice.

It's a logical series to blow off, he winds up with essentially 4+ days of vacay with the bookended off-days while missing just two games. Plus he gets out of two nights in Arlington, Texas and a 4-hour plane ride.

Well yeah, that too. But seriously, I'm watching the end of the Yanx/Red Sox last night and a crowd shot in the 9th inning shows the Boston fans behind the dugouts in YSIII all looking at the game through their phones. Now I know we live in a 'Pics or it didn't happen' society, but geez, you spend hundreds to get that seat so you can see a live baseball game and you're watching the crucial 2-out / one-run game Kimbrel vs Judge matchup through a screen approximately (quick guesstimation here) 1/150th the size of your home television. I don't get it.

Edgy MD wrote: I have to think squeezing (relatively) so few runs out of so many opportunities can't not reflect on the manager. Over the long haul, yeah, but hitting with runners on hasn't been the team's problem this year. If anything it's kept us from an even worse record. But I'm not quite sure what a skipper can do when his hitters go HR-HR-1B-1B and wind up with half the runs compared to if only they went 1B-1B-HR-HR instead, or when an ill-timed grounder inserts itself between a hit and a homer (1B-GiDP-HR) producing just one run instead of two or three.

metirish wrote: Scott and Ron were talking about the Rangers new stadium being built and showed a computer generated version, ballpark and Mall type deal too.... That's essentially what the Braves have created at their new crib in [crossout]Atlanta[/crossout] Cumberland, GA Not coincidental, I don't think, that both the Braves and the Rangers are in suburbs more than actual cities -- Arlington, TX is some 20 miles outside of Dallas -- and so the suburban mall type thing works better there. I guess one can say that Flushing is kind of a city/suburb hybrid. The Cards park is in the city right next to where the old one was but we're talking about a much smaller city in StL

You would think that turning a 17-hit (including 5 HRs) 6-walk game with your supposed ace going into a loss would be near impossible. Instead it was largely a blowout. I mean some of these situations seem to defy mathematics: 1st inning: Leadoff double = 1 run 2nd: Leadoff walk plus a HR = 1 run 3rd: 2 HRs, 2 singles and a walk = 2 runs 4th: walk + single = 0 runs 5th: 2 singles = 0 runs 6th: 1 single = 0 runs 7th: the lone 1-2-3 inning of the night for Ranger pitching 8th: 2 singles and a walk = 1 run 9th: 2 HRs, 2 singles, plus a walk = 3 runs Dillon Gee faced 21 batters, retiring just nine of them including giving up three (could have been four) HRs, and yet somehow escaped with only 4 runs against him. And the biggest problem is that the lack of clutch hitting isn't the biggest problem. The starter who we think is the most dependable (or at least did) and was handed a lead before he threw a pitch, wound up with an ERA for the game of 18.00 and a WHIP of 2.75, all of which made the bullpen's combined 2 runs and 8 baserunners over 4 innings (4.50 / 2.00) look good in comparison even though those runs end up as the final difference in the score.

That was the only way for that game to end.

Odd time to steal a base ... but it worked.

So even though it doesn't seem like anyone named 'Scooter' should be hitting any HRs, Scooter Gennett of the Reds hit four tonight vs the Cards after coming into the day with just 38 for his career. 'Hard Hittin' Mark Whiten also had 38 coming into the game when he hit four. Whiten was more of a HR hitter but had his big night earlier in his career as compared to Gennett. Haven't looked up all the other 4-HR guys but I can't imagine anyone else had fewer.

Frayed Knot wrote: Now bases loaded w/no outs the other way ... but I'm betting their side doesn't follow with three weak rollers. Or maybe they will.

If these batting gloves they wear are so tight that hitters have to pull them off one finger at a time and with great effort once they reach base, how come they need to be re-tightened after each pitch whether they swing at the pitch or not? And why would fans pay hundreds of dollars for a front row seat only to then watch the game through a 5 inch screen?

Now bases loaded w/no outs the other way ... but I'm betting their side doesn't follow with three weak rollers.

12 LOB; 2-13 w/RiSP and only one of them scored a run. Meanwhile, six of the ten Rangers runs came on non-hits.

Three shots to get a hit w/RiSP ... oh for two so far and nothing out of the infield.