Frayed Knot

Well, he reached back for the plate after the slide so he did touch. Also, the ump called him safe on the original slide so he was safe either way.

Rays beat the Yanx 6 - 1 tonight (Yanx won an afternoon half of the split DH) but one win was all Tampa needed to clinch the AL East title.

Nice comeback by Francisco there because, no Gary, unfortunately that was NOT a surprising challenge by Alvarez. It was a typical one (wrong call, wrong spot, wrong situation).

There are two distance markers on the LF wall only a few feet apart. It's apparently 329 on the LF line but just a few feet over it's marked at 334. An odd choice to be sure.

Great negotiating strategy if true. I'm surprised as well, but certainly OK with it.

... avi

I still want to see division winners rewarded for their regular season. If folks want to seed playoffs strictly by regular season record then just blow up the divisions and stick them all into one 15-team league and seed them accordingly. A middle course, I suppose, would be re-seeding after the WC round: Tampa plays the worst record still alive while the other Bye team (whoever wins the TEX/HOU/CHW/CLE dogpile) is matched against the better WC round survivor. That distinction could be meaningful in some years or marginal at best in others. But as long as the set-up involves a schedule with massive inter-league play (approx 30% of each team's sked) and small divisions which in turn accounts for less than 40% of games within your division, then having this kind of 'imbalance' where one or more non-winning Wild Card teams end up with better records than one or more division winner are not going to be rare occurrences. iow, I blame the in-season set-up more than the playoff shuffle. What I suspect MLB will do is ride with the current format until whatever expansion/restructuring comes down the pike at the end of Manfred's term (2029?). Just keep in mind that if they opt for an eight division/four team set-up then your complaint isn't going to be solved but likely made much worse. Of course by then 24 of the 32 teams will qualify for the playoffs so it'll hardly matter. The playoffs will last two months culminating in the World Series to be held each year in Hiram Bithorn Stadium and wrap up just in time for Thanksgiving day weekend.

Alex Bregman, who's been having a terrific August + September after a very slow start to 2026, suffered facial fractures after taking a foul ball in the face while in the on-deck circle. He's posted a post-injury mug shot of himself and it ain't pretty. But he's got eight days for it to heal (assuming the Cubs don't blow their playoff slot) so we'll see how things go.

And why 2024 doesn't crack the top ten.

Not going to win often when you're on the wrong end of nine walks issued vs zero. And I think at least four of the nine led off innings and most of the nine eventually scored. On a different note, Gary quoted a stat in Saturday's game about how the Mets were high up on the list both in scoring double-digit runs and in giving them up in double-digits. Today wasn't one of those obviously but it kind of confirms what seems to be the case here, that when it rains in pours and that's true in both directions.

Braves win today, with he help of a HR plus 3 RBIs by Mike Yastrzemski, and, with it, clinch the NL East. They'll almost certainly be the 3rd best division winner meaning no early BYE round for them. Instead they'll get the worst WC team in the best-of-three first round series with all games in Atlanta. The last time a title was clinched with clutch September hitting by someone named Yastrzemski Lyndon Johnson was still in the White House. With the Cubs, Phils, and Padres all winning today, it's looking like those will be the three WC teams so the worst of them plays the Braves while the other two play each other. The DBacks are winning vs the Yanx right now but, at best, they'll go into the final week four full games behind the Phils and five each in back of SDP and CHC. The Rays won this afternoon so if the Yanx lose (down 8 - 4 in the 8th) that'll put TBR six up with seven to play. Now four of those seven are head-to-head [at NYY Tuesday (x2), Wed, Thu] so the Yanx essentially have to run the table while the Rays do the opposite. Meanwhile BOTH HOU & TEX lost on Sunday leaving TEX with a one game lead. TEX has NYM x3 than @ MIN x3. HOU finishes up @ SEA and @ ATH (3x each) CLE (+1 in the Central when the day started) won today while the ChiSox are just in the 3rd inning of a lengthy rain delayed tilt vs DET. Wins by both would make it more likely the AK Central loser would snag the 3rd WC slot over the non-winner in the West although it's still possible that Toronto gets hot and snags the 3rd WC slot making it four AL East teams in the tourney.

This is now an official(ly bad) game.

The DBacks using their final home series of the season to celebrate the 25th anniversary of their lone WS win. Nice coincidence.that tonight's opponent happens to be none other than ... the Yanx! If GMSIII were still alive he'd be denouncing the league for intentionally embarrassing him and the schedule makers for being 'anti-Yanqui'.

Just been smackin' the shit out of the ball all inning!!

Line of the game. Gary: The Mets have been out of [ABS] challenges since June.

That partially makes up for his two (additional) atrocious ABS challenges today.

Is it true that his first minor league stop was for Stepford?

Playoff worthy series this weekend (for at least one of the teams involved): - Cubs @ Reds - A's @ Guardians - Red Sox @ Tampa - Tigers @ White Sox - Blue Jays @ Texas - Braves @ Astros - Yanx @ DBacks - Marlins @ Padres - Giants @ Dodgers

Turns out this was less than a minor deal because BACK to the IL goes da Judge. This effectively ends his regular season and, with the Yanx now extremely unlikely catch and pass the Rays for a first round Bye*, this puts him in jeopardy of missing the opening round of playoff games which start just 11 days from now.. * Yanx currently a full five games back with ten to play. Now four of those ten are against the Rays but it would essentially take a sweep (plus help) because, while three of four is nice, that wouldn't be enough to give NYY the season series edge meaning they are effectively six games out at this point. So, at minimum, they need to sweep AND play at least one game better than TBR over those five non-H-2-H games. And doing it without Judge just makes it that much harder.

Six active ML'ers have 1,000+ walks: 1) Carlos Santana (1,332); 2) Bryce Harper; 3) Andrew McCutcheon (only sort of active ... hasn't played since May); 4) Mike Trout; 5) Freddie Freeman; 6) Paul Goldschmidt #7 is Juan Soto with 967. But of the top 20, Soto by far leads that group in walk rate. He's at 18.46% which is right about double league avg (8.9%). He's also more than 2% ahead of 2nd place Aaron Judge (16.27%) with no one else as high as 15%. And at age 27 (28 in October) he's not surprisingly the youngest on the list. Only Alex Bregman and Matt Olson (both 33 in March) are within a half decade of Soto's age.

Just out of curiosity, are we planning on catching any balls before this week is over?

Four NYM baserunners so far ... three of them erased.

Well the power hitter is batting leadoff so it all balances out.

Nah! They tanked against the Orioles so as to save it up for ruining the Phils season. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.