Frayed Knot

Edgy MD wrote: ... who married magic realism to baseball as if they were born to be together. You mean they weren't?

Good day on Friday if you root for an AL East contender ... unless that team is the Yanquis!! BoSox beat the Yanx again although in less dramatic fashion than on Thursday; Orioles threw out the tying run at the plate w/2 outs in the 9th to survive Tampa; Blue Jays shut out the Angels late on the west coast And this all coming on a night where Detroit, Seattle (breaking 8-game winning streak) and KC all lost which starts to widen the gap between the three AL East leaders and the rest of the pack. Jays & O's tied for the WC, 2.0 games back of division leading Boston Tigers & Mariners knotted at 3 games out of WC slots Yanx & Astros tied at 4 back and the defending champeen KC Royals are not only 7 games behind but they have to make up that ground AND leap at least 5 teams while doing so

Going into last night's game, the most ABs against Bartolo by any Twin was the 13 by Kurt Suzuki. Second most was manager Paul Molitor (10; 2-for-8 plus 2 walks). Monitor retired 18 years ago.

Pitt won in extras, but the Marlins also went extras w/Philly and they lost. It's getting to be a bit of a long shot (now 5.0 games back of us, 3 or 4 behind StL depending on the late scores) but that's not enough to totally dismiss the Fish quite yet, particularly because we have three late games with them. I'd prefer that they be mathematically out of things prior to that series.

Edgy MD wrote: Right on! (Though stop talking to yourself. It's creepy.) I have to talk to myself, I'm the only one who listens to me.

Edgy MD wrote: Two of Dozier's homers were as a DH, so he needs three more to catch Davey Johnson and Rogers Hornsby for the record by a second baseman ... But one of Davey's came as a PH so now he's back down to two.

Frayed Knot wrote: Another ho-hum, nine pitch, 1-2-3 inning by Reed And if it wasn't for the fact that his batting slot will probably come up in the bottom half here, I'd have him pitch the 9th. Terry won't, but I would.

Another ho-hum, nine pitch, 1-2-3 inning by Reed

Gwreck wrote: Centerfield wrote: Speaking of celebrations, what is the protocol on Wild Card celebrations? You celebrate nothing until you win the wild card game. Losing the wild card game is the same as not making the playoffs. Yup!

Cubs won their afternoon home game today via a walk-off HR in the 10th (Miguel Montero) so that gave them a good kick-off for their delayed clinching celebration. btw sportscasters, the Cubs did NOT "back in" to the playoffs due to the Cards loss late Thursday night. 'Backing in' is when you were unable to get your division/playoff spot on your own and only get it because someone else lost somewhere. The Cubs obviously could -- and did -- obtain it on their own. But that didn't stop me from hearing several references today about 'backing in' even though the only issue here had to do with timing.

Fuck Kurt!! oh wait, wrong Suzuki. Never mind!

Mini-KTE Dozier 2B -- so how often does the team's (and nearly MLB's) HR leader hit lead off? But he will run (15 SB in 17 tries) as well as bop. Mauer 1B -- not quite what he once was offensively, and of course no longer catching which takes a bit more of the value off, but he still can hit and get on base Polanco SS -- that would be 22 y/o rookie SW-hitter Jorge Polanco. Yeah, I never heard of him either. Kepler RF -- I know more about 16th century German astronomer Johannes Kepler than I do about this guy. But Max here was also born and grew up in Germany and is having a decent rookie year. Suzuki C -- Now in his 10th year in MLB and his 3rd w/Minn. Of all the catchers in the league, the Hawaiian-born Suzuki is one of them. Escobar 3B -- Eduardo Escobar. I hope for his sake that he's got a good glove cuz his hitting stats aren't much. Rosario LF -- Eddie Rosario, 24 y/o in his 2nd year. Buxton CF -- 2nd overall pick in the 2012 draft and a top-10 prospect on all the lists every year since ... but he kept getting hurt in the minors and has yet to live up to that promise. Still just 22 though Berrios P -- Was called-up for his ML debut amid much fanfare in late April, but ERAs approaching 10 R/G have a habit of pissing all over fanfare.

Also not insignificant is that the Dodgers lost last night to Arizona. So not only are they just 4 games up on the Giants but those two teams have Six head-to-head games remaining [Mon thru Wed, and again the final series of the season] which could put us in a situation similar to the current one where we automatically gain on one team or the other with each game we win. We'll still need a couple more stumbles from the ex-Brooklynites, but they're not out of reach for either us or the Giants.

What a fuckin' bomb that HR was!! And it comes on a day when Detroit lost, KC lost, Baltimore lost, and where Boston obviously would have lost had the Yanx been able to hold the lead. So instead of the Yanx gaining on all of them they instead gain on none and lose a game to the Sox, lose a half-game to idle Seattle, with Toronto still to be decided (playing on the west coast).

Botox with [u:4qczz9k7]5 in the 9th[/u:4qczz9k7] just stunned Bettances & the Yanx to win 7-5 3R walkoff HR by Hanley Ramirez was the final stroke

Twins warming up for their trip to NYC by beating the Tigers 4-1 in the 8th this afternoon. If they hold on that'll make it 3 of 4 in this series against WC hopeful Detroit so it's not like the Tigers had nothing to play for. Also Detroit still have distant hopes at the AL Central crown (6 games back), AND had a slightly better record than us this season, AND had been 11-1 vs the Twinkies this season.

Berrios was the Twins top draft pick back in 2012 out of Puerto Rico. He came into this season as top prospect and was a top-20 prospect overall -- but I think it’s fair to say that a 9.27 ERA after 11 ML starts isn’t quite getting it done. 62 hits in 44 innings including 10 HRs is no way to go through life son. Overall on this year's Twins, 2B Brian Dozier is one of the most ridiculous stories in MLB this year. He’s had a couple of 20+ HR seasons before and was a 2015 All-Star, but this year he has [u:26ifwikq]22 bombs just since August 2nd[/u:26ifwikq] and trails only Mark Trumbo (42-41) in the ML HR lead for the season. He’s also jacked his BA up 40 points this year in the process.

Rockin' Doc wrote: Loney has performed much better than Bruce as a Met. Yeah, but not so much lately -- .213 with one XBH in August Not what you want from your 1st baseman

Nice of the Dodgers to take two of three while in the Bronx while the Sox & Orioles were beating up on each other. Dodger fans even came east with a large '7-Line Army' style group who turned the LF stands into a sea of blue. They displayed large Dodgers banners and even did their own 'Role Call' drill. Not sure if they all left by the 7th inning out of habit or not. Orioles and Blue Jays currently hold on to the #1 & 2 WC slots, 1 & 2 games behind Boston in the East and 1 & 2 games ahead of Detroit in the WC. This all despite the Jays continuing to suck (3-9 in Sept) but they've been balanced off by the Mariners and their 8-game winning streak which pushed them ahead of the Yanx and right behind the Tigers. Yanx go to Fenway for four starting tonight giving the Sawx a prime chance to bury them. Blue Jays head out to Anaheim starting tonight; O's have a four-game set with TB Tigers finish up this afternoon with the Twins then go to Cleveland for the weekend where they still have a hail mary hope of the AL Central (Det - 6.0) Mariners get a visit from Houston although the Astros keep trying to play themselves out of it by losing another series to Texas this week (4-15 on the year) KC is technically out of things especially seeing as how they have another one with Oakland tonight then the ChiSox for the weekend WC Orioles +1.0 Blue Jays -- Tigers -1.0 Mariners -1.5 Yanx -2.0 Astros -2.5 Royals -5.0

Gary put it well yesterday. - if you're rooting for the best chance of the Mets making A WC spot then you root for a sweep so as to bury the losing team and keep the blue and orange afloat no matter how they do in the near future - if you're rooting for the Mets' best chance to win the #1 WC slot then you root for a split while hoping the Mets take care of their own business As for which team is the sweeper and which the sweepee, that's pretty much irrelevant unless you have a particular like/hate going on with one of them. The Giants are clearly the team headed in the wrong direction right now so the temptation is to root for them, but of course if they were to trash the Cards and use that to suddenly go on a roll like their 100+ win first half pace then they would no longer suck and everyone would go back to worrying about them and their even-numbered year post-season mojo again. The other thing is that I still haven't given up on dragging the Dodgers back into this thing. Yeah they're now 5 up on the SFGs but those two play each other six more times, including the final three, and it never hurts to have one more team in the mix and have it so we just have to catch either/or of the West teams. So if the Giants are going to get hot somehow, it would help if they did it at the Dodgers expense and for whoever else the Dodgers are playing (now that the Yanx are out of the way) to bop them over the head now and then also ... although the Dadgers head to Arizona this weekend so maybe that's mostly wishful thinking. Even the Giants recently beat up on the Snakes.

That first Sunday, April 2nd, will have three games played with the remainder of the league getting going on Monday. The two afternoon games are already set but the ESPN Sunday Night national telecast is 'TBA' for now and that's traditionally been where the reigning WS champ kicks off their defense of their title meaning that I'm figuring there's about a 74% chance our Monday opener is getting moved up. OK maybe not that high, but don't make any unbreakable plans for that Sunday night quite yet.

cooby wrote: batmagadanleadoff wrote: Jesus H. Christ. I was logged onto this forum most of the day, posting and all and I didn't even know there was a game going on. I thought this IGT thread was yesterday's game thread. You won't like hearing this but I think we're related You two might want to look into this new invention known as a 'Schedule'. They're readily available all over the interwebs and printable versions can be had for easy reference even if they're no longer included in the early April issue of the New York Daily News Sunday Magazine section.

Oh my Gawd, Lucas Duda is in Fred Wilpon's box!!!

Chad Ochoseis wrote: Well, it was quick, anyway. 2:30 is the official time. First NYM game under 2:45 in three and a half weeks and just the 3rd 2:30 or under since the ASB. And to think, even in not so hazy memory (mid to late '80s) 2:45 was right about average. Go back just a bit further to the late '70s and 2:30 was average. Now that time qualifies as almost freakishly short and needs a 1-0, 8-1/2 inning game with a total of just 9 hits and helped by 4 runner-erasing DPs to make it happen. * ML average for 1985 = 2:44. For 1978 = 2:30

Aww Poo On the flip side, the Giants lost just seconds after we did so the NL WC race remains exactly how it began the day.