Frayed Knot

Kay is probably sick of getting trounced in the ratings by Francesa so figgers it can't hurt to stir things up a bit.

Which are much smaller than walnuts these days after all that artificial testosterone shit he ingested.

Almost time to start packing for LA. Dodgers only need one win in the next two and Mr. Greinke is already up 1-0 in the 2nd inning.

This may be the most dominant pitching performance I've ever seen. Only Grandy's liner even smelled like a hit and I don't think he ever went to a 3 ball count.

Um, will this be the first division winner to be no-hit twice in the same season? Not even the first div winner this year to do it Dodgers were no-hit twice in a 9 day span about a month ago. oe: Aug 21 - Mike Fiers, Houston -- Aug 30, Jake Arietta, Cubs

1 run in the last 32 innings on 15 hits.

It was just OK Very short so it's not like you're going to invest a ton of time in it either way. Some insight into some stuff but hardly anything earth-shattering.

Career hits vs Matt Harvey - Bryce Harper = 0 - Max Scherzer = 2

We got another ruh-roh Scooby situation going on here. Scherzer's already got a no-no this year plus two near misses. Amazing how he has all that as well as a stretch where his team was losing most of his starts.

Wild back and forth game in Arlington, TX which winds up with Anaheim scoring 5 in the 9th to win 11-10 Both teams blew multiple run leads. 17 pitchers were used. Time of Game = 4:06 Former NYM Joe Smith gets the save. Elvis Andrus singled w/2 out in bottom 9th as the tying run, then got caught stealing by over-sliding 2nd base to end the game (he was safe otherwise). Of all the pitchers used, one-time Brave Jo-Jo Reyes was the winning pitcher for LAA. It was his first MLB appearance since 2011!! He threw one pitch. Bottom line is that's two straight losses for the Rangers who still haven't nailed down the West title. Also (seeing as how these are head to head) two straight wins for the Angels who move to 1/2 game behind Houston for the 2nd WC slot (pending the Astros game later) and everyone moves up temporarily on the Yanx who lost the first one of their rain-induced DH today in Baltimore. Yanx have clinched a tie for the best WC record but can still be caught by the Astros (2 back with 2 games each) who have the tie-breaker edge over NYY for WC hosting privileges. Angels can't catch the Yanx but they can displace Houston. Twins lost and are eliminated. NL is relatively boring compared to all this.

Walking guys in front of Harper is a bad idea and the only two walks today have been one and two batters in front of Harper allowing him to come up with 2 outs rather than leading off the next inning.

Had been a long time since we had last scored prior to the Lagares single. That 5-run 1st inning vs Phillies on Wednesday I think was the last time.

Ed Charles

I have to admit, I don't know who Michael Kay is. It looks like he's someone affiliated with the Yankees somehow. And, of course, an asshole. Newspaper man turned broadcaster who did radio for a time before being tapped to be the lead voice/face of the Yanx when they created the YES network. More recently he hooked on with ESPN as the afternoon yakker for their NYC affiliate - and therein lies part of the problem. I'm sure he made those remarks in the more rough and tumble talk radio part of his life and not during a Yanqui telecast. And while I'm sure HE has no problem compartmentalizing between the rules of decorum between the two, fans who hear that aren't going to make a distinction, they'll just remember: Yankee voice insulting Met fans. Claims to be the nephew of Danny Aiello

After initially appearing like things were going OK (Gary said so during one of the recent games IIRC) the new word on Matz -- via Fred Kerber in the NY Post -- is: �The concern level has certainly gone up,� said Alderson of Matz, ... �It hasn�t seemed to get better.� Collins said the possibility of Matz pitching this weekend rested somewhere between non-existent and the likelihood of a stranger handing you a winning lottery ticket. The Mets want Matz to pitch somewhere before the playoffs begin, likely the Instructional League in Florida. �Right now I don�t see how he�s going to be ready to pitch this weekend,� said Collins, stressing nothing is etched in stone. �That can change. He can go and they may do something and he may come in tomorrow and say, �I�m ready to go,� and Sunday we can get him some innings. http://nypost.com/2015/10/02/concern-level-has-gone-up-on-steven-matz/

Svrluga (pronounced just like it's spelled) is their national baseball guy (as opposed to the Nationals beat writer guy). He recently wrote a short book on the behind the scenes look at the lengthy baseball season (clubhouse/equipment guys, etc.) which was mostly Nationals-centric but would be similar with any team. Much lighter material in that one. [fimg=150]https://cdn.theatlantic.com/assets/media/img/posts/2015/06/51_f1ST534L._SY344_BO1204203200_/7d06fce34.jpg[/fimg] But think about how much this season killed this 'era' for the Nats. I think most observers saw them improving back in 2012 (with b-t-b 1/1 overall picks how could they not?) but they came on faster than most thought, exploding to 98 wins and a division title (just 2 & 3 years removed from consecutive 59 wins seasons) before losing a heartbreaker in Game 5 to the Cards. They then fell back to 86 wins in 2013 and no playoffs, but bounced back to 96 (although another 1st round exit) in 2014. This year they came in as the unanimous pick in the NL East and the WS choice of many and had they come even close to that it would have made the step-back year in 2013 look like the outlier. Instead, they now have as many underachieving years in the last four as they do good ones and even the good ones have ended with a grand total of no playoff advances and only 3 post-season games won. And now they have to at least partially rebuild as contracts (J Zimmermann, Desmond, Span, Fister), and age + injuries (Werth, R Zimmerman) start to catch up to the core of players that have made up these past few years. It doesn't mean they're done but, as we know all too well from the 2006-08 stretch, you come to regret those lost opportunities when you don't grab them. And with the Redskins sucking (for like two decades now) a deep run into October would have given them a great opportunity to steal at least a minor share of media attention around DC -- I think there are a decent amount of Nats fans in DC but the sports media devotes about 97% of their time to the 'Skins (except in football season when it goes up) so baseball fans are left talking among themselves. I've been a big fan of GM Rizzo (I remember writing a post here last year about how well and how often his moves had worked) but he has to take some hits here too: for shutting down Strasburg in 2012; for gambling on the bullpen this past winter (trading Clippard, trading for Papelbon) and getting burned; for going with a rookie manager for a 'win now' team; for maxing out his budget on Scherzer and leaving the team with no in-season flexibility. Part 1 Part 2 Part 3

For those who care to get down in some Nationals flop sweat and roll around in it for a while, the Washington Post this past week did a HUGE -- multiple pages across three different days -- and pretty devastating piece on that team's months-long, slow-motion collapse. Matt Williams comes off worse than I imagined (the players don't like him either) and the deal for Papelbon really did upset the apple cart but, since they were able to get him for lesser players and with a break on his salary due to the Phillies' fire sale state, he wound up being their guy because despite the team's high payroll following the acquisition of Scherzer, ownership had placed a 'but not one penny higher' restriction on things. Anyway, it's long but it's a good look into a season in which sky high expectations dry up into a barely .500 record. Part 1 Part 2 Part 3

In a fit of sleeplessness last night when I turned on WFAN for an hour or so in the pre-sunrise. Yanqui fans who were chiming in seem divided between those who thought a WC was more than they expected this season given the state/age of the roster and a two year absence, and the ones who fell back on the idea that the players celebrating such a minor achievement after last night's clinching win was beneath the dignity of the pinstripes because anything short of a WS win should be looked at as disgraceful failure.

Edgy MD wrote: Problem is that this ain't the Phillies. The Nats have every incentive to put some good lineups out there for the purpose of pride. And as disappointing and dysfunctional as they are, they're still a very good team capable of beating down anybody on any day. And yet they just went out and scored 4 runs total while losing two of three in Atlanta - 2 on solo HRs by non-starters, then 2 more in the 8th inning of the third game courtesy of Braves' errors. Looks like we'll get Gonzalez, Scherzer, and Roark. Strasburg & Zimmermannnn have been their best starters lately but we'll miss them both. And then there's their pen which recently went from two closers to none.

Boston did their best in taking three straight and attempting to hold off the inevitable. Suxx to think that we could have put a bigger dent in their hopes, but we blew it early in the year when they sucked and then again later in the year when we were hot. So now it's all down to the AL West & WC. Rangers just need one win. Houston has a 1 game lead on both the Angels & rarely-mentioned Twins who have won 8 of their last 11 to stay alive. Twins hosting KC Anaheim at Texas Houston at Arizona And it is still possible for the Cubs to pass the Pirates and claim the home field for the WC game. Pitt has a 2 game lead although Cubs have the tie-breaker. Pirates host Cincy. Cubs @ Milwaukee

I was going to say how the math is pretty simple at this point. Six games remaining, three have to go our way, so our odds of hosting the three games in round 1 are 50/50 DateMets RecordDodgers RecordMets LeadMagic NumberGames RemainingNHOPSeptember 2688-6787-670.57150.467September 2789-6787-681.55130.385September 2889-6787-692.04120.333September 2989-6888-691.04100.400September 3089-6988-701.0380.375October 189-7089-70---360.500October 2NationalsPadres4October 3NationalsPadres2October 4NationalsPadres0 ... except that they're not really. Sure, three of the six games have to go our way, but there are a number of ways the results from six games can end up, 16 different ways* to be precise, and 10 of them wind up with the Mets in the lead. So NHOP is a bit misleading here. I mean it's accurate as far as what it says, but it's a bit misleading in what it implies. * Basically the Mets can come out of this weekend with 0, 1, 2, or 3 wins, as can the Dodgers. Four possibilities each: 4 x 4 = 16 [it can also be stated as 2 teams with 4 possibilities each: 2 ^4 = 16] 10 of those 16 combos get the Mets in: Mets get swept + Dodgers get swept (1). Mets win one + Dodgers win none or one (2). Mets win twice + Dodgers win none, one, or two (3), Mets sweep + Dodgers do whatever (4). [1 + 2 + 3 + 4 = 10] That jacks our odds up to 0.625 of seeing home baseball next Friday. Or, if you want to get a little more geeky about it and figure odds of individual games (series going 2-1 or 1-2 are more likely than sweeps either way) then I get it at more like 0.656 in our favor. Just a little geekdom to brighten your soggy Friday.

It was a noon start on the heels of a 4-hour late-night marathon, in the rain and against a bottom-feeder in a division already clinched. I had no problem with his lineup today.

This series would have sucked less if we could brush it off as one that totally didn't matter instead of just only partially not mattering.

Where do I sign up for the service that blocks games where the Mets are getting 2-hit by some scrub?

By this time into last night's game I think they were still in the top of the 1st.