Frayed Knot

25-and-under current stars who already have more career strikeouts than Berra: Giancarlo Stanton, Mike Trout, Bryce Harper, Anthony Rizzo Number of times Berra K'd three times in a game: three, and one of those was the final game of his career when he came back as a player/coach after not playing for more than a year because he was managing.

But for all of Grandal's pedigree and accomplishments, AJ Ellis is starting about half the time lately at catcher. NOT subject to platooning is 1B Adrian Gonzalez. He starts nearly every day [142 games started] and while he may be slightly off his career norms, he's still good enough at age 33 [.275/.352/.488 w/61 XBHs]. As the only full-time LH stick in the Dodger lineup (Grandal & Rollins switch hit - Carl Crawford & Utley appear part-time) he could very well be the target for reliever Jon Niese at some point in games even though his splits vs LHPs isn't that much worse than vs RHPs and one wouldn't figure Mattingly would dare PH for Gonzalez with Scott Van Slyke.

So apparently it was 'Underoos' day after the game for the traditional rookie hazing thing that goes on during a road trip each year. [fimg=500:980ch1yg]http://pbs.twimg.com/media/CP8hGlOWcAENf17.png[/fimg:980ch1yg]

I've been rooting for StL to drop out of the lead in the Central just for the hell of it really. But I'm starting to think that they're in real trouble. They blew a 9th inning lead today to Milwaukee (7 Brewer runs in the 9th). Plus Carlos Martinez just went down for the season, Molina is maybe out of the duration although nobody's saying anything. And while they're talking about Wainwright maybe coming back, the first week of October is a tough time to make your season debut. And of the three teams that might be in a one game play-in game, the Cards would be the ones without the dominant starter for a winner take all game as compared to either Gerrit Cole for Pitt or the Cubs' Jake Arietta. Pitt is losing tonight to the Cubs which would hold the StL lead at 3 games, but those two teams have a 3-game series this week so that could be erased in a hurry.

I actually don't think Harper is in the wrong here. Yeah he jogged down to 1st, but it was a weak pop-up behind 2nd where he wasn't getting to 2nd even if the ball was somehow dropped. And if someone wants to call Harper out for non-hustling it probably shouldn't be a reliever who's been on the team for about 20 minutes. If Werth, Zimmerman, or of course Williams wants to do so then fine. But Papelbon was clearly the aggressor here both verbally and physically and, even if you think he's in the right here, he's certainly NOT right in how he went about it. Harper could use a comeuppance every now and then, but I don't think this particular incident was the time or the place.

Gwreck wrote: Another great job by the Colorado Rockies pounding the Dodgers 12-5 today. Dodgers' magic number remains at 2, but more importantly, the Mets have a 1.5 game lead over the Dodgers for home-field in the first round. Dodgers now begin a 4 game series in San Francisco. They would clinch with a victory in any of those games so one would think the Giants would have extra motivation to help us out by, say, winning all four games. Dodgers now 3-10 in their last 13 games NOT started by Grienke or Kershaw

But as Gary pointed out today, he's got good numbers against Adrian Gonzalez and he's the biggest (only?) Dodger LHB threat. As a result, Niese could wind up being nothing more than a super-specialist here - at least in the first round.

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: Unreal. I cannot believe the Nationals sent Papelbon back out there to pitch the following inning! While Harper left the game. And while it's tough to blame GM Mike Rizzo for not forecasting just how poorly this move would backfire, that's now 13 runs against for Papelbon in just 22 IP (even if only 8 were earned runs). They needed bullpen help at the deadline, but what a crash and burn that turned out to be! Papelbon makes them promise he'll be the closer but Williams can't seem to get him in to close games or even into tight games against your only division rival. Then, as a result, Storen pouts, gets worse, then punches his way out of the season. And now Papelbon also gets worse and punches the franchise player.

Up 4-2 heading into the 8th, the Nationals wind up losing 12-5. Nice bullpen once again. So why should we care about this now? Well we shouldn't really, except that the meltdown was punctuated by an in-dugout brawl between Harper and Papelbon. I didn't see it first hand, but Harper had just [crossout:c5hvh33q]grounded[/crossout:c5hvh33q] popped out and on his trip back to the dugout Papelbon was mouthing at him the entire time (lack of hustle maybe?). Not long after Bryce got into the dugout itself the two went at it and it certainly wasn't just one of those pushing/shoving type of false fights. The details, assuming they ever get out, should be interesting, especially since the Nats assumed Papelbon's contract through next season when they acquired him.

Rockin' Doc wrote: Maybe the Mets missed their better pitchers during this trip. Problem is they don't have better pitchers. Not healthy ones anyone. Gary made reference several times this series as to how many games in a row they've started a rookie, a streak that one assumes will continue until the season ends. I forget the exact number but it was something like 50 or 60. I don't ever remember hearing of something like that.

John Sickels doing a review of last June's high draft picks 53rd overall pick) New York Mets Desmond Lindsay, OF, Out-of-Door-Academy, Sarasota, Florida: -- His draft comments: Hits right, North Carolina commit, another injury victim, in his case a bad hamstring. Good power/speed potential but another guy who has signability concerns due to injury and college commitment though should sign here. Risky choice but with very high upside. -- Update: Hit .304/.400/.464 in 69 at-bats in Gulf Coast League, then .200/.308/.267 in 45 at-bats after moving up to New York-Penn League. High physical upside the main draw but skills in early developmental stages so it is no surprise he had trouble against older players in the NY-P.

I'm not much of a hat guy to begin with so my opinion here isn't worth much, but I also have an aversion to the term 'Post-season' (even though I admit I don't have a better substitute). It just sounds cheesy to me.

This game is disappointing. Freddie promised us meaning full games in September and this game has absolutely no meaning.

Lefty Specialist wrote: I've seen better lineups in the first week of spring training. And I think we may have seen worse ones in May.

[youtube:36xhm7m9]ts9-4jbFWGg[/youtube:36xhm7m9] As good an excuse as any to play this one.

See now you may think that NHOP has run its usefulness, but you'd be wrong. The same concept can still be employed in the chase for the better record between us and those Dodgers who used to dodge trolleys but now dodge traffic ... and the occasional bullet during drive-bys. Yesterday's win coupled with Carlos Gonzalez's walk-off HR in Colorado put us ahead of LA for the first time this September. They have the extra game to play (many sportscasters like to refer to this as "even in the loss column") but we have the advantage of the tie-breaker so merely staying on pace with them gets us the HFA even if they get that 'extra' win. So what this means is that our current 1/2 game up with 7 to play puts the magic number at 7 and the off day on Monday will even up the games remaining (barring rain-outs). 7 games to turn out 'Happy' out of 15 total. After finishing up in Denver this afternoon, the Dodgers go to SF for 4 games which, even if the NL West is settled by then (LA's Magic # = 2 as we start Sunday), those teams aren't likely to throw in any towels or treat the games as meaningless. Not that Philly is likely to either but it is different when those two get together. Some fans might remember Joe Morgan, then late in his career and playing in a SFG uniform, hitting a HR on the final day of the season to keep the Dodgers from winning the Western Division that year and touching off a celebration in SF even though the Giants had been eliminated the day before and weren't the ones who were going to benefit.* DateMets RecordDodgers RecordMets LeadMagic NumberGames RemainingNHOPSeptember 2688-6787-670.57150.467September 27@ Cincy@ Colorado13September 28Off Day@ SFG12September 29@ Philly@ SFG10September 30@ PHilly@ SFG8October 1@ Philly@ SFG6October 2NationalsPadres4October 3NationalsPadres2October 4NationalsPadres0 * http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/SFN/SFN198210030.shtml Morgan's 3R/2-out clout off of Terry 'Tub of Goo' Forster in the 7th broke up a 2-2 tie. The loss meant the Dodgers finished just 1 game behind Joe Torre's Atlanta Braves (who were losing to SD just as the drama in SF was playing out) in the NL West. The Giants, who had been eliminated when they dropped the previous 2 games to LA, wound up 2 games back. Morgan circled the bases pumping his fist the entire way.

No need to root for the Nats to win, just for them to take longer to lose.

Lefty Specialist wrote: One good thing about the postseason? No Steve Gelbs. He just asked Harvey's one-time coach the same question three times in a row, just changed the phrasing slightly. I thought it took amazing patience on the coach's part not to grab the mic out of Gelbs' hand and conk him with it.

Nats just had baseball-loaded and no outs ... then didn't score. It's been one of those years for them. That game is already in the 5th so it's on pace to end before ours.

I see that this Lamb guy has taken over Mat Latos's spot for the fair-skinned/blond-guy with ridiculous arm tats on Cincy's roster. I'm surprised Duda's shot didn't make half of them fall off.

Assuming each game is a 50/50 proposition, I put their odds of blowing it at 0.00305175813% 1) Mets lose 5 straight: 0.5^5 = .03125 2) Nats win 6 straight: 0.5^6 = .015625 3) Nats win 4 vs Mets (3 on sked + play-in): 0.5^4 = .0625 The odds of [u:1fo6rkeo]all of those things occurring[/u:1fo6rkeo] is the product of the 3 above steps = .00003051757813 or .00305% But I think we can all agree that it's teeny small.

The odds of the Yanx missing out of even the WC are almost nonexistent at this point. I was going to suggest rooting like hell for both the Astros and/or Angels, but the problem is that, short of a run-the-table finish by Minnesota [6 full games behind the Yanx] [u:2mmfpqn7]all three[/u:2mmfpqn7] of the AL West contending teams would have to finish ahead of the Yanx. But with six head-to-head games remaining that's all but impossible and the best you can hope for is that two of those three finish ahead and force the Yanx to hit the road of the play-in game. The Astros, who have all but mathematically blown their shot at winning the west (4.5 back) thanks almost entirely to losing five straight to the Rangers in September and 13 of 17 overall, finish with 2 more vs Texas than 3 each with Seattle & Arizona The Angels, sitting just 1/2 game behind Houston, have 2 with Seattle, 3 w/Oakland, and then close it out with 4 in Texas So that means there'll be a minimum of six losses among those teams in some combo or another. In other words: GO TWINS!!!

1) Handshakes and hugs in the dugout plus noise from the NYM fans in attendance. No big celebrations until after the game in the clubhouse and then the full night ahead of them. 2) No dog pile on the field after a loss and no return to the field after a Nats loss because it's not their field (might do it at home if the time span was short enough). And it would certainly be weird if their celebration was stepping on the Reds' one for winning via a walk-off But full-on party in the clubby and on into the southwestern Ohio night.

The NHOP is .059 Yeah, but the NHOP to clinch prior to the final series is still way up there at .091 Both games today at 4 PM so it'll be a race to see which game closes things out first. Or maybe we have to wait until tomorrow.

The translation of Gaard into farm (see the discussion of Syndergaard above) -- and likely as the root for the English word Garden -- got me thinking that the name Kierkegaard (as in Danish philosopher Soren) essentially translates to Church Garden. And despite his later in life break with, and criticism of, the church, Soren Kierkegaard was given an official church ceremony upon his death and interned at a church cemetery -- meaning that Kierkegaard was buried in a kierkegaard. That's all, you can go on with your day now.