Frayed Knot

Zvon wrote: Who invented the double play? I want to thank that man. Who was that man, I'd like to shake his hand, He taught my team to turn the 6-4-3

In the transition from the hitting poor team in the first half to the tops in the majors offense in the second and all the reasons for it (Cespedes, Conforto, Johns-ribe, etc) the 'swap' of Plawecki to d'Arnaud is being overlooked as a major factor.

A goofy thought about being 6.5 games up. With just six games remaining between the two teams, the Nats now officially need help to win the division. Even if they were to run the table for the remainder of the season -- which by definition would mean we lose six times -- they still would need us to lose at least once more. Of course the fact that that's happening as I type pretty much makes this sentiment moot (as if it wasn't already).

Edgy MD wrote: I blame Manfred. I blame Soupcan

Mods: How is the vote going where we decide whether or not we're going to let him back in? Last I heard it was neck-and-neck.

NHOP deserves wider exposure.

In (slight) fairness to O'Flaherty, had his stint not been followed with [u:2gtx5ury]2-RBI 2B -- E6 -- RBI 1B[/u:2gtx5ury] [courtesy of Mr. C. Torres, W. Flores, and T. Clippard] to the next three hitters the carnage wouldn't have been nearly as bad. Look, the guy's been awful since he got here, there's simply no way to explain away 13 hits in 5-2/3 innings and he hasn't been especially good this whole year for whatever reason even though he's a 30 y/o coming off a season with a 2.25 ERA and a sub-1.00 WHiP plus has several other good seasons on his resume as well. And again, right now he's the only LOOGY candidate on the staff and there's no use throwing away a potentially useful piece 4 days prior to roster expansion so simply dumping him (I'm sure he has too much seniority to simply be sent down) in favor of the great Dario Alvarez and his 1-1/3 innings of ML trial by fire might not be the 'it couldn't get any worse' fix that you assume. So I'm sure he'll stick around, get into a (not close) game now and then and hopefully right himself to the point where he'll be useful enough to get out Bryce Harper in a big spot down the line. And if not then at least there'll be other options starting this weekend and he'll simply whither from disuse until being let go after the season. Cuddyer seemed lost in the woods a few weeks back too.

Because there's little travel involved for the upcoming series. Phils stay at home, Mets go 100 miles north.

Fman99 wrote: In Washington, the Padres just finished off their 6-5 conquest of the Nationals.So far this month, there has only been one day when the Nationals gained ground on the Mets. That's remarkable, really. I actually count three such days that that has occurred: The first was an NYM off day (Thurs Aug 6) when we lost 1/2 a game to a Nats win, a 2 game lead fell to 1.5. Then there were two when we lost full games as a result of NYM losses/WAS wins: two days later when our lead fell from 2.5 to 1.5 while we were losing to Tampa, then again as the result of our walk-off loss to Baltimore on Wed Aug 19 when 4.5 became 3.5 ... but that's still a remarkable thing to note on the 27th day of a month and the "streak" actually dates back to July 30th. Since that date all but the three days noted above have either seen a Mets gain or been net neutral as we've marched steadily from -3.0 to +6.5

The funny thing about the Yanx is that just as the Mets have morphed recently from a total pitching/pitiful hitting team to one more balanced lately, the Yanx are doing just about the opposite. Their very shaky pitching staff early in the year is improving [Eovaldi is finally starting to harness his 'stuff', call-up Severino is doing well, and Sabathia's injury may actually HELP the staff] but their bats are suddenly starting to show their age. Both Ellsbury & Gardner are slumping at the top of the order while ARod, who had an 850+ OPS for every month this year, suddenly is turning in a 525 in August and Teixeira's in a similar boat (plus he's playing hurt). It all adds up to their near league leading runs scored for the year being near the bottom of the pile for the last month now.

It's almost time to start lining up jokes about the offense wanting to sue the pitching staff for non-support.

All fine and good except that: 1) O'Flaherty was only out there because the succession of Alex Torres, Blevins, Leathersich, and Edgin (and probably someone else I'm forgetting) have fallen by the wayside for one reason or another. 2) Every pen needs at least one lefty so we're a bit short these days with him right now with Gilmartin in charge of eating up multiple and less LHB-specific innings. Maybe Dario Alvarez is the answer -- or at least A BETTER answer (or maybe not) but my guess is that both will be out in the pen starting in about five days and maybe old friend Alex Torres will be with him. IOW, let's not act like there's some sure thing coming in via a white horse to replace him.

In O-o-T news: Verlander blows his no-hit bid w/no outs in the 9th 6-5 Padres heading for the 9th

How many hits? Not given up, how many did HE have? I expect nothing less than 2

Zvon wrote: Nats are trying to comeback in their game, down by a run. But Yunel Escobar GIDP'd to prevent them from tying the game. 6-5 Padres now in the 8th Meanwhile back in Phillly, O'Flaherty not making friends or influencing people.

Was that just a 3 K/9 pitch inning?

This is looking more and more like we got real fortunate in that 1st inning (between the error and the seeing-eye singles) cuz we ain't done doodley-squat since.

And now we've given most of that advantage back by going out very quickly in innings 2 & 3

Lefty Specialist wrote: Okay, that's a good start. Would have liked to pile on, but you can't have everything. Yeah, considering that we didn't exactly smack the ball all over the park, we were kind of lucky to get as many as 3 thx to the error. They probably hit Bart harder than we hit their guy. On the other hand we did make him throw almost 3 innings worth of pitches in that 1st so that could pay off later on.

d'Kong76 wrote: Sweeney, 2B Galvis, SS Herrera, CF Howard, 1B Blanco, 3B Asche, LF Rupp, C Brown, RF Eickhoff, P Darnell Sweeney is one of the two minor leaguers they got from the Dodgers in the Utley deal. 24 y/o, had some decent numbers in the minors, especially so for 13th round draft pick from 2012. Steals a lot (though not great %s), K's a lot (though is cutting down). IOW, a typical young player. Made his ML debut last week, 1-5 w/3 BBs so far.

It wasn't about them refusing to move him to 2B It was specifically about refusing to move him to 2B, as even when they DID play Flores & Tejada in the same lineup it was Tejada who was shifted to 2B not Flores. Flores, for instance, NEVER started at 2B until June 28 but has started their 28 times since. Tejada started at SS Only when Flores wasn't in the starting lineup at all (8 times) again until June 28 yet has started there 38 times since. That's not Tejada hatred, it's a clear mid-year change in direction which suggests -- hell, it outright screams -- previous adherence to a strict policy even when it took precedence over logical in-game strategy.

I suspect the Wilmer can't leave SS policy was more organizational than something decided by just Terry. They were afraid of the bad publicity for failing to find a "real" SS over the winter and moving Flores elsewhere would have looked like an admission that the one they settled for wasn't cutting it either. But now that the've taken the bold plunge, the result wasn't nearly as bad as what they feared.

I think Robles eased up when he saw the ump's hand up in a 'Time Out' situation (not because he saw the batter) even though there's still no indication that time was called at any point before that. I think the ump is to blame here as much as anyone as I don't see how it's his job to call time in mid-pitch because he thinks the batter isn't alert enough. Granted the Phils would have been even more pissed off if Robles got a strike out of his little quick-pitch but that's their problem.

Verrett - 5.2 Robles - 0.3 Conforto - 1.5 Murphy - 1.3 Recker - 0.6 Flores - 0.6 Granderson - 0.5

Lagares - 1.3 Granderson - 1.3 Cespedes - 1.2 Uribe - 1.3 Cuddyer - 1.2 Flores - 1.2 d'Arnaud - 1.3 Tejada - 1.2