Edgy MD

While rabbit-holing a few weeks back, I discovered a minor league outfielder named "Donald Mazzilli," and I was going to guess him. Is he a sibling or cousin of Lido?

While they're out west, they may want to invite Alex Castellanos over for a play date.

Zvon wrote: I'm waiting for Tejada to rip off his Mission Impossible rubber mask. I'm dyin to see who's under there. It's not like his productivity is unprecedented. It's easy to overlook, in part because of the depressed offensive environment league-wide, but his 2014 was a lot closer to his functionally useful 2011�2012 than it was to his disastrous 2013. He's had one misbegotten season, and Marc Carig would tell you it's been his whole career. I'm rooting for him. He's now got the second-best OPS among Met hitters not on the DL. (Third-best, if you count Syndergaard.)

I was mentally building a lineup on the way to work. [*:3u9d8deg]Tejada, ss[/*:m:3u9d8deg] [*:3u9d8deg]Murphy, 3b[/*:m:3u9d8deg] [*:3u9d8deg]Duda, 1b[/*:m:3u9d8deg] [*:3u9d8deg]C'Dyer, lf[/*:m:3u9d8deg] [*:3u9d8deg]Granderson, rf[/*:m:3u9d8deg] [*:3u9d8deg]Flores, 2b[/*:m:3u9d8deg] [*:3u9d8deg]Recker, c[/*:m:3u9d8deg] [*:3u9d8deg]Gee, p[/*:m:3u9d8deg] [*:3u9d8deg]Lagares, cf[/*:m:3u9d8deg][/list:o:3u9d8deg] Feel free to put the infielders back in the positions Terry's been playin' 'em at, but I prefer the deck stacks that way. And really, does it matter who plays where on defense for either team here in the midst of the strikiest-outiest series ever? Anybody remember the last Eric Campbell plate appearance? He's still on the team, right?

Howie's no dummy.

�Not having National League pitchers hit would deprive us of the entertainment that Bartolo Colon has given us this year. It�s been a great source of entertainment for me. I don�t know about for the rest of you, but it has been for me.� � Rob Manfred

Terrible night for Grandy so far. Let's make up for that... right... now.

One back is something. Nice to get Cuddyer going too. #pyhrric victories.

Amazing beyond amazing, Syndergaard had the same night tonight that Cashner had last night.

Seven unanswered.

Outside of the triple they didn't even hit him that hard. Just a big pile o' breaks. Answer back.

The Mets can get these back.

[fimg=300:25zdjd0e]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/7/7b/New_York_Mets.svg/1024px-New_York_Mets.svg.png[/fimg:25zdjd0e] [*:25zdjd0e]Granderson[fimg=20:25zdjd0e]http://minot43.homestead.com/files/Mr_Met.gif[/fimg:25zdjd0e]rf[/*:m:25zdjd0e] [*:25zdjd0e]Tejada[fimg=20:25zdjd0e]http://minot43.homestead.com/files/Mr_Met.gif[/fimg:25zdjd0e]3b[/*:m:25zdjd0e] [*:25zdjd0e]Duda[fimg=20:25zdjd0e]http://minot43.homestead.com/files/Mr_Met.gif[/fimg:25zdjd0e]1b[/*:m:25zdjd0e] [*:25zdjd0e]Murph[fimg=20:25zdjd0e]http://minot43.homestead.com/files/Mr_Met.gif[/fimg:25zdjd0e]2b[/*:m:25zdjd0e] [*:25zdjd0e]Cuddlyer[fimg=20:25zdjd0e]http://minot43.homestead.com/files/Mr_Met.gif[/fimg:25zdjd0e]lf[/*:m:25zdjd0e] [*:25zdjd0e]Flores[fimg=20:25zdjd0e]http://minot43.homestead.com/files/Mr_Met.gif[/fimg:25zdjd0e]ss[/*:m:25zdjd0e] [*:25zdjd0e]Lagares[fimg=20:25zdjd0e]http://minot43.homestead.com/files/Mr_Met.gif[/fimg:25zdjd0e]cf[/*:m:25zdjd0e] [*:25zdjd0e]Plawecki[fimg=20:25zdjd0e]http://minot43.homestead.com/files/Mr_Met.gif[/fimg:25zdjd0e]c[/*:m:25zdjd0e] [*:25zdjd0e]Syndergaard[fimg=20:25zdjd0e]http://minot43.homestead.com/files/Mr_Met.gif[/fimg:25zdjd0e]p[/*:m:25zdjd0e][/list:o:25zdjd0e]

I think we already have two superhero nicknames too many. Yeah, let's try harder than that. I call him The Long Night, because it's always a long night for the opposition when he pitches. I call him Big Labor because he's always throwing strikes. I call him White Castle because of his endless supply of sliders. Yeah, they all suck. But come on. Something � anything � besides a superhero.

That last line? Absolutely nothing to write home about. Just a post-script note, for measurement's sake. The firstplaciness? THERE'S a lede. Dear Home, The Mets are in first place. Everything is awesome. Hope you're well. How could you not be? Love, Me

Baby Mazz returns to St. Lucie, going 2-4 with a two-run homer in his first game back. He might well be knocking on the big league door by now without that suspension.

Twenty-three RBI in a month is amazin' for a guy still not hitting it over the wall. Some credits got to go to Jeff McNeil (.401 OBP) and Michael Conforto (.350), but keep swinging, Big Dom.

He fielded with aplomb afterwards, so I imagine he's fine. Had some hard-hit balls in the late innings but his fielders did their jobs. Which is more than I can say for San Diego. I couldn't get over how much Matt Kemp had lost. When the Mets had Mois�s Alou, 41 and half crippled, he was giving them more than Kemp was giving his team last night. That is one bad outfield all the way across. Seeing Curtis Granderson go back on the ball and comparing him to Kemp was like day and night. And he's only Curtis Granderson. Here's hoping the big guy is back in the lineup tonight, but it was good to know they can score seven times without him. Still and all, with the 16 strikeouts, I fear that the inferior defense by the Gaslighters was making the Mets look better than they were, relatively speaking. I've got to think that when the Dodgers sent Kemp over, they robbed San Diego blind. He's only 30!

Tonight's win pushes back their .550 marker a full 42 games, having now achieved that degree of success over their last 129 games, dating to July 4 of last year. This can more or less be framed as The deGrom Era, as he scuffled before that date, but only had one bad start after.

Centerfield wrote: I suspect that will be the last we see of first place this season. That ride ended fast. [fimg=350]https://boardgamegeek.com/camo/bbaa71fbb198258cfcbb7387a83426e8cccf5daf/687474703a2f2f626c6f672e666972737461696473746f72652e636f6d2f77702d636f6e74656e742f75706c6f6164732f323031342f30362f4d7242756d702d332e6a7067[/fimg] Mets are 16-20 since the end of the big winning streak.

Good postin', posters.

Weird game.

Gary doing his anti-statistical-analysis strawman act, here.

Tossed in the middle of a count. DON'T MESS WITH IASSOGNA!!

I'm not sure, but when you look at balls-in-play:base-hits, the Padres may be having the least successful evening in the history of defense. That's counting Spangenberg's jumping snag.