Edgy MD

Viennoz is three-for-three with one of those two-out ribbies!

Credit to McNerfs. Encarnación-Strand quit on the play, and Jeff didn't.

I'll further take the two-run double.

I'll take the wild-pitch score as an alternative.

Steal home, Locastro!

And the Mets are on the march, with foist and thoid and no outs.

It's been McNevill's first career start in center. So far, so good.

Bartolo Colón Day in effect.

I'm kind of tired of this "best ever" stuff. Gary came up with a qualifier of "over the last three years" tonight. Over the last three seasons, Shohei has put up 14.3 bWAR hitting and 14.3 more pitching. bWAR isn't everything, but Babe Ruth put up over 28.6 of them (even though they weren't known to exist) over three years a LOT. All the caveats of using Babe Ruth exist. Yes, he never played against visibly African-American players, but he also rode on trains. Yes, he never played night games, but he also never got to DH. He put up fWAR over 28.6 from 1917 to 1919 (28.7), 1918 to 1920 (34.3), 1919 to 1921 (30.0), 1920 to 1922 (30.8), 1921 to 1923 (33.1), 1922 to 1924 (31.9), 1923 to 1925 (34.2), 1926 to 1928 (30.9), 1927 to 1929 (28.8), 1928 to 1930 (29.1), and 1929 to 1931 (29.5). That's 11 times. He was, like, the Babe Ruth of his sport. Ted Williams also did it twice (depending on how you count three seasons when there's a war in between them. Barry Bonds did it thrice. I imagine somebody else might have pulled it off once or twice. It's no shame not being Babe Ruth, as that's a category I too fall into. I dig Ohtani. Among other things, he's showed baseball that nearly a century and a half of received wisdom about letting players simultaneously pursue careers as pitchers and hitters has been wrong. Who knows how many terrific careers were lost or diminished because of that? I just think the guy's about to hit an insane free agent market. But he's shredded his elbow twice now, so his future as a pitcher — and certainly as a star pitcher — is very much in doubt. And after that, we're talking about a Judge-quality slugger who doesn't play defense. And slugger contracts can go sour also. He still has a chance to make people very happy for an extended period of time, given a few breaks, but let's look at him for what he is, rather than build up myths around him.

I fought D. Law and D. Law won.

Gott just doesn't trigger the good part of my imagination.

A lot of lawn gnome beards in this Reds bullpen. I still think of the Reds as the team that bans facial hair.

Joey Votto hitting .196 but with a perfectly defensible .750 OPS.

Frayed Knot wrote: If Ohtani did indeed pack his bags and leave it was likely with team permission as he was put on the IL today and will not play again this season. Maybe but it's sure a weird way to let the story play out. The press finds out his season is over from the empty locker. And then everybody finds out he's gone because he's spotted at the airport getting on a plane to Japan. It certainly invites inferences.

Double plays stink, except when our guy does it.

Bunt singles are great, except when the other guy does it.

Mets get one back and this Benson character in left for Cincy doesn't seem to be much out there.

Dead thread, as the Mets fall behind. How many guys is Christian Encarnación Strand, anyhow?

Lindor should've stolen home, man.

Umps getting the count wrong. Embarrassing.

Down with hitting into double-plays.

I usually use the toilet before cleaning out my locker, that way I don't have to leave my bags on the men's room floor while I strain. Embarrassing all round for the Angels, and I'm suspecting GM Perry Minasian is feeling a little hot in his seat. I don't know if he deserves it, but it'll be sad if he gets lopped, as he's worked his way all the way up from Rangers batboy to Angels GM.

I'm retroactively saying let's not let Vientos bat.

This has been a good game. I'd sure like to take it.

Pinch-run for DJ here?