Damn, I didn't realize there's only 1 GKR game out of the 4 with Philly.

Thursday is FOX: if it's Joe Davis and Suck-Up Smoltz, I may be ill.
Friday is Craphole TV: I won't even get a chance to see it. (Maybe I'll wait and download it overnight.)
Saturday is GKR
And Sunday night is the ESPinheads. Hopefully it's Ravech, Coney and Lil Doggie instead of those idiots we suffered through in England. And hopefully Ravech won't spend the whole game imagining where Peeete will go as a Free Agent.

And then after that, I get three games of Gaudin and Frenchy, should I choose. 7 games, 1 GKR. BLECH.

Okay, perhaps I'll tune into Gaudin and Francoeur just to see them be envious that we have The Only Healthy Acuña.

We'll see.

Phils win (Tragic # drops to 4)
Pads lose (Semi-Tragic # stays at 9)

Embarrassed that I comfletely forgot Conforto on the trivia question. I plopped for Toms River Todd Frazier. Wrong again.

That was a nice night for Luisangel Acuna, who - fun fact - is my favorite Acuna!

I got it, I got it! :D

What a crime against humanity...! I might not even be able to see the Friday game either. Wormy Fruit TV is no longer available live on MLB.tv, not sure about the archives.

And well, I am off this week, and back pushing the millstone on Monday, so no ESPN for me anyway. I am ABSOLUTELY INCONSOLABLE.

Go ahead, argue with the man with the 11 Gold Gloves. The man that Palmer & Thorn (The Hidden Game of Baseball) proclaimed as the greatest defensive first baseman of all time. The man whose glove makes him a Hall of Fame candidate.

The floor is yours. :D

************************
Quintana is pulled after 7 innings of 2-hit ball, because he's thrown 90 pitches. Or, as we might recall, 66.6% of Tom Seaver's pitch count. (135)

I mean, yeah, take it a little easy because the two remaining starts will be hugely important. And 9-0 is (probably) too big a lead for Danny Young, Alex Young, Angus Young, Malcolm Young, Paul Young, Andrew Young and the Young Rascals to blow. But come on. I saw dozens of Mets pitchers in a groove with a big lead just keep on cruising and finish the job, no muss, no fuss.

One day, I'll stop being annoyed at this.
One day, I'll stop being.

(The reliever is actually Claymation Phil Maton, not a Young Rascal. He gives up a bloop double to start the 8th, but probably won't totally choke.)

************************************
Gary gives sad updates about how the Braves, Padres, and D'Backs all won.

He does not even mention the Phillies. Because why have ambitions when you can settle for 6th??

(If the Mets finish 6th and the Brewers finish 3rd, do they just stay in Milwaukee, or come home for a day?

It's almost a pity the Manfred Round doesn't start a little later. There's a Steve Miller show in Milwaukee on October 15th. I could be persuaded to do a double-duty trip, although I probably wouldn't. I haven't gone anywhere since 2019. Probably I've developed a phobia, to go along with my natural stinginess.)

*************************

Now Gary is giving updates on the A.L. Wildcard nonsense, and still hasn't mentioned the Phillies. FFS, Gary.

Bra's Open, er, Brazoban, made it through the 9th without spoiling the shutout.

Gary made it through the game without ever mentioning the Phillies' score. (They are tied, late in the game in Milwaukee, so I've tuned to the Brew-cast and am enjoying the ads for Usinger's Famous Sausage. You never have to wonder whether you're watching a Milwaukee game, it's true.)

And Vientos made a diving catch that got a standing ovation!

(Okay, it's just that his catch left only one out to go and the fans stood to cheer the impending finish, but let me have my fun.)

A Jake Bauers hit keeps the Tragic # at 4, and there was MUCH REJOICING!
:club:

(Okay, so 99% of that was about the Brew Crew clinching the Central, but why pick nits?

:friday: )

Keith Hernandez says the weirdest ****, a nice word or three about Vientos' defense doesn't really stand out there, does it?

But -

Keith: "Did you notice, Gary, that it's now dark in the first inning?"

Winter is coming.

I felt almost a bit bad for DJ Herz getting thrashed like that, but not as bad as I feel for him when I see a random Gnats day game (non-Mets) in which he's sent out there in bright sunlight. He must be the whitest whitebread in the league now. I mean, my skin tone perpetually says "Northern European, lives mostly indoors, perhaps a bit ill", but he's *very* pale.

Still not the oddest physique in the majors though, given that Triston McKenzie exists.

Andres Gimenez just punched the Clevelands' playoff ticket with a walkoff single.

And what did we get? Lindor! :rolleyes::rolleyes:

Vientos and Peeeete going jack-to-jack is a fine start to the series, and it's only the 1st inning, so Smoltz hasn't made me vomit…yet.

In fact, the one thing that pissed me off is their praise of Nimmo. Now I love Mr. Pointy, and I'm glad that they appreciate that he has a fine eye, brings good OF defense, and hits with power…but come on, let's stop ignoring the pachyderm in the park.

Nimmo is hitting .227 now. That's 36 points below his career average.

And while BA is hardly the Be-All of offensive stats, it's the one that affects all the others. As a result, Brandon is not only posting the 2nd-worst batting average of his career (he hit .221 in 2019), but the worst OBA of his career (.337), the 2nd-worst SLG (only his rookie cameo was below this year's .398), and the 2nd-worst OPS of his career. (Again, only the 2016 cameo was worse. This is the first time he hasn't reached .750 in full or even COVID-length season.)

Yes, he still has a 110 OPS+…but that's the worst of his career, too.

He's 31, he's been moved to LF because Mendoza Line doesn't really think he can handle CF these days, and he's got 4 more seasons left on his deal. I HOPE he's not spiraling down. I HOPE he rebounds and has many more great seasons for us.

But perhaps a certain amount of concern ("Brandon Nimmo, trying to get hot again after a second-half slump that has turned this into pretty much a lost season") would serve Smoltzie better than mindless praise ("He has 20 HR on the year, which is only 4 off of his career high"). I mean, come on, now.

Oh, that's Benetti on the PbP. No wonder Smoltz is behaving.

Turner ties it up with a shot over the LF fence, but Nimmo answers with HR #21, also a 2-run shot. Always good…but still not a panacea.

Nice W against the Philthies, and by FOX standards this was a pretty decent broadcast. I give Benetti credit for that. I also see plenty of Tigers games - they often play a lot of day games well into May in their freezer up there - and he's a real gift to that booth there as well with its chaotic rotation of color guys. :p His talents were wasted on the White Sox.

When will we regret pitching Boom-Boom with a 4-run lead?

On the other paw, he has to give up more Booms to blow a 4-run lead.

Smooth!

After Friday's throwaway contest, Saturday brought Vientos windmilling for a platinum sombrero, but a couple o' homers and Pete going 1-for-1 with three walks, a near-headshot hit-by-pitch, and the most stupid bloop RBI single that went higher than far were enough to turn away the Phillies.

One more tomorrow... but not for me. **** ESPN.

NL East

PHI 92-63
NY 86-69

Tragic Number: 2

Loser's Trophy

SD 89-66
NY 86-69

Semi-Tragic Number: 5

Another wasted season. Next Time, Frankie, call the meeting a week earlier.

(We might, just might, be in the top 40% of the League? IDGAFx∞)

What if they win the pennant? :)

What if they let 8 teams per league into the playoffs and the Cubs or Cardinals win the pennant? I didn't even like when the '03 Marlins ****ed around for 2 months, changed managers, sucked in on a wild card and won the Series and people were like "See, the Wild Card means that you can be garbage for the first 50 games and still win!" Like that's a good thing.

I mean, I didn't even particularly like the 2000 Subway Series…we choked away the pennant [losing by 1 game], proving yet again that we weren't good enough to beat Atlanta, but we got lucky when they got beat by the Cardinals and we snuck in the back door? Oh, joy.

I like my teams to actually win stuff, not get a participation trophy and then a crap-shoot. I don't mind non-division winners in the playoffs for short-season sports…but if 162 games isn't enough to separate the wheat from the chaff, what is? JMO.

I lost faith in the first inning and I don't think I'll regain it any time soon. :crying:

It's not happening. They're not gonna get a ******* wild card. :(

Well, if Arizona puts up loss #74 today, the Mets would have to lose out to miss out. (I have no idea how any tiebreaks stand, even though I was just on the scheduling page.)

Meanwhile, 44 hours without power (thanks SO much, Hurricane Helene! Not to mention the lardasses at Dominion Energy…how many downed lines can there be? The lines are all underground nowadays!) left me in the dark figuratively, as well as literally. So I apparently missed two completely crappy efforts that wiped us out of the Losers' Trophy, but we're still alive for the You Really Suck Trophy and perhaps even favorites for the Play Any Worse and We Trade You to the White Sox Trophy. Oh, joy.

At least I have one last day with GKR. Unless the ESPinheads steal it, I guess.

(Is ESPn really not replaying Alabama-Georgia? It might turn up on SEC network, I guess [my DirecTV schedule is still "rebuilding"]. Hope I can stay unspoiled until then.)

The Snakes lose any and all tie-breaker scenarios.

Barves are in unless they lose three times and the Snakes win today.

Snakes get in if they win and the Mets don't win two games out of three, or if the Barves lose all their games, and there are maybe more scenarios.

Mets get in by winning any two outta three, or even by winning ONE outta three if the Padres complete the sweep of the Snakes today.

In theory, if the Snakes lose today, and the Mets win, the Monday double header would be cancelled, since the Snakes then lose all tie-breaker scenarios. At least we've been told the last few days that only as many games as required to set the field (ignoring seeding) will be played on Monday, so it could be two games, one, or none.

But the way the Mets lay dead on the field the last few days, I don't see it happening. I don't know what it is about Brewers games, but they feel like you're down 4-0 as soon as the game starts. Even when the Mets bat first.

There is no ESPN game today. All games start at 3 ET, barring weather intricacies.