Rowdy with a dinger. So that's nice.

Jeez, the Braves only lose against the Mets. If they could work that out, they’d be onto something.

That's a winner, 1.5 games in first place.

Game. Dodgers in Milwaukee for four games so Crew better play well or division will get away pretty quick. Throwing up on themselves against Pirates and Cubs and Reds means no cushion against legit teams.

Cards take two out of three and move ahead in tie breaker category. There is no game 163

Ill-timed nap by elderly Marlins MGR Mattingly.

His ersatz "closer," Tanner Scott, takes the ball with team up, 1-0, in the 9th.

HR
1B
BB

and here comes... nope, Mattingly is in a nice REM stage of slumber.

fly out
force out
BB
1B for 2-1 deficit
1BB
WP makes it 3-1

finally, Mattingly - nope.

with the pressure now off, a ground out ends it.

1 IP, 3 H, 3 BB, 1 WP. well played, Mr. Scott, well played.

Scott is on my fantasy team so you never enjoy seeing the game line where your pitcher has an ERA entry of 27.00.

Albert now has a .784 OPS on the year, good for an OPS+ of about 125.

Rodriguez loads the bases with two outs and the Mets are gonna bring in Ottavino. Again, I’d probably go to Medina instead and keep Ottavino fresh for the Braves, but Buck really errs on the side of caution with most everything it seems. Still up 6-0, a grand slam doesn’t even get them within one so I’d save the top guys for another day.

Could have just had Williams finish the game too. Or bring Peterson in for some work.

Oh well, Ottavino Ks to close the game on four pitches so probably doesn’t matter. Mets win another series though if you’d told me they’d hold the Phils to 3 runs, I probably would have expected a sweep. Regardless the Mets continue to exceed my expectations, I was looking for 4-2 after the Braves and they went 5-1. Good thing because the Braves haven’t lost, picking up a game to get them back to 5.5 games.

Looking for a series split here in Atlanta. They go Braves, Phillies, Yankees and then their schedule is mostly trash (except the Brewers) until the end of the year. 5-4 during this stretch would be nice. Then If they could go 29-9 the rest of the way, they’d beat the club record with 109 wins. That’s probably a stretch, but with their schedule, it’s not completely inconceivable.

Oops, correction, the Mets still have to play the Dodgers too. That’s weird I swear I looked already and the Brewers were the best team left. So that makes the team record a lot more dicey.

Mets ERAs, updated

deGrom 1.62
Scherzer 1.93
Bassitt 3.27
Peterson 3.30
TWalker 3.43
Carrasco 3.76

EDiaz 1.33
Ottavino 2.18
Medina 2.86
TWilliams 3.02
Lugo 3.43

that could play in the postseason !

Another thing on the Mets schedule I didn’t notice before, they play a makeup game against the Nationals after the Braves series on October 3rd? That I really don’t remember being there when I looked a week ago or so. All the more reason to really want the first round bye. Heck, If I’m the Mets, I’m not sure I even bring guys like Lindor and Alonso to DC for that.

On the positive for Brewers Chourio hit his second homer in two days. 18 years old and now in high A. Total for season almost half his hits for extra bases. Plus he plays center which is a position of need for Crew.


update: finishes game 4-4. Now hitting .297 in high A though not a lot of games. Fun to see

#311: It's an entire series, part of the push for 162 games. Every team has a series on Oct 3-5. I'm sure the Mets will treat it like any other season-ending series for a contender.

Goldschmidt and HoF ... he's certainly in a good spot and with no signs yet of slowing down. He is though entering the danger zone age-wise -- lots of guys do pretty totally collapse around 35-36. Goldschmidt 32-34 has been so good he'd really have to decline quickly but ...

Pujols had a rough age 33 season but was otherwise very good for 31-34 -- he had one 3-WAr season and a 1.5-WAR season left in him and has been replacement level since. Miggy was a 5-WAR player for 31-33 and hit replacement level at 34. Delgado too, even if looking just at oWAR. But Goldschmidt might be close enough that a McGriff, Votto or Giambi sort of decline will be enough.

Votto & Goldschmidt both had their first full season at 24:

PG 6765 PA, 296/391/528, 145 OPS+, 57 WAR, 36 WAA ... 1705 H, 308 HR, 1016 RBI (and counting)
JV 6764 PA, 311/427/530, 155 OPS+, 60 WAR, 39 WAA ... 1729 H, 269 HR, 897 RBI (23-34)

How cool is that, one PA apart entering today. Anyway, Votto has a teeny saber advantage ... in terms of trad voters (if there are any left), neither's doing good by H and HR and Votto's career BA has since dropped just below 300. Votto's got the MVP (and a 2nd and 3rd place) but if Goldschmidt wins this year, he'll add that to two 2nds and a 3rd. Votto's last few years have been nothing exciting but 5 WAR (5 oWAR too) may have been enough to push him onto the "in" side of the border. (Votto will likely face some pretty weak ballots so I think his chances of actually getting in are even better than that.)

Still, if it can happen to Pujols, Miggy, Delgado and, to a lesser extent, Votto, Giambi and McGriff, it can happen to anybody. I think Goldschmidt (in WAR terms at least) has out-performed those guys over ages 32-34 but it's not like those guys had shown any real signs of decline until they dropped 3-5 WAR in one season. Obviously he could also carry on great like Edgar, Ortiz, Molitor or have a couple of big seasons left like Winfield ... really all he needs is to come close to repeating next year to (probably) lock it up.

Cards take two out of three and move ahead in tie breaker category. There is no game 163.

There are 6 American League teams within 2 games of the WildCard, along with 3 AL Central teams within 2.5 games of the Division lead. Those tie-breakers could get a workout in their first year, although things usually resolve themselves on the field as the season goes on.

nice details from mlb.com on Albert's big day:

"The second home run was so majestic, so vintage Albert Pujols, that Brewers catcher Victor Caratini’s head dropped into his hands upon contact and veteran left fielder Andrew McCutchen never took a step as the Statcast-projected 443-foot blast sailed high over his head and up into the Busch Stadium stands.

Those kinds of stirring moments -- one that led Pujols to imitate the Superman shirt pull as he left the box and the crowd of 44,142 demanded a curtain call -- don’t happen as often for the legendary slugger anymore."

Nice to see Wacha back. The starting pitching really got decimated by injuries this year. Last year no one got injured, this year, everyone got injured.

Throwing a real nice 2 hitter against NY, 9K, through 7. Sox up 3-0.

Red Sox take the rubber match 3-0. That's gotta sting for NY. Their home record is amazing, their away record is ok. At this stage they really need to right the ship again or lose the home field advantage and most likely bundled out of the playoffs....again.

Nice for New Yorkers that the Mets look great though! Cohen's money seems to be paying off even if most of what he distributes around was acquired by ill gotten means.( I assume this is the case for most billionaires, but Cohen has the attention and fines to confirm it)

who knew that the A-Rod "alternate broadcast" was still around on ESPN2?

only caught a piece of the quick 9th inning, and he and co-host/Yankees announcer Michael Kay seemed a bit discombobulated about a NYY-BOS game lasting less than four hours - in fact, more like 2 1/2.

but there was enough time for A-Rod to #### on the Yankees for their trade deadline stuff.

Kay was interesting as the Yankees "house organ."

he said the Yankees noticed that the last 10 WS winners all had "plus plus defensive CFs" - like Bader is - AND that he will be their CF starter in 2023.

A-Rod spiked the volley, and suddenly the game was over.

only caught a piece of the quick 9th inning, and he and co-host/Yankees announcer Michael Kay seemed a bit discombobulated about a NYY-BOS game lasting less than four hours - in fact, more like 2 1/2.

Both teams wanted to shut that duo up as soon as possible.

315. Howie Menckel Posted: August 14, 2022 at 08:42 PM (#6091656)
nice details from mlb.com on Albert's big day:

"The second home run was so majestic, so vintage Albert Pujols, that Brewers catcher Victor Caratini’s head dropped into his hands upon contact and veteran left fielder Andrew McCutchen never took a step as the Statcast-projected 443-foot blast sailed high over his head and up into the Busch Stadium stands.

- suddenly i was back almost 17 years the day Uncle suddenly shut up 43,000+ people when lidge hung a slider - both baseballs went about the same distance.

17 years

my god

we all gittin old

Albert may have clawed his way back to 100 bWAR. His recent history suggests he won't hold this level but I've been watching him closely and he's really locked in right now. Long at bats with multiple fouls, swinging at good pitches and passing on bad ones

The real shame would be for him to come back next year to get 700 or even 715 because I doubt this sustainable. He should go out leaving these visions. Todays game felt like Ruth cranking it up for his final three homer game. It's quite emotional to watch.

good stuff from The Athletic on deGrom, whose game I attended on Saturday night:

"Minor-league rehab starts, as deGrom explained to reporters, are great for building back stamina and strength but cannot replicate the high stress of a major-league game against division rivals like the Braves and Phillies. Those are just different. Even in mid-August, they can have an October feel, as evidenced by 43,857 people showing up to see the Phillies-Mets game Saturday, Citi Field’s largest crowd of the season.

DeGrom, too, is different. Over the last three seasons, he’s made 30 starts, and in that span, he has a 1.63 ERA. In his first three starts of this season, he has a 1.62 ERA, one walk and 28 strikeouts in 16 2/3 innings. The numbers tell the story of a pitcher who left as the game’s best pitcher at the time of his injury last season and returned to assume that very same standing. The Mets would prefer to keep things that way.

Just consider how good deGrom was Saturday night. He racked up 19 swings-and-misses. He tallied 10 pitches over 100 mph, yet Phillies interim manager Rob Thomson picked the slider as the tougher of the two to hit. He has two other pitches, and he doesn’t even need them."

Albert may have clawed his way back to 100 bWAR. His recent history suggests he won't hold this level but I've been watching him closely and he's really locked in right now. Long at bats with multiple fouls, swinging at good pitches and passing on bad ones

I've just realized that Pujols might pass 100 bWAR for the 5th time in his career. First in 2016, then again in 2017 (on the way down), and again in 2019 (on his way back up) and back down again in 2021. Now just needs 0.1 bWAR (uh, in the positive direction) to get back to the century mark.

Albert may have clawed his way back to 100 bWAR.

100.1 as of this morning.

311: It's an entire series, part of the push for 162 games. Every team has a series on Oct 3

Well, my offbrand baseball scoreboard app just sucks then! It’s still only showing one game and I swear before it didn’t even show anything past the Braves series at all. I’ve thought almost all year that the Mets ended with the Braves.