The late Baltimore Orioles manager, Earl Weaver, often fretted when Don Stackhouse was on the mound with the game on the line. I think he gave Stackhouse the nickname, "Two-Pack", as in two packs of cigarettes that Weaver would go through, back when smoking in the dugout was permitted, when Stackhouse was in the game.
Today, Mets manager Mickey Callaway might be inclined to feel the same way about his bullpen in general.
Callaway almost let another game slip away Thursday night in Atlanta. The Mets had been on their way to a blowout win over the Braves to salvage the final game of a three set with the NL East leaders. However, Drew Gagnon, entrusted with a six run lead in the 9th, cut the lead by 2/3, down to two, allowing homers to Ronald Acuna, Jr., Freddie Freeman, & Josh Donaldson. For the latter two, it was each their 2nd homer of the game, and in Freeman's case, his 2nd in as many innings.
Closer Edwin Diaz was brought in with two out. Diaz promptly walked Brian McCann, then struck out Ender Inciarte to end the game. Mets Nation could breathe a sigh of relief.
On a popular message board this morning, there were the haters complaining about Gagnon, who has been on the yo-yo shuttle between New York & Syracuse. Callaway has gotten his share of haterizing in his two seasons in Flushing, but we've been over that before. The Mets snapped a three game losing streak in beating Atlanta, and the two teams will meet again in Flushing next weekend.
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For all the bludgeoning the Yankees administered to Baltimore this season, going 17-2 against the Orioles, you wondered if there was any karma headed the Bombers' way.
The Cleveland Indians may have had the answer Thursday.
The Yankees used reliever Chad Green as an "opener", and he didn't survive the first inning. In all, the Indians hit 7 home runs, including two apiece for Carlos Santana and Jose Ramirez, en route to a 19-5 rout. Granted, the Yanks could've had their last run taken away when a fan pulled a Jeffrey Maier and caught Gleyber Torres' home run ball in the 8th, but with the big lead, the Indians didn't want to raise a fuss, and who could blame them?
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Who besides Yankee radio announcer John Sterling, 82, would be the oldest active announcer in baseball? For all we know, Sterling may have inherited that title after Vin Scully retired from the Dodgers a couple of years back. Just askin'.
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While Vince McMahon's XFL 2.0 does not begin play for another six months, the league is starting to sign players. Former Oklahoma QB Landry Jones was picked up off the scrap heap on Thursday. Keep in mind that in the original XFL's lone season, Tommy Maddox led Los Angeles to the championship, then finished his career in Pittsburgh as a placeholder until Ben Roethlisberger was drafted four years later.
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ESPN debuted their revamped Monday Night Football broadcast team on Thursday, with Anthony "Booger" McFarland moving to the booth to join Joe Tessitore (whose Holy Moley for ABC may have wrapped on Thursday), with Jason Witten one and done before heading back to Dallas. McFarland uses his nickname on the air, but it sounds like he's in the wrong profession. Don't ya think his future lies in wrestling? Just askin'.
For what it's worth, Oakland had its way with Arizona and rookie Kyler Murray, 33-13.
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The Associated Press reports today that a minor league baseball owner wants nothing to do with a Muslim rights group.
E. Miles Prentice, owner of the NY-Penn League's Connecticut Tigers, also runs the Center For Security Policy, an organization that has been identified by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a hate group. Prentice, however, maintains he's not a racist. Prentice, who also has a stake in an Oakland AA affiliate, may need to keep an open mind going forward. The last thing baseball needs right now is to be swept into the political maelstrom regarding race.
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