Certainties Of Life Applesauce: Dickey Gets No Support, Chipper Foils Mets Again, Sky Is Blue & Grass Is Green

People often say that there are three certainties in life. Death and taxes are the two most agreed upon. But the third? Well, if you know anything about Mets baseball, that third certainty could be that Chipper Jones will always beat the Mets in an important situation late in a game. It doesn't matter how injured he is, it doesn't matter how down a year he's having. He will always find a way to beat the Mets. Of course, being a Mets fan, you also know that the best pitcher on the staff is guaranteed to get little to no run support in his starts. Enter in R.A. Dickey tonight, everybody's favorite knuckleballer, who's easily been the best and most consistent pitcher on the staff for the majority of the season. Going by that principle, it is fitting that Dickey threw shutout ball through 7+ innings and still ended up with a defeat on his ledger. So, at the end of the day, perhaps there are four certainties of life: Death, Taxes, Chipper Jones beating the Mets and the Mets best pitcher getting no support.

Choose Your Recap: ESPN New York, MLB.com, New York Times, New York Daily News, Bergen Record, New York Post, Newark Star-Ledger

The rubber match of this series with the Braves begins Sunday at 1:35 PM and can be seen locally on SNY. Dillon Gee will oppose rookie righty Brandon Beachy.

Josh Thole has vowed to improve his catching in 2012. They could certainly use that improvement considering how poor he and Paulino have played behind the dish all year.

Dillon Gee is feeling the effects of his first full season in the majors.

Terry Collins can't imagine the Mets without Jose Reyes. Neither can I, Terry.

Finally, the Mets (and Yankees) have some important decisions to make regarding who to protect before this winter's Rule V draft. Here's a basic primer from the New York Post.

Around the NL East

The Marlins beat the Nationals 4-1 in 13 innings, despite Stephen Strasburg lighting up the radar gun for 6 innings.

The Phillies clinched their 5th straight NL East division title as they ripped the Cardinals 9-2 in Philly. Sigh...this makes me sad. The Braves picked up a game on the Cardinals in the Wild Card race, as they're now 4.5 games ahead of St. Louis.

Around the Majors

The Rays cut the Red Sox wild card lead down to three games as they beat Boston 4-3 on Saturday. Tomorrow's game will certainly be important for Tampa if they legitimately have a shot at stealing a playoff spot away from Boston since it is the last head to head matchup between the two clubs.

Mariano Rivera tied Trevor Hoffman's all time saves record on Saturday with his 601st save. That cutter is still lethal, so who knows how long he could continue pitching if he wanted to.

Justin Morneau's battle with post-concussion symptoms has been one of the saddest stories in baseball over the last year and it goes a long way towards showing why brain injuries are no laughing matter.

Finally, Steve Slowinski at Fangraphs addresses the Moneyball Kerfuffle.