Meet the Mets
Helped out by nine walks (including two with the bases loaded), the Mets rallied against the vaunted Braves pen to take the series in Atlanta.
The Mets used the off day on Monday to give Angel Pagan two days off to rest his sore quad. Reyes didn't start, but was used as a pinch hitter in the eighth. In other injury news, Johan Santana threw three simulated innings in Florida and may pitch in the Venezuelan Winter League.
The Mets extended Tim Byrdak, who will keep on LOOGYing through 2012. You can now consider our offseason spending over. The postgame interview with Byrdak was especially odd, as he repeatedly used the royal 'we' while half-naked Mets players paraded to and from the showers.
Last road trip of the year means rookie hazing day. This year the rooks got treated to particularly tasteful duds.
Greg Prince sums up baseball. It is an amazing sport that I will never get tired of following.
LoHud Mets announced the winners of their Nick Evans essay contest. If you are on twitter, at least one of the winning entries will be the least surprising winner of anything in history.
Around the NL East
The Nationals kept pace in the race for third place, as they topped the Marlins 4-3. Chien-Ming Wang just about doubled his K/9 with five strikeouts in 6 2/3.
The Braves might soon see Kris Medlan and Cyborg Tommy Hanson return from injuries.
Cole Hamels was outpitched by Chris Carpenter and the Cards cut the Braves lead in the wild card to just 3 1/2 games. Hamels seems to be taking it well.
Around MLB
The Rays are going to make the last week interesting, at least, taking 3 of 4 from the Red Sox. The Sox are still strong favorites, but don't tell the Boston Globe that.
Justin Verlander continues his Bob Welchian season, racking up his 24th victory of the year.
The Rangers moved closer to the NL West crown with a 3-0 win over the Mariners and Felix Hernandez. Poor Felix. The Angels won't go away quietly, though.
Mariano Rivera will have to wait another day for save #602, as Good Brandon Morrow showed up to help blank the Yankees. Looks like Jorge Posada won't catch Mo's 602nd, because Joe Girardi is a jerk or something. Craig Calcaterra of Hardball Talk sums up this non-story nicely.
It's been one of those years in Chicago.
Beyond the Boxscore continues their series on RBI opportunities.