H.D. McKnight was the commissioner of the American Association in 1889. He, among others, agreed that the standard threshold of a walk should be four balls. This was instead of five most recently at the time, and at nine originally.
If not for the dilligence of McKnight, Tuesday’s 7-4 loss to the Pirates would probably still be in the 7th inning, doomed to an eternity of free passes, assuring that this wretched season will never end. For that, we owe McKnight a debt of gratitude.
Mets pitchers walked ten batters last night. David Peterson walked six in his 3 and 2/3’s innings and 91 pitches. Jose Butto walked three in his 2 and 1/3. Grant Hartwig walked a runner home, forced another runner home by hitting a batter in the shoulder, and brought another one home as an inside pitch went off Francisco Alvarez’s glove. Then for good measure he gave up a two run double to Jason Delay, and a triple to Bryan Reynolds that Tim Locastro changed from a single to a circus. Drew Smith was the best reliever of the night, retiring four batters and striking out three. If that doesn’t tell you what dire shape the bullpen is in right now, I don’t know what will.
D.J. Stewart and Jonathan Arauz homered to make a 7-1 thrashing a 7-4 pig with lipstick, but that was as close as they would get. At least fans got an Edwin Diaz bobblehead with a detachable trumpet so they could play taps on the way home. But at least they’re home instead of still at Citi Field watching David Peterson run the count full to 8-3 on every hitter, thanks to the efforts of H.D. McKnight.
Today’s Hate List
Farewell, again, to Daniel Murphy. If you didn’t know, he came out of retirement to play for the Long Island Ducks this season, and was signed by the Angels to play for their Triple-A team in Salt Lake City. He hit .295 for them with an OPS of .741, giving us faint hope that the Angels would call him up in time for their series at Citi Field next week so he can get nine hits and life the Angels to the playoffs, causing Shohei Ohtani to resign with them and break Mets fans hearts again.
Murphy, however, re-retired and ended all speculation that he was working towards a comeback with the intention of embarrassing the Mets again. I guess he even realized that the wear and tear on his old bones wasn’t worth beating an already beaten team.
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