Keeping The Peace

Move along. Nothing to see here. Larry Bowa did not order a hit on Daniel Murphy, who in turn didn’t flip the bat towards outer space after his RBI ground out in the first inning and his sacrifice fly in the ninth. (Although he should have.) But the important thing was that all life forms in Philadelphia were spared. (Hitchbot would have been proud if he wasn’t destroyed within Philadelphia’s borders.)

Terry Collins on bat flips — baseball’s moral scourge pic.twitter.com/HyMXW6PIwP

— Mike Vorkunov (@Mike_Vorkunov) August 27, 2015

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Speaking of life forms spared, it seems that part-time duty is agreeing with Grandpa Cuddyer as he drove in three runs with a double and a long jack to the second deck in left field. My Philadelphia friend (yes, I can make friends everywhere) told me that even though the place is a shoe box, it’s rare to see home runs hit to the second deck in left field. Not right field, which my cat can hit one to, but left. Cuddyer and David Wright reached those seats this series so far, and Yoenis Cespedes hit the Geico sign. If they’re eating cheesesteaks to sustain, keep it up.

Speaking of cheesesteaks, Bartolo Colon went seven scoreless innings and even threw changeups to keep up with his good start/bad start routine this season. It’s like when Rocky fought righty in the second movie, and then said “no tricks I ain’t switchin” in the final round. The bullpen almost Big Yank Balled the game away giving up four runs in the eighth (Eric O’Flaherty got the righties out but couldn’t get the lefties out so forget everything you ever knew about baseball), but the Mets responded with more insurance runs in the ninth en route to a 9-4 victory over the Phillies. The Mets have now won six straight games.

Speaking of lighting your gonads on fire, let’s check in with the Nationals:

The Nats announced that they were going to manipulate the rotation so that Max Scherzer can get two starts against the Mets this September. But here’s the thing: Right at this very moment, the Nationals could pitch Scherzer all six games, win them all, and it wouldn’t be enough as the Mets are up six and a half games. Now six and a half games is a nice healthy lead. Seven and a half games would be better.

But not seven. If it gets to seven games exactly, I’m hiding under my covers all month.