Marco's Baseball Blog-O-Roonie 2022: GREAT QUOTATIONS

 

Marco’s Baseball Blog-O-Roonie 2022: “Great Quotations”

A captured and wounded Union officer at the 2^nd Battle of Manassas was lying down amidst his Southern captors when the famous Rebel general Stonewall Jackson rode by on his dappled horse with his battered campaign hat. The Yankee asked his guards to lift him to a seated position so he could get a look at this terror of war. When he saw the dour Jackson pass by, the Yankee soldier groaned and said:

“O Lord, Just Lay me Down!”

The Rebel soldiers watching this interplay found this remark quite humorous and for many months afterwards whenever some new horror was visited upon them in that terrible war, they would respond with this sincere plea to their Maker: “O Lord, Just Lay Me Down!”

I Hereby dedicate this quotation to the Playoff Losers of MLB 2022.

The current baseball tournament is not a war...just an entertainment with some of the wins and grievous losses of war imitated in sporting metaphor with much wailing and gnashing of teeth. But for the suffering supporters of teams like the Atlanta Braves and the Los Angeles Dodgers, the gnashing is audible and the wailing is loud and clear.

Another quote that describes the stark realities of here today/gone tomorrow playoff series was spoken by the longtime coach of the Showtime Los Angeles Lakers of the ‘80s, Pat Riley, who once said “There is only Winning... and Misery.”

Here is the current list of Les Miserables:

Los Angeles Dodgers...removed from the Playoffs in a 3 game out of 4 wipeout courtesy of their red-headed step children, the long suffering San Diego Padres. Done in most likely by 5 off days that ruined the timing of their hitters, and for some reason, left them with no viable starters after Kershaw and Urias , forcing them to announce a bullpen game in the crucial 3^rd playoff game in San Diego.

The Dodgers won 111 games in the 2022 regular season, including a 14-4 record against the Padrinos. They got beat by, largely, the bottom of the Padre’s lineup: Grisham, Nola and Cronenworth. This unsung trio got 15 hits and 9 RBIs in 4 games.

Atlanta Braves...last year’s champions came from 11 games back to run down the Mets in the last week of the regular season. Their shortstop Dansby Swanson and first baseman Matt Olson were hot down the stretch, hitting lots of big flies to crush the oppo. They earned their 5 days off ...but they wish they didn’t take them. Only the memory of an offense was left to deal with Philly, which quickly adjusted to Playoff every-day-play and beat the Braves easily.

(Do you sense a trend here? Let me spell it out for you...off days benefit pitchers if it’s no more than six or seven. Hitters need to hit every day against game pitching, not nerf ball batting practice. If your timing is off even a little bit you don’t get the fat bat on the little white orb.)

More misery. The New York Mets expected to do well in the playoffs behind their two starters Scherzer and deGrom...Unh-Unh. DeGrom pitched well but Scherzer never had it. San Diego dismissed the Metskis in a 3 game wipeout.

The St. Louis Cardinals were the winners of the Central and got to play the last team into the Wild Card slot, the Philadelphia Phillies.

Gee! Thanks a lot! The Cardinal bats were slumping going into the Playoffs and they weren’t certain of their starting rotation. Zach Wheeler of the Phillies (best pitcher in the Playoffs so far) shut them out for 6 innings but the Cards rallied for 2 runs going into the ninth. The Phils surprised them with 6 runs in the ninth. Juan Segura got the big hit...a pool cue off the end of the bat that skittered into right center for a two run back breaker.

No way the Cardinals were going to come back after that. They got pulverized in Game 2. The only proud moment for the Redbirds was Albert Pujols getting a base hit in his (probable) last at bat of his great career.

The Phils had two good starters and three good relievers and a productive and opportunistic offense. That’s the formula. Their big bats performed. Their big arms performed.

The games between the Phils and the Padres were actually very good. Harper, Hoskins and Schwarber had just a little stronger mojo than Soto, Machado and Cronenworth. Bryce Harper finally lived up to his reputation as a superstar with an epic blast into the opposite field bleachers in front of his adoring fans. Congrats to him...he earned the MVP for that series...and especially for the timing of his big hit.

I don’t count the Padres as one of Les Miserables because they beat the Dodgers, who’d had their knees on the Padre necks for decades. The Pads found something stirring in the heart of their team too. They will be good. Maybe very good.

Soto got criticized for not producing in quite an awesome-like manner but truthfully, what is reasonable? Soto hit a couple of big homers in the series and a double as well. He struck out a lot but who didn’t in this new whiffle bat baseball world? Fans forget that you could have a lineup of Ted Williams, Rod Carew, George Brett, Wade Boggs, Tony Gwynn and Ichiro Suzuki and they’d still make outs 3 out of every 5 times they came up to the plate.

We were lucky in these Playoffs to have two all-time highlight reel home runs. Harper’s of course in the 5^th game of the NLCS and an even more startling one in Game 1 of the Astros vs. Seattle. I smelled that one coming as soon as Seattle manager Scott Servais put Robbie Ray into the game to face Yordan Alvarez.

With two men on and a two run lead he knew he’d get crucified if Yordan went deep on a rightie. But he was gambling with a pitcher who HAD NEVER EVER COME OUT OF THE BULLPEN IN A MAJOR LEAGUE GAME! And leftie Ray had been lit up last time he faced hitters in the playoffs and pretty much all of the second half of the season. His velocity was down and he’d been giving up the long ball. The long ball was most desperately to be avoided with a 2-run lead with two on in the bottom of the ninth!

First pitch: medium slider on the outside corner. Yordan scorched it foul. Very close to hitting it out to left. That foul ball had burn marks on it. Second pitch: Ray tried to come inside and wound up throwing a nothing burger that leaked over the plate. KABOOMPOWZAP...GONE! Yordan just utterly smashed that ball. That ball will have permanent Brain Fog. It was a Zeus’s thunderbolt kind of a hit and won the game for the Astros.

(Kind of a mirror of the Phillies win in their Game 5 of the Padres series. Harper comes up with two on in the eighth with the Padres ahead by 2 and Josh Heder in the bullpen. But Bob Melvin leaves his rightie set up reliever in to face Harper instead of calling on the leftie because he didn’t want to have to let Heder stay in and have to get 5 outs to win this game. Melvin was trying to finesse his way out of that Big Moment. He blew it. Heder is the best leftie reliever in baseball...if you didn’t trade for him to use him in this spot against the hottest hitter in the Playoffs, who are you saving him for?)

Back to the Astros. They won Game 2 with Yordan as well. This time the Big Man sliced one into the Crawfords for another Golden Tater. Yordan didn’t get a lot of hits in this series, but he picked his spots well, I’d say.

The less said about that endless, boring 18 inning Ji-gazz-ma-thon in Seattle the better. Astros win again and have yet to lose a playoff game.

The Yankees join their partners in misery only because expectations are so ridiculously high for the Yankees. Especially since they haven’t won a World Series since 2009. So they snuck by the very game Put-that-Ball-in-Play Guard Dogs of Cleveland and lost to the Astros in 4 straight. No shame Yankees.

The only shame is on the Yankee fans who booed Aaron Judge for not hitting a home run every time up. With everybody else on that team slumping or injured, what’s the guy supposed to do? Yeah...he was pressing. He’d been pressing ever since he hit number 60. Who wouldn’t press trying to get those idiot Boo-Birds off his back? I never thought the Boston fans would treat a Yankee hero better than his own fans. Judge only had one of the 14 greatest seasons by a Yankee of all time.* Yeah...but what have you done for me lately?

Also...Aaron Judge is a Gentle Giant with a team first attitude, beloved by his coaches and fellow players. He puts butts in the seats...and lots of them are kids just discovering the game. They aren’t booing him...not at all.

*Greatest offensive seasons by a Yankee...all time

1/Babe Ruth 1920/ 54 homers/135 rbis/.376 average/255 OPS+**

**OPS + is slugging % plus on base % normalized for league and home field conditions.

2/Ruth 1921/59/168/.378/239

3/Ruth 1923/41/130/.393/239

4/Ruth 1927/60/165/.356/225

5/Gehrig 1927/47/173/.373/220

6/Ruth 1926/47/153/.372/226

7/Mantle 1957/34/94/.365/221

8/Mantle 1956/52/130/.353/210

9/Gehrig 1934/49/166/.363/207

10/Gehrig 1931/46/185/.341/194

11/DiMaggio 1939/30/126/.381/184 (20Ks)

12/Mantle 1961/54/128/.317/206

13/DiMaggio 1937/46/167/.346/166

14/Judge 2022/62/131/.311/211 (175 Ks)

Comments: In the glow of his recent accomplishments, Aaron Judge is scoring higher than this on most “greatest Yankee seasons” lists.

It’s hard to compare seasons when the game has changed so much from the days of Ruth and Gehrig and DiMaggio and the Mick up to the climate of ‘Three True Outcomes’ today. The outcomes are bogus anyway. It just means that players are now being taught to swing for the fences and strike outs be damned. Thus Aaron had 175 Ks this year. Joe DiMaggio had 20 all season in 1939 in a home park with a fence 460 feet away in left center. (called Death Valley back in the day. Joe himself estimated that he lost 17 home runs to the dimensions of old Yankee Stadium in 1937. That would have given him over 60 that year. Of course the pitchers knew how far it was to that fence and I’m sure pitched Joe out over the plate trying to get some long fly outs from him.)

Ruth and Gehrig got to take aim at the short porch in right and Judge has also profited from the short right field of the new Yankee Stadium. Mickey Mantle played in the era of the much bigger fields. Mick didn’t care...he never played in a park that he couldn’t hit it out of...left, right or center!

Also remember that Ruth and Gehrig played on a team full of on- base guys and it made them more productive...especially with rbis.

Joe D was the only superstar on his later Yankee teams...he had to produce by himself most seasons. Mickey had to play during the heyday of big strike zones and high mounds when pitchers ruled the game. Judge is getting a taste of that as well.

I’ve realized that OPS+ or any other stat system doesn’t tell the whole story. When I take note of strike outs vs. bats on the ball, shouldn’t that figure a little more in favor of the guy who makes contact? I think so.

And Thus We Come To…

The World Series! Where the Myths are made. Where players like Harper, Yordan Alvarez, Zach Wheeler and Justin Verlander are measured against the Gods of Yore.

Philadelphia sends a team that was the very last club to make the Playoffs. Houston was first seed. It seems like the Phillies are on fire and it seems like the Astros are just cruising. Nolo contendre from the other American League Playoff clubs. Nobody is touching the Astros.

Philadelphia has a good offensive lineup with three recently hot hitters carrying the weight...Harper, Hoskins and Schwarber. The Phillies are dangerous 1 through 5. Houston’s lineup is great 1 through 8. I think five days off will chill the Phillies bats more than the Astro bats because the Phils were hotter and leaning on their hitters to bludgeon their way to victories. The Astros have used strategic clutch hits...combined with lights out pitching... starters through bullpen.

The Phillies have a below average defense. The Astros defense is phenomenal...they get the edge at center, third, short, and a big edge at second. The Astros get a HUGE advantage at right (Castellanos is Manos de Piedra vs. Kyle Tucker who is a Gold Glove candidate) . First (Gurriel over Hoskins...did you see Rhys play in the Divisions?)... In left it’s a push. Both Alvarez and Schwarber suck. Also even at catcher. The Phils have the best in the N.L….Realmuto. But even if he bats .000 (and he almost did!) the Houston pitchers would still want Martin Maldonado to catch them.

The Phillies have two great starters...Wheeler and Nola. They have to win. The Astros have Verlander, Framber Valdez and Lance McCullers. All are deadly.

The Phillies have three solid relievers. The Astros have seven.

The Phillies have a feeble bench. The Astros are strong with Trey Mancini, Alydmas Diaz and Christian Vaszquez.

In all areas of the game, Houston is superior. In order to win the Phils will have to stay hot with the power bats, play above their heads on defense and not burn out their bullpen too early in the series. I think they could easily get swept, but that old Philly spirit will carry them to two victories at home and they will go down 4 games to 2.

WINNER: HOUSTON ASTROS

Enjoy Baseball, Everybody!

Marco's Baseball Blog-O-Roonie 2022: "DIVIDED DIVISIONAL"

 

Marco’s Baseball Blog-O-Roonie 2022: Divided Divisional

Seattle Mariners vs. Houston Astros

Well-rested or Energized and Ready for More?

That’s always the question with the Playoff Schedule. I wish MLB would go ahead and fix the discrepancies but since they have to jimmy the schedule anyway next year maybe they can do away with extra off days like the American League contenders have this year.

The Divisionals start on Tuesday with all teams playing. The way it is now, Seattle can pitch Castillo on 3 days rest to start the divisional in Houston. Then the Mariners get an additional day off before playing Game 2 at Houston on Thursday. Robbie Ray could start that game on his regular four days rest. Friday is another off day so they travel to Seattle. The Mariners can start Castillo again on three days rest . Only two starters used up in 3 games as long as they win one.

Actually, the better strategy, I think, is to hold Castillo back until Game 2. He’s very sharp now and if anybody is a good bet to win one of the games in Houston it’s Luis on 5 days rest. The Mariners can try Logan Gilbert, who pitched well against the ‘Stros earlier in the season...or pitch a bullpen game in Game 1. They probably can’t beat Verlander on long rest anyway. They should give themselves the best chance to win one game in Houston and then they have Robby Ray on good rest for Game 3 in Seattle. Robbie pitches much, much better at home this year. If it goes to the full five games the Mariners will have Castillo going on his regular 4 days for the fifth game back in Houston.

The Astros will have had one game in a week if they face Castillo in Game 2. They just may have trouble timing that new triple digit heater he was featuring up in Toronto. I think Castillo could be the X-Factor. If he can win 2 games the Mariners have a chance. Mariners in 5.

Cleveland Guardians vs. New York Yankees

Everybody is saying what a classic game it was when the Clevelands and the Tampa Bays hooked up in that 15 inning 1-0 Game 2 of their Wild Card series. I thought it was a disaster that magnified everything wrong with the game of baseball right now. 15 innings. 1 run. 11 hits. 39 strike outs! 39?

Siri of the Rays struck out 5 times. A Golden Sombrero plus. Giminez of the Guardians also struck out 5 times. I thought it was the most boring game I’ve seen in quite awhile. Just endless hopeless flailing at the plate. If they can’t get some hitting back into the game, this sport is doomed. “Look Kids! He got the batter to swing and miss at ANOTHER slider in the dirt! Are you not Entertained???”

Bring on your pitch clocks, make the hitters keep one foot in the box when they need (yeah right!) to adjust their batting gloves, lower the mound, and reconfigure the strike zone up from the bottom of the knees to the top of the knees. Let’s see some hitting like we had in the Seattle/Toronto game...10 to 9. That’s a whole lot more fun than 1-0 unless you never get tired of .211 hitters missing sliders.

The Yankees had Aroldis Chapman miss practice and give them some half-lame excuse. What a Team guy! So they sat him for the Divisional round. The Yankee bullpen has a lot of injuries so they need him...except that they actually need the former version of Aroldis Chapman. The guy who could actually control his fastball.

The Yankees are a great big question mark. They seem to be a team with 4 good starters, a wounded pen, and a lineup with a superstar in Aaron Judge and an occasional long ball from the others. The long rest probably was welcome to the pinstripers so they could heal up some players. I think they’ll have trouble with the Guardians’ youthful exuberance, especially if Jose Ramirez finds the range.

The Guardians don’t hit the long ball. But they strike out all the time like everybody else. I think the Yanks will outslug them in 5. With their pitching staff the Guard Dogs have a chance, but the rest factor is big when it comes to pitching staffs.

Los Angeles Dodgers vs. San Diego Padres

Rested pitching staffs, rested pitching staffs….who has a rested pitching staff? Hmmm...tough one...OH YEAH!...The Dodgers not only have the best pitching staff...they also have the most rested pitching staff.

This one is ridiculous. The Padres pay the price of letting their Wild Card series go to three games by not having any of their three great starters able to start the Divisional with normal rest. No Darvish, no Blake Snell, no Joe Musgrove. The best they can do is rock n’roll Heavy Metal hair stylist Mike Clevinger. Darvish will go in Game 2, then Musgrove will probably jump ahead and pitch Game 3, depending on how things stand, win- wise.

Maybe the Dodger starters in Game 1 and 2, Urias and Kershaw, will be over-rested and have a fit of Southpaw Willies. You know... hit some batters, increase their spin rate and bounce pitches in the dirt, overamp the fastball and bean the mascot, rub too much resin on their ears and have to get an umpire to caress their Cartilaginous Lobes in a tantalizing and sensuous manner.

But I don’t really think any inactivity adjustments will last passed the 2^nd or 3^rd inning. Maybe the Pods will score early and give the Dodgers trouble but I don’t really think pitching will be an issue for the Heads. They absolutely killed the Padrinos all season (won 14 lost 5) and they’ll be ready. So will their hitters. Especially Mookie Betts, Trea Turner and Freddy Freeman...the Dodger’s 3-headed offensive Monster.

I predict the Dodgers...especially Trea Turner and Betts... will break out the running game and torture the Padres pitchers and catchers. (Darvish is especially vulnerable.) But I look forward to seeing Joe Musgrave pitch a gem at Petco. His two finger salute with ear rub resin check was a classic and nobly restrained “F--- You” gesture to the Mets. And he likes the Dodgers even less. Dodgers in 4.

Atlanta Braves vs. Philadelphia Phillies

The Phils somehow dodged the tired starter dilemma by sweeping the Cardinals in St. Louis. Now they start a well-rested leftie Ranger Suarez against leftie Max Fried and the Bravisimos. The Braves are favored, but the Phils are wearing their hitting shoes against lefties this year (.266/ OPS .771) (The bench however, is fairly feeble vs. lefties.)

The next two starters coming up for the Phils are Zach Wheeler and Aaron Nola. Both were terrific against the Cardinals. I believe that if the Braves come out a little lethargic after five days off, there could be a bloody ambush at Dry Gulch Gully. I am concerned that the days off will have effectively ended the hitting hotstreak the Braves have been on with Olson, Swanson and Riley. I guess we’ll see. After Game 3, the starter cupboard is bare for the Phillies. The Braves will still have some vittles stored up. Let’s say the Braves in a tight 5.

So I predict the Dodgers and Braves in a National League Championship Series Redux. And the New York Yankees will go Goliath against the Cinderella Seattle Mariners.

I’ll wait a while before calling that one and see how bad I look after the Divisional Rounds.

Adios for now.

Marco's Baseball Blog-O-Roonie 2022: "He was Fast...Fast on the Draw..."

 

Marco’s Baseball Blog-O-Roonie 2022: “He was Fast...Fast on the Draw...”

Cleveland Guardians vs. Tampa Bay Rays in Cleveland (“City of light, City of Magic”)

Who’s fast? The starting pitchers in Game 1 of the Wild Card Extravaganza upon which we are about to feast. Shane McClanahan is the Tampa leftie who throws 100. Shane Beiber is the Cleveland ace..the Guardian of the strike zone. (He guards it with sliders painted around the edges.)

So they’re both named Shane...get it? Like the famous Western Movie Flick. The above quote was Shane’s comment to young Joey (child star Brandon De Wilde) after irrigating the abdomen of hired gunman Jack Wilson (played with notable snakiness by Jack Palance) with several slugs from his trusty .44.

Shane (played by Alan Ladd in perhaps his only really good role) steps outside of the saloon where three dead free-range advocates have decorated the bar room floor and staircase with their remains. Ignoring the blood dripping down his shirt, Shane compliments his adversary’s prowess with the immortal line that seems to sum up the futility of mastering the art of fast-draw murder: “He was fast...fast on the draw...”

That’s the Wild Card Series ...being debuted this season as part of MLB’s ongoing effort to update the game. Four Wild Card series of best of three games each...all played at the lower seed’s ballpark. Which means...starting pitching will be paramount.

A team like the Mets, with their two aces Scherzer and De Grom, can shut down the opposition’s hitters one time each and...Boom!...next series please. Teams don’t have enough games to waste time saving anybody’s arm for a Game 6 or something. Bring the heat and scratch out enough runs to win two. That’s the deal.

In this Battle of the Shanes, I like the Guardians on their beautiful home field. They’ve got three studs to deal with the Rays… Beiber, Quantrill and McKenzie. They also have a strong bullpen with Clase, Hentges, and Stephan. I think that’s too many arms for the scrappy Rays to overcome.

I also like that the Guard Dogs strike out less than anybody in baseball. Playoff ball needs balls in play and I think that favors the Dogs. But they may need Jose Ramirez to rediscover his MVP form from the summer and hit a couple of big flies.

Cleveland Triumphant!

***PSYCHIC TIMING ALERT!!!*** As I write this, Jose Ramirez just hit a two run homer in the sixth inning for the Home Team! Honest… you can trust me, I’m not like the others.

Toronto Blue Jays vs. Seattle Mariners in Canada

Most people think the Jays have the hammer in this one. They have the big hitters in Springer, Guerrero, Hernandez and Bichette… all have been red hot at various times. The Jays have the two big arm pitchers they need in Glausman and Manoah. They also have playoff experience, something the Mariners have never experienced.

This team has become the darlings of the Northwest after FINALLY making the playoffs for the first time since the days of Ichiro. They are led by their fab rookie Julio Rodriguez, a wonderkid who can run and hit and field and smile...the perfect young Warrior that the Seattles needed. The M’s also have Eugenio Suarez for power hitting.

Robbie Ray and Luis Castillo are the two Aces of the M’s. And I think that gives them an advantage in this series. Castillo is a seasoned pro who is not likely to lose his mind if the crazy Canucks start puking on themselves up in the stands. (There may be octopuses thrown...they’re basically a bunch of confused hockey fans) If his slider is on, forget it. And Robbie Ray played for the Jays last year and won the Cy Young. Of course, that didn’t stop the Jays from letting him go free agent and sign with the Mariners. I think Robbie will let them know what they missed.

Anyway, the Mariners haven’t won since the last asteroid hit Earth. So this is my upset special...Seattle over Toronto.

Philadelphia Phillies vs. St. Louis Cardinals at Busch

I just can’t see the Phillies upsetting the Cards. Even with the strong starters they have in Wheeler and Aaron Nola. Bryce Harper’s been playing hurt all year and he’s just not at his peak or even close. Without him they have Schwarber, Realmutto and not much else offensively.

The Cardinals have four sturdy gents as potential starters but no true Aces. Miles Mikolas and Jordan Montgomery are both pretty tough and they’ve got a phenom as Closer in Ryan Helsley. (WHIP 0.742!) Helsley has had a problem with his finger… but the Cards need him.

The Cardinals had Goldschmidt hitting lights out all summer and Nolan Arenado was right there with him for a dynamic duo of destruction. Come September the boys went cold...but Albert “The Machine” Pujols got plugged in on a steady diet of left-handed meat slinging pitchers and just bombed the league to carry the team through the end of the season. Now the Cardinals need all three of them to hit.

I like the Cardinals in three games.

New York Mets vs. San Diego Padres at The Apple.

The Marvelous Metskies pulled into the finish line like a lame dog this season. They had a chance to protect their 10 game lead that they’d maintained for the entire season over last year’s Team of Destiny, the Atlanta Braves. But they dropped 4 games in a row to the Bravos at the end of the season and coughed up furballs from there on to miss the Division title and just win a Wild Card. If I were Manager Bucky Showalter I would take out some furball insurance.

Perhaps the last-minute reinstatement of Starling Marte will help. The Mets have other horses in Pete Alonso, Francisco Lindor and Jeff McNeil. They’ve got the previously mentioned two-headed pitching Ace in Max/Jake with Edwin Diaz backing them up in the bullpen. They won 101 games in 2022 and under normal circumstances should advance to play for the pennant. Gut check, Men!

How do you explain the San Diego Padres? They trade for superstars and as soon as they put on the Taco uniform they forget who they are/were and become Sad San Diego Sacks.

Eric Hosmer, Juan Soto, Josh Bell, Josh Hader, Blake Snell...they all flopped onto the San Diego beach like so many stranded narwhals. Even home grown star Fernando Tatis Jr. got into the prevailing mood and celebrated his broken wrist with a season long suspension for chemical enhancement of the illegal kind.

The fact that the Los Angeles Dodgers treated the Pods like Red Headed Step Children also helped seal the tomb of failure around the freshly embalmed free agent corpses inside.

Except for Manny Machado.

He’s mean. He’s arrogant. He’s a puffed up peacock who you don’t want over to play Pictionary on Sunday nights. But Manny comes to play and play with menace. He hits and he hits consistently no matter what’s happening around him in the lineup. He plays Gold Glove defense at third and he is a top five MVP candidate every season. Hats off to Macho...whatever he’s drinking the Padres need a couple of cases. (No Jabba Jungle Juice though, Boys!)

Two teams with psych problems. They thought greatness was just a shot away and now they have to load up for a fight. Scherzer and De Grom can only go 5 or 6 innings these days. If Darvish has control and Musgrave or Snell can win one I’ll take the Padres to beard the Mets in their Citifield den.

Next Edition Next Week!

Salud!