There's apparently TALK leaking from the Mariners about the POSSIBILITY of sitting Ichiro. Due to the cultural issues involved with Japanese ownership of the Mariners (you think rappers have an intense concept of "disrespect......."!), this is pretty shocking news in Seattle.

I really hope Ichiro retires after this year & doesn't pull a Griffey. He's already wealthy & a shoo in for 1st round hof.

Yanks' 10-game winning streak comes to an end as they lose to the Braves 4-3. Their continuing failures to hit with men in scoring position is reaching supernatural proportions. Two runners thrown out at home in this game.

This Kimbrel kid looks pretty amazing. Made the Yankees look like Little Leaguers.

Two interesting things:

The Mets got swept by the Yankees but then swept the Rays, then they got swept by the Reds but if they win tonight they will sweep the Orioles. In between all of this they've had a no-hitter and a few 1 hitters and shutouts.

Thanks to the Yanks sweeping Washington, the Mets have survived all these sweeps. Topsy turvy.

I was sure the Mets would have a fire sale in July but with the resurgence of Santana, the lights out pitching by Dickey and a career year by Wright (plus the elimination of the Madoff problem and the cash injection by 20 millionaires including Bill Maher), the Mets may actually try to improve the team.

Also the Yankees just had a 10 game winning streak yet the AL East is still tight despite all the wins. Boston remains only 6.5 games out.

Sounds desperate. As a strategy for the playoffs, great. But as an ongoing plan for the regular season, that could severely shorten the very long career that knuckleballers usually enjoy. I'd rather Dickey was still pitching effectively for the Mets a decade from now than have a few extra wins for two or three years.

Hopefully by next year we will start to see some of the pitchers coming up from the farm. If we can get 2 of them going to go along with Dickey and Niese (and maybe Santana) that would be great.

Wouldn't he be pushing 50 by then??!

He'll be 47 in 2022.

The Mets did sweep the Orioles so if your keeping score, the Mets were swept by the Yankees and Reds but sweep the Rays and Orioles themselves. What does it all mean?

Theory: The Mets sweep series in which Dickey pitches and get swept when Dickey doesn't pitch.

Sounds like a .500 club.

BTW, I really should have been rooting for the Orioles to beat the Mets. Couldn't bring myself to do it.

I would imagine records like this aren't kept by baseball but I can't recall when a team in the past has been involved in so many sweeps (both pro and con) so many times in a row.

To keep the streak going the Mets need to once again get swept by the Yankees this weekend.

Very good possibiity of that happening.

"Not so", says R.A. Dickey

The Mets could have skipped Chris Young's turn and had Dickey go Saturday and Santana Sunday, both on normal rest.
I don't know why most teams don't do that-skip their 5th starter when they are able to. After all, the guy is number 5 for a reason(I'm not just talking about Young here.) .During the course of a season you can get 2 or 3 more starts from your 1 and 2 guys. If your 5 guy has to wait 9 or 10 days between starts,so be it.Throw him a couple of innings out of the bullpen in-between.

I'll be at the game Saturday (rooting for the Mets of course!)

Which team has the best ERA in June? The Yankees. Which team has the second best ERA in June? The Mets. How about that!

Mel? Is that you?

Alan

Its been a pretty even series at Citifield this weekend as the Mets have won one and the Yankees won last night thanks to HRs.

Big showdown tonight on ESPN with Dickey vs Sabbathia but I'll miss it as we're going to the Beach Boys show.