I have been allotted, mostly through neglect, the last three recaps of the season. There is very little less interesting than three games between two teams with nothing to play for. Throw in a rain delay and you have the perfect mileu for ennui. “Milieu for Ennui” is, by the way, the name for my cottagecore band with the upcoming EP: Playing the Pirates, with killer cut: “Bonds Is Throwing Home To Try And Get Sid.”

OK…. I didn’t get home until 9:15 and got home to find the game in rain delay. “Pirates Rain Delay” is the name of the second cut on the EP. So I switched over to the lolMets to watch them lose and then over to the Reds, who won. All of this brings to mind an observation that I’ve been thinking of delving into, but haven’t. In “the old days” (and I leave entirely undefined when that was) a team that needed wins at the end of the season was a 90 percent winner against teams with nothing to play for. I may be wrong about that hypothesis, but if I was ever correct about it, I don’t think it’s true any more. The Marlins have nothing to play for ither than staying ahaead of the Braves in the standings, i.e. nothing. The Mets need wins like I need Bourbon. (Well, not tonight…. I came home snockered.) 6-2 Marlins. I just think there was a time where this sort of thing was really, really unlikely. To be researched in the offseason….

In any case, looking at the boxscore, the Braves were trailing 5-2 in the 7th as the rain fell. Once again, the culprit appears to be the occasional home run interspersed amongst good pitching at sufficient frequency to lead to losses. But I could watch 2 1/2 innings live. Drunk, but live. Drake Baldwin‘s 80th RBI, a double, made it 5-3.

Four runs in the top of the 9th made it 9-3. Pierce? Still pitching, Pierce?

Other Notes

Michael Harris II turned in his first 20-20 season with a homer.

We now can’t catch the Marlins. We finish 4th.

I’m going to keep on banging on about this until someone notices, but the 71 players the Braves have used this season is now an MLB record. Baltimore this season has also used 70 to tie the former record.

ububba tells me that other football teams are playing tomorrow, but I know that everyone will be on tenterhooks for Yale-Cornell. I’ll be there, sober in the second half so I can drive home.