[tap tap] Is this thing on?

[kaff] Heyyyy ever'buddeh. It's getting to be that time again! And: "great" news, the Cubs have returned to inflict the agonies of head-vs.-heart pool-picking upon us for another year!

Watch this space (and your inboxes) for the specifics, but as of last night, we do have all six division winners in place, so you may pick from

WSH
CHC
LAD

BOS
CLE
TEX

or you may wait until the last possible moment to see what the wild-card action looks like.

Said last possible moment as of this writing is Thursday, October 6 at noon ET.

And that's a wrap

Another fun year, folks -- hope we'll see you all back next year for the 2016 postseason. Payouts have gone out; any problems or questions, let me know!

#LGM

KC 7, NYM 2 (12); Royals are World Champions

Congratulations, Royals and Royals fans! For a fan of the game, this is the right outcome.

For a Mets fan, watching said outcome unfold in the most brutal and amateurish imaginable fashion is not an experience I hope to repeat...since, as a Mets fan, we have repeated some variation on this about 75 times a season for several years, and we kind of want to get beat instead of beating ourselves. And I think we would have gotten beat anyway. KC's a solid club. It's just a rough way to go out.

But a pennant doesn't suck. I'm proud of the Metsies...and mostly bummed that that's it for baseball until 2016.

And for the BPP. To the last points!

Cain 6
Gordon -3
Hosmer 2
Morales 0
Moustakas -2

Volquez 6

Cespedes -4
Conforto 1
Duda 1
Granderson 7
Murphy -2
Wright 1

Colon 0.67
Harvey 13 (8 IP - 2 BB + 9 K - 2 LOB)

Final standings/admin notes after the jump!

KC 5, NYM 3

...Not much to say. The Mets get knocked back by mistakes like Murphy's; KC had a similar one with Rios but kept rolling. I think the Mets still have one foot in the vibe of giving up 2-3 runs and feeling like they couldn't come back, where they spent half the season. I don't know.

Tomorrow could still go a bunch of different ways, I suppose, but it's starting to feel like postponing the inevitable.

Points!

Cain 3
Gordon -1
Hosmer -1
Morales 1
Moose 1

Cespedes 1
Conforto 12 (!!)
Duda -2
Grando 2
Murphy 0
Wright 0

Colon 1.33

Standings after the jump!

NYM 9, KC 3

In the early going, when a sharply struck ball sailed over Cespedes a...gain, I wailed, "STOP METSING!"

They did! Mostly. But it was really looking like the beltway into Sweepville for that first hour, and while I'm not necessarily about "momentum" or "been there before" as determining factors -- if the Royals win, as they probably will, it won't be because they're juniors and the Mets are frosh; it'll be because they have a hitting attack that scoffs at 98+ -- those things do exist.

Which brings us to that sailer up and in to Escobar to start the game, welllllll I surely don't condone a guy with Thunderpants's velocity throwing at a guy's head or anywhere else on his person on purpose because it's dangerous BUT: Mets fans have been listening to everyone from the Baseball Tonight podcast crew to Kevin Burkhardt to Ned Yost be head-pat condescending about how little realistic chance the Mets had against the Gold-Glove defense and the Good-Oliver Cueto and the Classic experience of the Royals, but hey, you'll be back next year, pat-pat-pat, the grown-ups are talking, [shooing motion]. What's worse, the Mets were looking like they'd started to believe it. We're not ready. We don't belong here.

When that ball whistled past Escobar's ear all "hey: don't talk about us like we're not here" it told me that at least two people, Thor and Trav, wouldn't settle for that. And it worked, and here's how I know: Moustakas wanted to fight some dudes.

And he's not wrong, and again, I don't want anyone to get hurt. But it kinda felt, prior to that, like an Escobar plunking would have gotten...an eye-roll. Or, like, Chris Young calmly keep-awaying the eye-black out of reach while Wilmer Flores jumped around him trying to get it. You know: little-brother mad.

Moustakas was grown-man, took-my-money mad. Good. Means he's taking us seriously, or should. Juan Uribe got a hit with a broken chest. We might not be as good as y'all, but we're not fucking around.

ANYWAY, POINTS after the jump.

KC 7, NYM 1

This is what I was afraid of: that the break would not rejuvenate the Mets, that to the contrary they would take that Wile E. Coyote look down at the canyon instead of continuing to run. A lot could change back at Citi...but then again, not much might. And I think we've seen the last of deGrom's usefulness in the 2015 season, alas.

Points:

Cain -4
Gordon 5
Hosmer 4
Morales -2
Moose 4

Cueto 13 (9 IP - 3 BB + 4 K + 3 for the CG)

Cespedes -3
Conforto 0
Duda 3
Grando 0
Murph 1
Wright -1

deGrom 4

New standings after the jump!

KC 5, NYM 4 (14)

I blame myself. After close to half an hour of physically holding open my exhausted eyelids, the one-in-the-morningness broke me and I fell asleep, and when I woke up, Brady was turning the TV off. "Did we win?" "Let's go upstairs."

They don't stay down, this club.

Points, keeping in mind that this situation is kind of the definition of leaving people on base...

Cain -1
Gordon 4
Hosmer 1
Morales -2
Moustakas 1

Volquez 8

Cespedes -1
Conforto -1
Duda 2
Granderson 6
Murphy 3
Wright -2

Colon, obliged to issue IBBs that your correspondent deeply resents -0.67
Harvey 6

Standings after the jump!