With his second strikeout Tuesday, he surpassed the Phillies’ José Alvarado for the most strikeouts in a row by a pitcher since at least 1961. (Play-by-play data isn’t fully available before then, so it’s impossible to know the all-time record.) Estrada finished the night by tacking on a 13th straight, for good measure.

Estrada was at his own birthday dinner in early November when he received a call from his agent letting him know he’d been placed on outright waivers by the Cubs. His 2023 season, in no uncertain terms, was a rough one. Between Triple-A and the Majors, Estrada walked an unsightly 38 batters across 39 1/3 innings. A few days later, he was claimed by the Padres.

“We knew the stuff was there,” pitching coach Ruben Niebla said. “It was just a matter of how consistent he can be in the zone.”

Now? It feels like Estrada lives in the strike zone, with a 7-1 strikeout-to-walk ratio this season. All it took was a mechanical overhaul and a complete reinvention of his two offspeed pitches. No biggie.

That’s one of the busiest intersections in Utrecht, especially in the weekend with buses, cyclists, pedestrians and some cars. It’s pretty easy to navigate too

Turns out the devil did it

Like others have said, usually there’s a bolt on the underside, but I have trouble seeing it in this picture. In some faucets (also some Grohe) there’s an Allen inside the faucet. Remove the spout by loosening the ring around the spout and there should be a threaded rod in which fits an Allen key.

At least they’ve got furry balls coming towards them

Damn, Andrew Bailey has done fine work with the Red Sox. Everybody had big questions about the rotation and even with Giolito, Bello, Pivetta and Whitlock on the IL, they still have the best ERA. Didn’t see that one coming

Yeah crazy. And some not even close to being strikes. That’s baseball for you

Probably, but he has dialed his rhetoric down a bit in an effort to seem more reasonable and stay in the talks to form a coalition. But I don’t trust it one bit, if he had enough right-wing support, he would still spout the same bullshit. Luckily our democracy is well designed enough that he can’t just tear it down, even if he had a majority.

I feel the the same. From the outside it don’t really like how Boras handles some things, but it so hard to judge when you’re not part of the process. I can’t imagine how it must feel to be a good baseball player and be stuck in an market, not even knowing whether you’ll be part of a opening day roster

The team leaving is in itself ff’ing sad for the fans, but the way this situation has been handled just makes it so much worse. A’s fans deserve better

I get that feeling on a regular basis watching players around the league.

Long. Printers are pretty complicated machines, because they have to work with a natural product that shrinks, expands, folds, rolls itself up and sticks to other pieces of paper. I once heard a printer engineer explain that they use small puffs of air to lift the paper, but because there’s also heat involved in the printing process that the paper sometimes rolls itself up or expands which causes jams etc. And I’m sure there’s more going on.

Which isn’t to say that HP aren’t bastards.

First of all, if you drink and drive you should lose your licence.

Second, this is one of the many reasons why it’s so important that we work hard to protect our democratic values and better the democratic systems that are already in place. Unfortunately an increasing number of people are willing to support leaders who aim to break down those democratic systems and enchroach civil rights.

In a well run democratic system (read: not USA) UBI can be a boon. It may be idealistic to a degree, but well worth striving for.

Oh yeah, a good sandwich can make my day

Yeah, cold sandwiches were probably the first as well. Then maybe boiled eggs, scrambled eggs were not really a thing in the Netherlands back then. After that I helped out with other stuff like boil rice of pasta. And I remember doing some simple groceries alone when I must have been between 11 or 12. But the supermarkets were only 10 minutes away by foot.

I live in the Netherlands and I learned to make my own lunch from an early age. Can’t say for certain at which age, but 6 or 7 sounds about right. I made lasagna when I was 11 and cooked other stuff regularly. My parents always stimulated me being self sufficient. And I saw the same happening with my friends.

I would say that it’s worth picking them up. Brandon Sanderson does a pretty good job. It’s not the same as Robert Jordan, but it doesn’t have to be. He does a goes job of capturing the feel of the series. And it reads differently from his own books, which isn’t easy to do. And I love how the story unfolds in the last book. There were definitely some story points I did not see coming.

I’ve read it and I loved it indeed. I hope The Doors of Stone comes out soon

There are definitely similarities, I agree. The setting out on a quest, multiple important characters but one that has the most important task, Rand shows some similarity to Frodo in their background, and a dark lord that’s wants to wreath the world in shadow. But then, it must be hard for a fantasy writer to not be influenced by Tolkien.

I have not, but it’s going on my reading list. Thanks for the tip. I like longer series, especially fantasy series that you can really delve into. So the Sword of Truth fits perfectly