9/1 Kansas at Nevada - 9-0 WIN. The hits keep coming as we take the series against Kansas. Miguel Cordova
pitched 7.2 shutout innings, only allowing 5 hits. Offensively Clarence DiBennedetto led the way with
a 5-hit day, driving in 3 and striking his 31st double. Backup 2B Albert Estrada filled in nicely
for Moncayo, grabbing 3 hits, stealing a base and driving in 3.
9/2 Illinois at Nevada - 12-8 LOSS. The East division leaders show us who is boss with a blowout.
Richard Herron was jumped on for 5 runs in the first and Illinois never looked back. Offensively,
Spike Halpern added his 10th dinger, and Cyril Foland knocked in 3 runs. Reliever Bobby Hollenback
was also tattooed for 4 runs in 1/3rd of an inning.
9/3 Illinois at Nevada - 5-2 LOSS. Illinois again scores first (2 in the 1st) and takes home the win.
Gene Foxworth pitched admirably, gutting through 116 pitches and 7.2 innings with our depleted pen,
but the offense notched just 4 hits (though all doubles). Ray Festa and Cyril Foland knocked in our
runs.
9/4 Illinois at Nevada - 5-4 LOSS. Sense a pattern? This time the pen (Trottier) lets us down as Illinois
gets the deciding run in the 9th. Rey Moncayo hit a big 7th inning 2-run homer to tie it (27th) but
stud Jayhawk closer Deangelo Ramos was too much for us in the 9th.
9/5 Illinois at Nevada - 4-0 LOSS. Ouch, 4 game sweep for Illinois. The offense just couldn't break
them the last 3 games. Just 3 hits, highlighted by a pinch hit double by Thiessen. On a sad note,
starter Jose Leonos left the game with a Tight Shoulder after his 4th pitch. He'll be out the rest
of the recap. The loss went to Moses Tamez, dropping his record to 4-2.
9/6 Nevada at Wisconsin - 3-2 LOSS. The losing ways continue, as our 2-run 1st inning didn't hold up.
Ray Festa blasted his 12th homer, but Miguel Cordova couldn't make it stand up. He gave up 3 ER
in 7.1 innings, dropping his record to 9-4. Cyril Foland knocked 2 hits and had 2 walks as well.
9/7 Nevada at Wisconsin - 7-6 WIN in 10. Wow what a game. Back-and-forth the whole way. In the end
it was a 1-out double by Chris Lott followed by a 2-out single by Spike Halpern which got us the win.
Rey Moncayo hit 2 dingers, putting him at 29, and also added a double. What is worse, we again lost
a starting pitcher, as Richard Herron made just 14 pitches before leaving with a strained rotator cuff
in the 1st. He'll be gone for 4 weeks, so essentially his season has ended with an 11-9, 3.44 mark.
9/8 Nevada at Wisconsin - 4-1 WIN. We rebound to take this series, behind Gene Foxworth's complete
game 3-hitter. Gene K'd just 1 batter, but only allowed Alfonzo Ruvalcaba's 7th inning homerun.
Chris Lott paced the offense with a 2-out 2-run 3rd inning homer, his 26th. Cyril Foland and Spike
Halpern also added 2 hits.
9/9 OFF
9/10 Nevada at Texas - 5-1 WIN. We're back on a roll after an off-day to head straight south to Texas.
Kirby Rudolph allowed just an unearned run in 8 innings to run his record to 8-10. Trottier picked up
save number 31, his first this sim. Spike Halpern knocked 3 hits, DiBenedetto added a pinch hit homer,
his 19th. Foland added 2 MORE hits, and stole his 20th base. That's 4 straight multi-hit games for him.
STANDINGS
Code:
West
Team W L Pct GB L10
Colorado 83 57 .593 - 5-5
Utah 83 57 .593 - 5-5
Nevada 67 73 .479 16.0 5-5
Oregon 60 80 .429 23.0 5-5
California 58 82 .414 25.0 3-7
Washington 47 93 .336 36.0 4-6
Ech. Still 16 back. 14-8 will get us the .500 mark (we're 12-7 in our last 19, so it is "Possible".)
BATTING STATS
Code:
Name G AB H 2B 3B HR RBI R BB K AVG OBP SLG
R. Moncayo 135 506 143 24 5 29 75 102 63 14 .283 .385 .522
R. Festa 136 499 131 34 1 12 64 81 75 68 .263 .361 .407
C. Lott 140 519 111 21 3 26 85 77 78 54 .214 .322 .416
C. DiBenedetto 135 501 142 32 5 19 77 71 43 73 .283 .350 .481
C. Foland 133 488 129 26 2 14 66 50 25 89 .264 .296 .412
M. Doctor 132 479 121 13 0 4 47 42 33 82 .253 .303 .305
G. Halpern 140 497 130 19 1 10 60 60 49 59 .262 .328 .364
J. Salazar 22 65 12 5 0 0 6 8 8 14 .185 .280 .262
Others:
M. Hui 68 222 49 7 0 2 25 17 7 42 .221 .243 .279
B. Thiessen 103 264 57 11 0 3 20 30 14 41 .216 .262 .292
A. Estrada 35 81 28 2 0 0 9 15 5 14 .346 .398 .370
J. Lape 69 101 21 3 0 0 6 10 1 18 .208 .216 .238
A. Garza 66 101 20 6 1 0 9 9 5 33 .198 .236 .277
M. Hagberg 34 85 16 3 1 5 14 9 5 18 .188 .250 .424
C. Francis 35 48 8 0 0 0 3 7 0 11 .167 .167 .167
F. Trujillo 34 36 5 2 0 0 1 5 2 6 .139 .225 .194
41 runs in 9 games for us, a bit above average for us. I'm thinking I'll move Halpern into the 6-spot
for the rest of the year, see if he responds with even more improvement. He is now clearly performing
better than Doctor. Though struggling, I'm leaving Salazar in for the rest of the year. I need to see
if he can at all be the answer there. Thiessen seems to be a "known" quantity, I don't think he's got
a solid season in him. The question is, is he the best I've got?
PITCHING STATS
Code:
Name G GS W L SV ERA IP HA R ER BB K
J. Leanos 27 27 11 8 0 3.82 153.0 155 69 65 36 52
M. Cordova 18 18 9 4 0 3.62 107.0 88 47 43 37 58
K. Rudolph 28 28 8 10 0 3.57 164.0 166 78 65 61 41
G. Foxworth 28 13 4 5 0 4.11 100.2 89 52 46 27 36
R. Quintana 14 2 0 2 0 5.50 18.0 18 11 11 15 8
M. Tamez 82 0 4 2 2 1.99 95.0 93 24 21 18 25
A. Stier 23 0 0 2 0 3.41 29.0 31 12 11 7 5
B. Stoops 78 0 3 5 1 3.95 68.1 64 31 30 28 34
J. Barker 58 1 3 2 2 4.00 69.2 65 33 31 24 20
B. Hollenbeck 54 0 1 6 0 6.02 49.1 68 35 33 13 10
J. Grolsch 7 0 0 0 0 2.70 10.0 11 4 3 3 3
H. Trottier 74 0 2 7 31 3.31 92.1 76 44 34 46 47
Others:
R. Herron 28 28 11 9 0 3.44 165.0 154 74 63 56 40
D. Scoggin 18 18 4 9 0 6.19 91.2 109 66 63 38 22
E. Birmingham 22 0 4 1 1 6.16 19.0 24 15 13 8 2
N. Cramer 5 5 1 1 0 4.05 26.2 25 16 12 9 11
Starting to look ugly with Herron done. We'll need to revamp the staff this season I think. Try and
get an ace any way we can. On the bright side, if the season ended now, we'd pick 10th. We might
be able to net a decent starter for down the road there.
Batting AVG: .241 (12th)
Homeruns: 126 (6th)
Walks: 427 (1st)
Stolen Bases: 116 (9th)
Runs Scored: 605 (4th)
Pitching ERA: 3.89 (21st)
Opponents AVG: .258 (21st)
HRs Allowed: 101 (8th)
Walks Allowed: 428 (21st)
Runs Allowed: 617 (21st)
Gotta love the high-powered Offense. Even though we're 12th in average, the walks put us 3rd in OBP.
If we could just tick that average up to .250, I think we'd score a TON of runs. Another issue is
strikeouts. We've struck out the 2nd most (728). Only 2 other teams are even over 700. And that is
even with our leadoff hitter, Moncayo, who has only K'd 14 times in almost 600 PA's.
Upcoming schedule
9/11 @ Texas Banditos - 76-64, 3rd in East, Series Season tied 5-5
9/12 @ Texas Banditos -
9/13 vs Colorado Rams - 83-57, 1st in West, Colorado leads series 9-7
9/14 vs Colorado Rams -
9/15 vs Washington Griffins - 47-93, 6th in West, Nevada leads series 8-4
9/16 vs Washington Griffins -
9/17 vs Oregon Owls - 60-80, 4th in West, Nevada leads series 8-4
9/18 vs Oregon Owls -
9/19 vs Oregon Owls -
9/20 OFF
Pretty average schedule for us, I think 5-4 is possible.