Villa Nueva Volanoes (3-3) @ Managua Sabres (0-6)
We start the week with a series at home against the Villa Nueva Volcanoes. The Volcanoes have started the season with a 3-3 record and plan to contend in the ML North. With only one winning season in their first five years in the CBL, the Volcanoes have been anything but good. Hopefully we can get a win...
Game 7 -
VN 2 @ MAN 3
WP - Karstin Klomp (1-0)
LP - Jose Neris (0-1)
With two outs in the bottom of the 9th and a man on first, Jesus Algarin stepped up to the plate and hit a walkoff double to give us the win. It was a huge hit from Algarin and while the offense didn't explode with runs, they scored more than two! Parks pitched for six and gave up two runs on five hits. Sosa hit another home run bringing home two runs which was huge. In seven games he has hit three home runs and seven RBIs which is a great stat-line if you ignore his .154 average...
Game 8 -
VN 0 @ MAN 3
WP - Francisco Torreblanca (1-1)
LP - Esteban Colon (1-1)
SV - Ruben Pichardo (1)
Torreblance had a great game today, going for 8.2 innings and allowing five hits and no runs at all. The game was scoreless till the 8th when Purvis hit a double that brought a run home and with two more hits, it was 3-0. Maybe we can get a sweep.
Game 9 -
VN 4 @ MAN 3
WP - Ognjeslav Vasic (1-1)
LP - Jose Salinas (0-1)
SV - Edward Jorrin (2)
Tough loss today. We were down 3-1 heading into the bottom of the 7th when Takeda hit a double to bring two home and tie the game at 3. Sadly Chandler Delong, the Volcanoes 1B, hit a run scoring single to give them the lead and the Sabres couldn't tie it up in the bottom of the 9th. Jorge Rodriguez played well, allowing five hits and one earned run but the bullpen allowed two in and a rare error from Purvis allowed another in.
A good overall series, we should have won that last game but beating a decent team at home with this roster is good. Hoping that someone besides Godoy can actually start to hit.
Managua Sabres (2-7) @ Caracas Cavalry (4-5)
The Cavalry were predicted to lose 95 games but they have started the season pretty well. All nine of their games have been at home and their homestand continues against us. They took a game in a three game set with the Mexico City Diablos earlier in the week and now they have us. This team is beatable and I hope we can at least split this four game series.
Game 10 -
MAN 0 @ CAR 2
WP - Robert Saenz (1-0)
LP - Danny Luna (0-3)
SV - Charlie Fitzpatrick (2)
Just an awful way to start this series. We had nine hits against their number five starter and got no runs. Luna pitched well enough today and he won the POTG in a loss. He went 8 innings with six hits and two earned runs. We had
11 left on base and our offense just couldn't score. Saenz didn't pitch that well either but we just blew it. More great news as Gerard Purvis got injured while on the bases and now he's out for 4-5 weeks which sucks. I plan to call up Silcock and start him as Purvis sits on the DL. Maybe he can be the one to ignite this offense...
TRADE: The Managua Sabres have traded 31 year old 1B Gabriel MacDonald to the Puerto Plata Privateers for 27 year old SP Danny Ortiz.
I made this trade due to the large amount of first baseman on my roster and I decided to demote MacDonald but he refused to demoted so I shopped him around. This seems like a good trade for the Sabres because we weren't going to be using MacDonald and while Ortiz isn't the best, he's useful. I'm considering converting Ortiz to a reliever due to him having really low ability to pitch hard. Ability wise, he seems to be a good addition to this lacking bullpen.
Game 11 -
MAN 0 @ CAR 2
WP - Tony Moncayo (2-0)
LP - Colm Kijana (0-2)
SV - Charlie Fizpatrick (3)
This offense is getting me angry. Here our pitching has been pretty great and yet not even one run was scored We are getting hits too, we just can't bring any runners home. Kijana is not a good pitcher and yet he has an ERA under 4. To see the pitchers play so well and have us still lose is annoying. But, on to the next game.
Game 12 -
MAN 2 @ CAR 3 10 INN
WP - Juan Franco (1-0)
LP - Karsten Klomp (1-1)
And the losing streak goes to four... Tough loss today as Parks pitched a good game and we had the lead. Bottom of the 9th up 2-1, Klomp gives up a leadoff solo shot and then loses the game off a wild pitch in the next inning. We had this game but the lack of any hitting and a closer collapse just lost it for us. We better not get swept.
Game 13 -
MAN 2 @ CAR 0
WP - Francisco Torreblanca (2-1)
LP - Charlie Fizpatrick (0-1)
SV - Jose Salinas (1)
We end the series with a much needed win and a dominant pitching performance from Torreblanca. going 8 innings and only allowing four hits! And yet we still couldn't score until the 9th inning when Jesus Sosa, the only guy on the team who seems to have any power, hit a two run shot. Hopefully this can carry some momentum to win some games.
WEEK TOTAL (3-4)
OVERALL RECORD (3-10)
We moved up from 24th to 23rd in the weekly power rankings!(Guantanamo had a bad week) A good start with a nice series against the Volcanoes but the follow up series was anything but good. After that four game road series in Colombia, we head back home to face one of our two fierce rivals, the Tegucigalpa Beasts, for a three game set. Then we stay home as the defending CBL champions come down to Nicaragua for three games. This week is the start of a 12 game homestand so maybe our fortune can change a bit. Stupid Caracas...
Around our division, the Bogota Pythons are on a hot start, completing a three game sweep of preseason favorites Medellin today. Caracas and San Jose have been average so far and I expect Caracas to start losing more games. Medellin and Tegucigalpa have struggled badly but both of them can easily turn it around with some victories. And then there's us. 5.5 games back with the worst record in the entire CBL... We just got to keep moving forward.
Francisco Torreblanca won the ML Player of the Week after two starts of no runs allowed. He's been on fire and our pitching staff is 3rd in runs allowed. But we are last in the ML in almost every offensive category except stolen bases. Silcock has hit a wonderful .077 in his first three games which sure it's a small sample size, but I feel like there's a curse on this team. No one can hit except Sosa who has been great at hitting home runs but nothing else. Godoy is leading the team with a .255 average and four of our starters have a sub .200 batting average. It's disappointing but I think we can do some damage during our homestand.