[Bub13]

May 13-15 vs ST LOUIS
It's Interleauge Play Week! First up are the Cardinals, who are defying my wishes and expectations with a 20-16 start, their best in a decade. Hitting has been subpar (11th or worse in most categories), but pitching is keeping them in things: 6th in runs against, 8th in starter's ERA, bullpen is 4th. And that despite having five pitchers from their opening day roster on the DL. Two of their current starting pitchers played for us last year; we'll face both of them.

HAW pitchers: Leon Casillas (5-2, 2.39) / Rob Hart (4-1, 5.23) / Eric Jones (4-1, 3.50)
STL pitchers: Ken Clark (2-3, 3.27) / Mike Bryant (2-3, 5.80) / Steve Brock (3-2, 3.61)

#36: WIN 4-1 ... Casillas is back, 7.1 IP, 8 K...even better that we beat our old prodigy, Ken Clark; or rather, we beat his relief as he only goes 5 innings, surprise surprise
#37: WIN 7-4 ... Hart gives up 4 in 6 IP, but does K 9...Martinez knocks a 3-run shot and McArthur also drives in 3
#38: WIN 10-1 ... we turn 8 hits into 7 runs in the second inning and coast from there...McArthur 4 hits, Dunklee 4 RBI...Jones solid again over 7.2 innings, strikes out 9

I could get used to these sweeps. Plus, we had the pleasure of beating two former starters, Clark and Brock. Clark actually pitched well, giving up just a run in 5 innings; but Brock got hammered for 14 hits and 10 runs in 4 innings. No quarter....Nate Hullinger is making the most of his second chance: .321/11/38....Still waiting on Mark Phillips' injury diagnosis... ELSEWHERE: Seattle is cruising at 9-1 recently, 25-14 overall, 6.5 games behind us....Richmond CF Aaron Riches, fresh off two seasons hitting .203 and .200, is off to a .144 start with 58 K in 38 games, and zero doubles. Not to be outdone, Cleveland SS David Johnson, batting .162, has struck out 76 times in 142 AB.


May 16-18 vs NEW ORLEANS
Our co-expansionists are still trying to make any kind of positive mark in MLB, having had zero winning seasons in five years of existence. This year, they're 16-23, not great, but an improvement. Pitching is top 7, with starter's ERA fifth in the NL. Hitting, however, has been atrocious: dead last in AVG and OBP, and bottom five everywhere else. You knew things weren't going to go well for the Zephs when their big free agent signing, aging former all-star SS Elijah Mims, was lost for the season in his first pre-season game. The one piece of good news is that the prospec pool is ranked third, with three players in the top 20. SS Juan Rodriguez looks like a future superstar. #1 prospect--and their first ever draft pick, taken just after we took Travis McArthur--Bob Johnson finally made the bigs this year, but is a sneering buffoon and is only slashing .200/.276/.286 from the leadoff position.

HAW pitchers: Bobby Little (5-0, 3.80) / Rich Beltowski (2-0, 2.45) / Leon Casillas (6-2, 2.25)
NOZ pitchers: Erik Presley (3-4, 3.47) / Sam Thompson (1-3, 4.00) / Mike Wright (1-2, 4.91)

#39: WIN 7-6 ... Six runs in the 8th and 9th, led by Groff's home runs in both innings, give us a big comeback win...Hullinger also homers again
#40: LOSS 4-6 ... Beltowski's emergency start goes okay (6 IP, 6 H, 2 ER), but Kieffer blows it in the 10th by giving up Jonathan Emilien's first MLB home run
#41: WIN 4-3 ... our turn: Martinez's 10th inning double off Zephs starter Mike Wright (still in the game, yes) wins it...Kieffer redeems with 2 shutout innings

Mark Phillips missed his start, had two days of a dtd injury left, and now trainer Villalobos tells me his return is "uncertain," and we shouldn't play him. Fine then. He'll get a stint on the 11-day DL, and Bobby Piccirillo will get another chance--maybe his last--to show he belongs in the bigs....Josh Drayton comes off the DL, but with everyone hitting so well, and him off to a .231 start, he'll get a rehab stint in KC to work back into shape....Rich Beltowski threw pretty well in his emergency start for Phillips; if he had a third pitch, I'd keep the experiment going... ELSEWHERE: Coby Sandu may not be much of a prospect, but the 24-year-old Milwaukee RF hit for the cycle in his first big league game, an 8-7 win over Brooklyn. In case you're keeping count, that's worth 0.4 WAR....

AT THE QUARTER POLE I like what I'm seeing. Forty-one games in, 33-8 record, best hitting in the AL, second best pitching, 3rd in defensive efficiency. Also good: we're healthy, and almost no one is struggling or slumping right now. Complaints? Hmm...the reclamation project that is 33-year-old reliever Jay Yates is not looking too good, with a 6.75 ERA and a 1.65 WHIP. Somehow he's not in negative WAR territory. We could also be hitting more home runs, but when everything else is going well, that seems like a quibble. We'll see how I feel about that when the inevitable bad run takes hold... On the farm, KC is having its first down year, at 16-15 so far, after three championships in four seasons. AA Lewiston is okay, at 16-17, which is historically quite good for them. Eureka (A) is at 22-17, in first place. Early days, tho. Early days.

May 20-22 @ PITTSBURGH
The former juggernaut--six straight division titles, four 100-win seasons, 2 World Series--has fallen on hard times. They're now 16-25, in last place by a half game (behind New Orleans, the horror), and not yet showing any signs of life. The hitting is still there: 4th in runs scored, 1st in AVG, 2nd on OBP and HR. Jordan Shields, Danny Diaz, Daniel Matias, and Mike Blough (currently on the DL) are still hitting, and dangerous. The pitching, however, has been a disaster: last in runs against and starter's ERA, 14th in bullpen ERA. Their best starter, Mike Flynn, is gone for 13 months. Only one current starter has an ERA under 5.70. Ace closer Braxton Carll is fresh off the DL, but if no one can deliver leads to him... Plus they're wildly over budget, so if they're out of it come deadline time, we might have to talk turkey...

HAW pitchers: Rob Hart (5-1, 5.31) / Eric Jones (5-1, 3.17) / Bobby Little (5-0, 4.06)
PIT pitchers: Matt Beck (1-0, 5.71) / Gustavo Magdaleno (2-4, 7.04) / Mike Koslowsky (2-4, 6.75)

#42: LOSS 7-10 ... a combined 29 hits and 6 HR...Hart continues to pitch poorly, but Kieffer loses on a walk-off grand slam...Martinez injured for a month, to boot
#43: LOSS 6-10 ... the bullpen throws another clunker with a six-run 7th...Jones also gives up five in 6.1 innings...our first back-to-back losses of the season
#44: WIN 12-0 ... a four-hitter is a nice way to stop the bleeding...Collins drives two out of the yard, and we rack up 18 hits

It's odd, discouraging even, to average eight runs a game in a series but lose 2 out of 3. Rob Hart is having a pretty bad season so far, but Eric Jones threw probably his first bad game of 2039....Ernesto Martinez pulled something, and is out for a month. Sucks, but the positive is that Josh Drayton was ready to come back from a brief AAA rehab. McArthur slides back to LF, and our opening day outfield is intact once again.... ELSEWHERE: Oakland's David Shaw is working on a 29-game hitting streak, and our own Chris Wiggins is up to 24 games....After averaging .288/36/104 in six seasons with Texas, 27-year-old 1B Raul Molina was a prize free agent catch for the Nationals. Now? Despite hitting .308, he's made more pinch hit appearances (23) than starts (15), and this week got into a shoving match with manager Ruben Vasquez and several teammates. Rumors are that Molina is on his way out...