[Bub13]

June 2-5 @ SEATTLE
Sitting at 33-21, tied with Oakland at 7.5 games behind us. Pitching has been their strong suit for years, and they're getting good results again this year: 3rd in runs against and 1st in bullpen ERA. But for once their hitting is keeping up: 8th in runs scored, 6th in AVG. LF Enrique Cervantes (.330/9/27), DH Fernando Orozco (.303/12/31), and 1B Eduardo Garcia (.294/12/27) pace the attack, with ace starter Aaron Myers is also having a dynamite year (2.31, 6-1, 88 K, 81.2 IP).

HAW pitchers: Bobby Little (7-0, 3.70) / Bobby Piccarillo (2-0, 3.86) / Leon Casillas (8-2, 2.04) / Rob Hart (6-2, 5.67)
SEA pitchers: Sean Easter (1-4, 6.95) / Aaron Myers (6-1, 2.31) / Ruben Alvarado (3-4, 4.21) / Andrew Manning (4-4, 4.63)

#54: LOSS 4-5 ... typical: Kieffer yields a 10th-inning solo HR to Cervantes...McArthur hits his 9th HR, a 2-run shot to give us a chance
#55: LOSS 4-6 ... yes, we outhit them, but Pics is grossly outpitched by Myers...Groff and Hunter with 3 hits apiece, but whatever
#56: WIN 5-1 ... Casillas saves the day with 8 strong innings, and Groff drives in 4 with two hits...Kieffer gets his 22nd save
#57: LOSS 2-4 ... nothing to see here

What a dump of a series. Casillas' outing was our only highlight. We're coming back to earth now, and I'm not going to enjoy the ride.... ELSEWHERE: White Sox OF Francisco Gervacio is the first in MLB to reach 20 HR....The Mets are 37-20, best in the NL and 2nd best in the bigs, but have eight players on the DL, with ace starter Gabe Delfin now on the shelf for two weeks.


June 7-8 vs LA ANGELS
In last place, 19-39, second worst record ahead of only Tampa. Bottom quarter hitting, near-worst pitching. One bright spot is still-developing 21-year-old 3B Tony Mendoza (.263/13/35). Third-year SS Travis Tanner is hitting .287 and playing great defense.

HAW pitchers: Eric Jones (5-1, 3.82) / Bobby Little (7-0, 3.89)
LAA pitchers: Milt Schott (4-3, 4.57) / Bryan Gruber (2-3, 3.78)

#58: WIN 7-8 ... McArthur triples home Robertson in the 10th for the win...Wiggins and Hullinger with three hits, Hullinger also drives in four
#59: WIN 10-9 ... Collins and Dunklee bring home two each with a double and a HR in the 8th, and Collins singles home the winning run in the 9th...terrible pitching tho

Two late-inning wins, we'll take. The rotation is leaking oil all over the place right now, however: it's been three weeks since we've given up less than 4 runs in a game not started by Casillas.... ELSEWHERE: Baltimore 1B Alex Morales is the first to reach 20 HR, now leading the league with 21. White Sox OF Francisco Gervacio and Portland 1B Mat Quadrini each have 20....San Diego's Gary Florence is the first to 10 wins, and is having a heck of a season so far: 10-1, 3.13, 91 K, 2.7 WAR.


June 9-12 @ TEXAS
Sitting at 30-30, 13.5 games back, 12th in runs scored and fifth in runs against. So, some decent hitting, but they are 17th in home runs (John Evans, their 9th place hitter, leads the team with 11). Pitchers are all over the place: rotation is 12th in ERA, bullpen is 3rd.

HAW pitchers: Bobby Piccirillo (2-1, 4.71) / Leon Casillas (9-2, 1.96) / Rob Hart (6-3, 5.64) / Eric Jones (5-1, 4.11)
TEX pitchers: Seth Purdy (3-1, 3.43) / Amir Farland (6-4, 4.08) / Danny Powers (3-5, 5.04) / Mike Rath (3-6, 5.97)

#60: WIN 2-1 ... Groff and Dunklee drive in both runs and gather five hits between them...Piccirillo goes 8 innings, yields just 5 hits; only 2 Ks
#61: WIN 6-3 ... Hullinger's first inning three-run shot, Groff's solo and McArthur's two-run blast account for all our runs...Casillas wins his 10th game
#62: LOSS 3-8 ... Rob Hart's miserable season continues: 4 IP, 6 H, 7 ER, 2 HR. Suddenly he has Ken Clark Disease.
#63: WIN 7-1 ... meanwhile, Jones' game is rounding into shape, with a complete game four-hitter...Holguin's pinch three-hit homer put us up for good, then we piled it on late

The pitching (save Rob Hart, sigh) gets healthy against the light-hitting Rangers. Eh, I'll take it....Casillas is the first AL pitcher to 10 wins, for what that's worth (not a whole lot, tbh)....Groff is now hitting .365, leading the AL for now; Wiggins still at .355 and Robertson .352, which actually mean they're slumping....The Angels look to be moving Devlin Ransberger, who at 35 is a disaster as a catcher, but can still hit with the best of them. If I had a place for him (my DH, Hullinger, has been one of my best hitters this year), I'd try to grab him.... ELSEWHERE: Boston's Zach Setaro pitches his second career no-hitter, walking just one and beating the Rays 5-0. (Okay, his first was in A ball.)....Oakland is 8-2 in their last 10, still hanging around just 6 games behind us; Seattle is another game behind them....Tampa is leveling out, lol, and is now at 15-47, for a .242 winning pct. Quite a surge, really....Let's take a peek at the season thus far for one Toichi Kaneko, pitching for Portland. The 25-year-old was acquired from Cleveland for two pretty decent prospects last December, in the kind of move that to me looked like something bad teams always do: sending decent prospects after highly flawed players. Kaneko has huge stuff, nice control, but almost no movement, and is lazy and stupid to boot. But so far he's got a 2.76 ERA, has given up just 71 hits in 97.2 innings, and has an insane 10-to-1 K-BB ratio (with 119 K!). Yeah, he's on pace to give up 36 HR, but will pitch 251 innings, so that's not so bad. Enjoy it while it lasts, Portland fans.

Next up: A sideways glance, then more Interleague Play