[Bub13]

May 18-20 @ MONTREAL
Sliding backwards in the competitive NL Central: on a 1-9 skein to put them at 14-27 overall. They've scored the fewest runs in the NL, and hitting is 15th, 18th in HR. Pitching is only marginally better, at 13th in runs against. They don't feature a lot of high-contact guys, and half their lineup is hitting about 40 points below career averages. Rookie Allen Geel has brought a bit of power--leading the team with 7 HR--but is batting just .188. Still, attendance is up, and the team is profitable. Probably thanks to Youppi. Manager: Andres Reyna, third season. Owner: T.J. Reid, a tolerant economizer (it shows, man), who is upset that none of his goals are being met, or even considered.

HAW pitchers: Ryan Ratliff (3-0, 1.19) / Eric Jones (6-1, 3.20) / Tim Pinksen (6-1, 3.20)
MTL pitchers: Jun-hyuk Au (1-7, 3.95) / David Salguero (2-3, 4.68) / Adam Kraemer (season debut)

#42: LOSS 6-7 ... the pen gives up a 4-run 8th for the loss...3-run HR for Klein, and 2 hits apiece for Groff, Stoneback, and Klump
#43: LOSS 7-10 ... despite three HR, another bullpen blow up--5 late runs this time--costs us this one...Groff goes 4-for-4, and Sanborn drives in three
#44: LOSS 5-7 ... three games, three bullpen losses: 2 runs in the 8th tonight...sigh...11 hits for us, but only one for extra bases

Well, that was fun. The bullpen--leaking oil for weeks--just exploded all over everyone, and essentially cost us all three games. Rick Ramirez (8.56 ERA) has been dropped to an avoid-high-leverage-at-all-costs MR slot, and Nick Kramer took his new setup role so seriously that he now sports a flaming 9.00 ERA. Pat Stanley, who didn't exactly wow 'em here, at least managed somehow to get his ERA below 6. Closer Dan Brown has been good, but didn't pitch any here because, well, he didn't have any late leads to close out.... The bullpen ERA is 17th, at 5.94. Meaning someone is actually worse.... ELSEWHERE: Chris White (BKN) is slumping, and his average has dropped to .389. Reds young superstar Jose Tavares had a huge series against the Angels (8-for-11, 5 HR, 10 RBI, 5 BB) and leads the NL with a .402 average.... Milwaukee's Jay Russo is pursuing the pitching triple crown: 1st in ERA (1.39), t5th in wins, and 2nd in strikeouts. I wonder when we play them next? (Checks calendar...crap).... Mets closer Nick Sexton already has 20 saves on the season.


May 21-23 vs MILWAUKEE
Currently on top of the Central, at 28-16. They score more runs (9th) than their hitting (14th AVG, 17th OBP) would indicate...although being 3rd in home runs certainly helps. RF Chris O'Brien has powered 14 of them, and is well on his way to topping his career high of 32. Pitching (1st) and defense (2nd) have been the obvious strengths, tho. Ace Jay Russo has been great, and three other starters have ERA below 4. They're doing all this with 8 guys on the DL, including 3B Josh Toombs, who hit 39 HR last year. So they'll get even better soon.... Manager: Seon-gwon Che, a temperamental first-year guy who doesn't really get along well with anybody. Owner: Ron Attanasio, who's both lenient and controlling. Erm...

HAW pitchers: Taylor Barnett (4-3, 3.54) / Khalil Palmer (5-1, 3.05) / Ryan Ratliff (3-0, 1.73)
MIL pitchers: Jay Russo (4-0, 1.39) / Nathaniel Cole (0-0, 3.75) / Jim Gilbert (6-3, 3.31)

#45: WIN 5-4 ... I talk up Dan Brown and he nearly blows it in the 9th...a bases loaded walk in the 11th wins it tonight...3 hits for Klein, and a good start for Barnett
#46: LOSS 6-10 ... pin this on Palmer, who gives up every run, then gets hurt...hard wind blowing out meant 6 combined HR
#47: WIN 5-3 ... we score 3 in the 2nd, thanks mostly to JHart's 2-run HR, and then hang on...3.1 solid innings from the pen tonight

Solid series, getting back on track. Pitching was better, and Palmer is just dtd for 5 days. With a day off upcoming, he probably won't miss a start.... Jose Esquivel gets called up to take a spot in the pen, Nick Kramer goes back down. Esquivel pitches twice, goes 3.2 innings, looks good.... Rob Hart gets ransacked again in his third rehab AAA start.... We only draw 33K per game in this series, way way down from last year.... ELSEWHERE: Portland has been an astounding 18-3 this month, bringing them to 27-19 and first in the NL West by 2.5 games.... For the first time in years (decades?) an NLer is leading MLB in home runs: STL catcher Alexis Mercedes has 17, leading CIN Jose Tavares and LAA Tony Mendoza by one.... Austin looked like a team on the rise a couple years ago. Now, they're 17-29 and getting no pitching and no hitting. Although former Islander Ronnie Corgan was just installed at closer, and has a 0.92 ERA. Can we have him back?


May 25-27 @ CHICAGO WHITE SOX
A proud franchise that hasn't seen the post-season since 2030, this season doesn't look likely to end that streak. At 20-27, they're bringing up the rear in the Central, with a 17th-ranked offense and 16th-ranked pitching. Billionaire catcher Dan Starr is hitting again, leading the team with 10 HR and 36 RBI, and leadoff RF Justin Haynes is rolling at a .311/8/32 clip. But #2 hitter Ken Howard gives it right back with his lovely .209/.270/.319 line. Let's not mention cleanup hitter Jim Timmer and his .198 average. SP Jake Davidson is having a fine year, but the bottom three in the rotation have a combined ERA over 7.00. Closer Luis Andino has 14 saves and is at least holding his own in a struggling pen. This is a staff that really needs Burton Dick, the #2 prospect in MLB, to hurry up and develop already. Manager: Taylor Black, in his first season after just four years at the helm in A ball. Owner: Andy Johnston. Demanding. Economizer. Meddling. Profit! A losing team that's not drawing fans and won't turn a big profit? He's satisfied.

HAW pitchers: Eric Jones (6-1, 3.66) / Tim Pinksen (6-1, 3.73) / Taylor Barnett (4-3, 3.43)
CHW pitchers: Daniel Hampton (0-1, 8.25) / Gary Stoker (2-1, 7.11) / Chris Wead (3-5, 4.42)

#48: LOSS 2-3 ... Jones pitches well enough to keep us in this, but Moore gives up a raft of singles in the 9th for the loss...We make Hampton look very, very good tonight
#49: WIN 9-5 ... Pinksen isn't at his best (7.1 IP< 9 H, 5 R), but the offense powers through for 13 hits, including 3 doubles for Klein, and 3 RBI for Stoneback
#50: WIN 8-2 ... Barnett throws a smooth 6 IP...Davila wakes up with 3 hits (2 doubles and a HR), 2 RBI...Ramirez somehow throws 3 scoreless, hitless innings in relief

Get your record healthy against the weak teams, some smart guy once said. Which is good, as we've got some tough series coming up.... Hitting is still league-best, and the pitching has stabilized of late. The pen lowered its ERA by over a half run these last six games.... Finally some good Rob Hart news: a 7.1 IP start, 7 H, 2 R, 7 K.... Sen Masuda, tho, has an injury setback and will be out an additional week. He's looking at the end of June for a return date now.... Somehow we're 2nd in the AL in steals, at 41. J.J. Simmons is third with 13.... ELSEWHERE: Washington, Montreal, and Austin are the only teams without at least 20 wins.... Don't look now, but the Yankees are 16-9 this month and in third in the East. Attendance is up a remarkable 83 percent over last year.... I wouldn't say Philly is having a post-championship letdown this year, but at 28-21 and 2nd in the NL East, they're not tearing it up like last year. Hitting is still 1st in the NL; and while they're 5th in runs against, the rotation is ranked just 13th, and was seriously hurt by the season-ending injury to four-time Cy Young winner Dave Henderson.


May 29-30 @ DETROIT
Quirky schedule means a day off, then a double header on the 29th. No surprise: the Tigers are having another good year. Currently a game behind the Brewers, and at 31-20 they have the best non-division-leading record in MLB. Hitting is down a bit, just 8th in runs (and a sad-looking 17th in AVG), but pitching has been the rock, at 2nd in runs against. They have a +45 run differential. Four players are already in double figures in HR, so they get a lot of easy runs. But if the power dries up (it won't tho), they'll have trouble scoring with that bad hitting. SP Raul Bravo is having a Cy Young-type year, and 34-year-old closer Alex Castaneda is having a nice comeback (2.63, 10 saves) after several years of dreary middle relief. Manager: Ethan Larrison, in his first at the helm (two years as bench coach) after the retirement of the beloved Franceso Miani. Owner: Henry Ilitch, who's demanding and fiscally controlling, and yet hands-off. That's a lot of passive-aggressiveness right there. His owner goals are simple tho: reach the playoffs, reach the World Series.

HAW pitchers: Khalil Palmer (5-2, 4.20) / Ryan Ratliff (4-0, 2.14) / Eric Jones (6-1, 3.55)
DET pitchers: Mike Cote (5-2, 4.14) / Jeffrey Foley (0-2, 4.88) / Travis Heumann (1-2, 6.18)

#51: WIN 3-1 ... HR for Davila, and we outhit them 12-6...Seven four-hit innings for Palmer, and Brown gets his 8th save
#52: LOSS 1-9 ... sloppy nightcap, as no one pitches well...3 hits each for Klein and McCollum
#53: WIN 5-4 ... Klump goes 3-for-5 with a 2-run HR...four others get 2 hits each...Jones has his usual game, putting 12 runners on through 7 but somehow getting the win

Will always take two out of three, and especially against Detroit.... Klein continues to deliver, batting .335, with 32 RBI from leadoff.... Sanborn has hit .278 with 4 HR since his recall, making a solid case for a regular shift in the lineup. He'll probably have to go, however, once Masuda comes back.... All five starting pitchers have ERA below 4.00, which may be a first for any Islander team.... ELSEWHERE: With one more day left in May, Jose Tavares may finish the month over .400 (by one point, for now).... Yankees OF Daizo Yonamine, likeable yet fragile, has played just 14 games this season. His four-year career in NY has seen the follwing games played: 62, 108, 55, and 14.... Austin pitcher Danny Arroyo is having a nightmare year: 10 starts, 64 IP, 83 H, 26 HR, 5.43 ERA, -1.8 WAR. And Cubs RF Ryan Annand is somehow still in the lineup with this line: .135/.191/.184.


May 31 @ HOUSTON
We finish the month with the first of a four-game set with the Astros. They've slipped a bit, going six games under .500 to sit at 28-26, 6.5 games behind us. Eleventh in runs for and 14th in runs against, for a distressing -31 run differential. These are not good signs going forward. SP Alejandro Gonzales is finally looking like the ace he was meant to be, and RF Hughie Noonan is having a fantastic sophomore season, .340/13/32. The bullpen, tho, has been worse than ours: dead last in ERA, and closer Alex Mahoney is lucky to still have a job: 8.75 ERA and a 1.77 WHIP. System outlook: 18th (of 36), with 1B Jose Renteria (#17 ranked) and 3B Ricky Silva (#27) looking like legit hitting studs. No big pitching prospects, however.

HAW pitcher: Tim Pinksen (7-1, 3.99)
HOU pitcher: Chris Driscoll (2-4, 5.52)

#54: LOSS 4-7 ... three HR (Groff, Davila, Klump) are pretty much it for highlights...Pinksen puts 11 runners on in 5 IP...Stoneback hurt too

Pinksen may be regressing to his mean, which is not that surprising, tbh.... Stoneback suffers a herniated disc on the bases (how?) and will be out for two weeks. I'll move Simmons over from second, and give Manny Rangel a couple of weeks as a regular to get a better read on him (he's hitting .250, but in just 32 AB, so I'm curious to see what he's got). Not sure who will come up from the farm.... ELSEWHERE: Nobody is hitting .400 any longer. Oh well, we can still dream.... Austin ends May with just 19 wins on the season. They've been stuck in last in the NL West all year, but with Arizona (projected to win just 59 games, remember) on a 1-9 skid, that could be changing soon.

......

TL;DR Version: A 6-7 run to finish the month on a less than strong note. Hitting is still going strong, which is good: 1st in runs, AVG, OBP, and 8th in HR. Pitching is...a bit less predictable. The bullpen has recovered from it's early-month horrorshow, and is now 12th in AL ERA, at 5.17. The rotation ERA is 8th, and there are some signs that maybe the honeymoon is coming to an end. Pinksen has gotten a little bit worse nearly every outing this year, while Barnett and Palmer have outpitched expectations. Ratliff and Jones have been pretty steady, but as I said during spring training: this is not a rotation that scares anybody. We really need Rob Hart to get his rehab act together and come back strong, if only so I feel like I have one solid ace/near-ace level pitcher available.