[pauwoo]

27 of 162: Arnaldo Romero (3-1, 2.27 ERA) @ Cleveland Cornejo (3-0, 5.33 ERA)
San Diego wasted no time getting on the board in the top of the 1st when RF Kelford Jackson hit a 2-out RBI, bringing 3B Jamie Burke home. A fortunate turn of events as Kelford’s hit was the only one given up by CC… Old Man Donny got an undeserved break from the lineup today, but Derek, perhaps in a show of support, hit a solo HR with 2 outs and tied up the game with his well placed 398ft moon shot. Things settled down for a couple of innings before Derek hit a single in an unsuccessful attempt to get a party started – nothing doing, another scoreless inning… until San Diego exploded for a 5-run 5th. They’d put 3 more on the board en route to a 9-2 road victory. For the game, Pepper was a paltry 1-4, and Derek was really our only player of note. Cleveland gave up 6 (only 3 earned) as our 4 errors were as much the story of the game as anything. Pepper flubbed two plays while Milbrandt and McDonnell flubbed one each to make sure he didn’t feel so lonely. Romero pitched 8.2 tip top innings for San Diego and their offense was fantastic putting up 14 hits.

28 of 162: Justice Pangburn (2-2, 3.48 ERA) @ Oswaldo Flores (1-3, 5.34 ERA)
Donny, fresh off his day of rest, gets the start at DH… and continues to suck at it, striking out looking in his first AB… Derek stays lukewarm and drops in a hit to shallow left field and then advances on a wild pitch before Luca brings him in with a single to shallow CF. We score another in the second and San Diego returns the favor in the top of the 3rd… Pepper leads us off in the bottom of the 5th with a single and DONNY brings him home with a 2-out RBI single – maybe now he can get that snowflake icon removed from his name… San Diego stays scrappy and manages to put two on the board in the top of the 7th to knot it up and then does it again in the top of the 8th to take a 2-run lead… Mitchell Cusac leads us off in the bottom of the 9th with a double and your boy PEPPER brings him home with a double of his own down the 3B line… Donny, with an opportunity to bring in the tying run, hits a line drive right to SS Jude Varela and that’s where we leave it – Chargers win 5-4.

29 of 162: Ryan Burg (3-1, 2.35) @ Ash Newman (2-1, 3.82 ERA)
Derek’s turn to get a day off… Chargers take a 2-run lead in the 1st, we put up 3-hits but can’t get anyone across… We manage to tie it up in the bottom of the 2nd – let’s go Suns! Of course, the Chargers manage to put up a couple more in the 3rd and while we do get one back in the 4th, they do it to us again in the top of the 5th… We never manage to get any closer than that and finish the game with another loss, our 3rd in a row and 5th to the Chargers this season, 9-5. Bummer biscuits. File under “Insult to Injury”: CF Smith Wells, the man with two last names, gets the #1 player of the day honor after going 3 for 4 with 2 homers, 3 RBI and 4 runs… He is worthy of your hatred.

Up next: We begin our 12-game road trip in Chicago against the 11-19 Fire – given our form, we will need to dig deep to get a series win against them over the weekend.

Notes: Josiah and the Jags also begin May with 3 losses to Green Bay – things are not looking up for the former AL East juggernaut. April NL Pitcher of the Month Vincente De La Cruz suffered an injury in his start against the Philadelphia 76ers and will miss the next 8 weeks of the season - that's lame.