[pauwoo]

Brooklyn Citizens (29-21, .580, 2nd NL East) @ Phoenix Suns (29-22, .569, 2nd NL West)
The Citizens don’t get on often (.315 OBP – 12th) and they don’t hit particularly well (.251 Avg, 9th), but when they get on, they get them across (238 Runs, 2nd) and they have some pop (50 HR, t-2nd). They have a lights out bullpen, and their starters are serviceable – nothing special, but capable and they make a habit of putting together solid starts and eating innings, keeping their bullpen so fresh and so clean. In short, they’re a solid, sometimes good, but not great ball club. They have two players in the top 100 prospect list in 3B Jarel White (#50) and 3B Miguel Pacheco (#87), outside of those two they don’t have much talent stocked up in Brentwood. They look like a playoff team – not a championship contender – and, if they want to take the next step it will have to come through trades and free agency.

52 of 162: Nathaniel Firestone (4-3. 3.77) @ Oswaldo Flores (1-4, 5.13)
Oswaldo was solid – that’s really all we need from him – and gave us 6 innings with only 1 earned. He was all over the place with his command, walking 5 and striking 7 out. PJ Amador was 2 for 3 with a run scored – as a team we only got 6 hits, 1 walk, and THIRTEEN K’s – Derek led the K parade with 3. Phoenix wins 3-2.

Bonus Game (NCAA Final): Pepperdine @ Pennsylvania
Jordan Mandebaum (20/62) was at his best when it mattered most – he delivered 8.2 innings of shutout baseball for the Quakers with only 6 hits, a walk, and 6 K’s. SS Ray Gerhold (20/67) went 2 for 3 with a double and 2 RBI and RF Adjo Domfeh (20/20) went 3 for 4 with a triple and 2 RBI in the 7-0 win. Pennsylvania did all their damage in the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th innings while Pepperdine started flat and stayed that way. This is Pennsylvania’s 2nd championship in 19 tourney appearances.

53 of 162: Nick Lyle (3-4, 3.23) @ Isaiah Zuno (3-4, 3.95)
I’m shopping Zuno – looking to get a serviceable starter with 1 year left on his contract and some minor league talent that is good at not striking out – not getting any bites though. He was really good today – 8 innings, 3 earned, 12 K’s, but Nick Lyle was better – 9 inning shutout with 7 K’s. It was nice that we didn’t hit double digits in K’s, but it was lame that we committed 4 errors – we have a lot of holes on this club. Citizens win 4-0.

54 of 162: Mitch Hudkins (4-1, 2.56) @ Ash Newman (4-2, 3.74)
1B Jacob Wells went 2 for 3 with a HR and Luca Milbrandt went 1 for 4 with a run-scoring double. Ash was great today – in fact, our pitchers have been in great form over the first three games of this series – 8 innings with 1 earned and 5 K’s. We finished with 10 K’s on the day – we’ve had 10+ K’s in both of our series wins against Brooklyn.

55 of 162: Logan Gorsline (3-4, 6.91) @ Cleveland Cornejo (4-2, 5.34)
In keeping with the theme for this series – great effort from our starter – CC pitched a complete game and only gave up two runs, but Brooklyn shut us down as Gorsline put in 7.2 innings of work with 10 K’s before handing the ball to the bullpen to finish the job. We finished the game with 12 K’s – that’s not a theme, it’s a habit.

So… in this series we either managed to get it done in grinding fashion or were completely dominated – a real Dr. Jekyll / Mr. Hyde deal. Not a lot of movement for either club – we both are right where we were prior to the series… at second in our respective divisions. In other news… I traded Isaiah Zuno and Keiki Kaneko for a SP Michael Brisk (good control, so-so stamina) and a minor league prospect in LF Dylan Huerta – he has a good arm with a below average range but has a lot of potential in ‘plate discipline’ and ‘avoid K’s’ that we hope our minor league coaches can eventually unlock. It was a good move, but I worry about the timing.

Next up we will welcome the 29-26 New York Jets to town for an interleague series and get to see what our new pitcher can do.