[pauwoo]

Vancouver Whitecaps (38-40, .487, 5th NL West) @ Phoenix Suns (42-37, .532, 2nd NL West)
The Whitecaps may well be the okayest team in the National League. Outside of a 4.57 Starters ERA (12th in the NL) and a paltry .608 Defensive Efficiency (12th in the NL), they are mired in the middle everywhere else. They’ve been hot lately. Strangely their roster includes two of the best closers in the game and neither one is on the trading block. They find themselves 20th in the league for attendance and currently have the 3rd highest payroll – it seems that GM Bat Hampton has made some questionable long-term financial decisions. In 2072, Vancouver shocked the league and won the World Series despite earning the last wildcard after finishing 82-80 for the season. Notably, they do have the #3 overall prospect developing in Newport Beach – the 23yo LHP Adam Gunter is 4-2 with a 2.21 ERA & 153 ERA+ for the Gypsies this season – he still has a lot to learn though. In recent starts against the Mexico City Diablos and the Cincinnati Bengals, Gunter gave up a combined 9 runs and 10 walks. The former Virginia Cavalier projects to make the majors in 2075.

80 of 162: Jake Renfer (2-10, 4.97) @ Graham Doyle (1-3, 7.30)
Note: Renfer is one of 4 starters in the majors with 10+ losses this season.
Doyle finally gives us a good performance. Prior to tonight’s game, the recent call up had given up 12 runs and 2 homers with only 5 total K’s. Tonight, he gave us 6 innings with 5 K’s and only one earned run. C Yoshi Nakamura went 3 for 3 and hit 2 doubles, while Donny, in a rare start at DH, went 0 for 5. 1B Jacob Wells opened the flood gates with a bases-clearing extra-base hit – we scored a couple of runs in each of the next two frames after enjoying his handiwork. Our 3-double, 2-homer game as a team was enough to overcome our 6 fielding errors. That’s a season-high for errors folks. Suns win 8-5, despite an interesting approach to defense.

Note: LHP Rad Taylor was a complete disaster in his Tucson debut. He gave up 6 runs, 2 walks and struck out 4 in 2 innings of work. The struggle is real.

81 of 162: Nick Boyer (1-4, 4.86) @ Del Miller (8-3, 4.30)
Miller completes the game with only 1 run on his name and the Suns explode in the 5th to complete the 10-1 victory for the hometown fans. We had four players with 2 RBI with 8 of our 10 runs coming from the bottom of the order. Donny went 2 for 4, Derek went 2 for 5 and the club only struck out 6 times. We also hit for the cycle as a team – 12 singles, a double (thanks Kai-Fa Chang!), a triple (thanks Norton Manning!) and a home run (thanks Donny Jeter!). I mean, that’s not really a thing, right?

June recap coming soon, then I'll finish this series.