[pauwoo]

2074 Season (8/13 – 8/19)
We start the week with a day off on Monday before gearing up to take on a 65-win Green Bay club that is playing well in August. They are 8-4 so far this month, including a 4-game sweep over the Carolina Panthers (a series where they outscored their opponent 30-10 in aggregate). Green Bay has a ho-hum offense – though they are 2nd in stolen bases in the AL. Theirs is a club built on pitching and defense with 5 starters boasting a sub-4 ERA and a 3rd best runs against ranking in the American League. They are five games off of Jacksonville’s pace and undoubtedly are looking at this 3-game set as an opportunity to make up some ground – we’ll need to recapture our April form to do damage here.

118 of 162: Game 1 Vs GBP – The Pack did their most significant damage against us late in this one and earned a 4-3 result taking game one of our series. Starter Graham Doyle was a’ight through 5-innings, but after walking 3-straight batters despite having 2 outs in the 5th we had to yank him. Derek played well – 2 for 3 with 2 runs and a walk. Green Bay wins despite committing 4 errors (we had nada) – no, our issue, again, was our pitching as RP Chip Gaytan gave up the tying run in the 8th and RP Frosty Dillard gave up the game-winner in the 9th – he’ll wear the much-deserved L in this one.

119 of 162: Game 2 Vs GBP – We put up 13 runs on the vaunted Green Bay defense – Jess Alford hits 2 out and drives 5 runs in for us and Brisk gets another CG dealing 12-K’s during his 4 hits, 2 Earned Runs performance. Derek has another good day as well, going 2 for 4 with a homer and 2 RBI’s. Green Bay committed an ungodly 7 errors on the day (we had 2) and we hit a double and 3 HR’s (Donny got one – not sure, but this could be the 1st game where both Jeter Bros hit one out – I’ll have to research that one). Suns win, 13-4.

120 of 162: Game 3 Vs GBP – Aargh… shut-out at home in the rubber match. We needed this one, but didn’t have what it takes or enough to get started. Patrick Keith gave up only 1 run in 7 innings of work – a wasted effort as our lone error allows 2 unearned runs across. A costly miscue for 3B Homer Wingard – he needs to be better than that. With the loss, we find ourselves tied with OKC for 3rd and only ½ a game up on San Francisco. GBP wins, 4-0.

Note: LAL CF Malcolm Charlebois hit his 300th home run as a Major Leaguer in a losing effort against the Carolina Panthers. Malcolm has had a decorated career – 6 All-star appearances, 5 Silver Slugger Awards, Two Championships (both as a member of the St. Louis Rams).

We’ll need to shake some evil after two tough losses in our series against Green Bay as we welcome San Francisco to town for what could be the most important series we’ve played this season. In addition to facing SS Hamza McDonnell for the first time since we traded him last month, we’ll face SP Landon Sampson in game one of the series. We’ve faced him 3 times so far this year – and he’s earned the W in each of those contests. He’s given up only 1 earned run in the 22 innings he’s pitched against us. After that, there’s not really a lot to the 49ers – of course, that’s probably similar to what they are saying about us.

121 of 162: Game 1 Vs SF – We finally break through against Sampson – sort of. He goes 7 and only gives up 2 runs, but Ash Newman was just a little bit better today going 8 with 4 hits and 1 earned run. Good stuff from Ash today. Light-hitting defensive-minded CF Jason Bland went 1 for 4 with a solo home run (his 1st in 2074) in the 3rd and LF Cash Crouch hit one of his own in the 6th. 3B Homer Wingard commits another fielding error, our only one on the day, and as a team, we matched San Fran’s strikeout total at 11. Suns win, 2-1 – and we’ll take it.

122 of 162: Game 2 Vs SF – 49ers Pitcher Erik Melluzzo only allowed 1 run in 8 innings of work while Del Miller allows 3 in 7.2 innings of work – we let two additional runs get by unearned due to fielding miscue’s – wasting another strong pitching performance. 49ers win 5-3. Frustrating.

123 of 162: Game 3 Vs SF – Aargh – nearly shut out at home in the rubber match. We lost 7-1, only managed to get 4 total hits, we struck out 11 times, committed an error, got caught attempting a boneheaded steal – and, well, lost. This one is tough – as critical a game as we’ve played all season and we got… nothing.

Well, well, well – Tied for 5th in the NL West and now 6 ½ games behind the San Diego Chargers – who have really started to run away with this thing… 68 wins, 7-3 in their last 10. We are now a sub .500 ball club, I don’t know, maybe we always have been. 3-7 in our last 10 and 7-10 so far in August. It’s a sad state of affairs, man.