[pauwoo]

2074 Season (8/27 – 8/29: 3 @ LAL)
I don’t love LA. This is not to say that I hate it – nay, I approach LA with an air of indifference. But enough about the city – let’s baseball a little bit… The Los Angeles Lakers are mired in their worst season in, well, they were worse last year so never mind all that. Look, the Lakers haven’t been good for a while. They’ve made the playoffs 39 times but have never won the World Series. They’ve been profitable though, and maybe, to their ownership group, that is the most important thing. The only thing they seem to do with regularity is hit homers and steal bags – they’re suspect pretty much everywhere else. However, at 14-10 so far in August, one thing they are is better than us. This is one of those situations where you should come out on top – and even do so easily – but if you take your eye off the prize, even for a second, your routes to those easy W’s close quickly and you end up with egg on your face or in a plastic surgery office to tighten up your crows feet, or lost on sunset clutching a Motley Crue tank top in one hand a bottle of fireball in the other. In short, when in LA stay focused or suffer the life-altering consequences.

131 of 162: Game 1 @ LAL – Ash Newman continues to pitch well and only allows two runs during his 7 innings of work. SS Maddox Wahlen went 2 for 4 with a HR and 3 RBI’s. Los Angeles 1B Ruben Zarate has an awesome day – 2 for 3 with a HR and 4 RBI (GRAND SLAM). Derek gets 3 hits and Donny gets a hit and scored twice. We managed 9-innings of error-free baseball but strike out 13 times – we’ll take the 6-5 extra-inning road win though. A solid W on the road has a way of curing all that ails you. Note: 3B Homer Wingard was injured running the bases – doesn’t seem too serious – he’ll be listed DTD for a few games.

132 of 162: Game 2 @ LAL – Well, Homer is a tough guy – he shook off his back tightness and went 2 for 4 with a HR and 3 RBI’s. C Norton Manning was solid – 2 for 4, a double and an RBI… We designated Del Miller for assignment after the game yesterday and flew SP Evan Frazier out to LA from Tucson – he got the start today and was serviceable. We pulled him after a couple of fielding miscues let 3 unearned runs get across, that rattled him a bit so we went to the pen. Nice 10-6 win for us.

Side note: Your boy Rad Taylor put a nice 3-game winning streak together before losing his most recent start against the Louisville Bats. During the stretch, he gave up 6 runs in 19 innings of work.

133 of 162: Game 3 @ LAL – The Lake Show struck late and avoided getting swept at home. Graham Doyle pitched well enough – 2 earned in 6 innings – and Dylan Huerta finished 2 for 3 with 2 jacks and 4 RBI’s… tough loss, I feel like the sweep was there for the taking.

We’re 7-3 in our last 10 and riding some positive vibes into our travel day – a 4+ hour flight followed by some R&R before taking on the best team in the National League in their home ballpark. We’re in good form but they are too… 6-4 in their last 10 and 15-11 for the month so far. We’re 14-13 now, so that’s cool. If we can get a game 1 win against Pittsburgh, August will be our first winning month since April. I need that in my life.