[pauwoo]

2074 Season (9/14 -9/16)
Phoenix Suns (75-71, .514, 3rd NL West) @ San Diego Chargers (78-69, .531, 1st NL West)
The Chargers find themselves at the top of the lonesome crowded west – for now. The NL West is something of a three-dog race between SDC, San Francisco, and Us… San Diego has earned their spot at the top with good pitching (though their bullpen is a little soft around the middle) and timely hitting (though they are light on pop). What they lack, like most of the NL West clubs, is an identity. They are as vanilla as the citizens of their host city – content to bag some rays, gnash on some seafood tacos, and frolic in the surf – these aren’t the sort that demands a whole lot from their hometown teams (if/when they even bother to show up to watch them play). Don’t get me wrong – San Diego is good, it’s just a boring kind of good, hardly inspiring much fanfare or expectations. They are 3rd in Batting Average, 1st in wrecking the base paths, 1st in starters ERA, and 1st in Defensive Efficiency – all substance, no fashion. They are coming off a series win over the San Francisco 49ers at home and will, undoubtedly, be looking to put a hurting on us over the next 3 days as we head to town. We either make up ground or they establish significant distance in this one…

147 of 162: We come out hot in this one in the top of the 1st and put two on the board and get a 3rd off an error. The Chargers would chip away a little bit but can’t get any more than 2 across in the opening game – Suns win 4-2, a good start for us. Evan Frazier pitched well – only 2 earned in 5 innings of work. 3 hits for Preston, 2 RBI for Jake Wells. We got away with a couple of errors – Jake’s 2-run double in the 1st gave us all the cushion we would require. Elsewhere: Jacksonville & Seattle clinched playoff spots – their divisional titles are all but officially sewn up.

148 of 162: San Diego jumped on us early, scoring 6 in the first two frames… and win by a score of 8-4. Patrick Keith got shelled – 6 runs in 4 innings and the bullpen wasn’t wonderful. Derek finished with 3 hits, 2 RBI’s for Preston… not much else of note other than the fact that we finished with no fielding errors. Elsewhere: 4 AL teams were officially eliminated from the playoffs – Carolina, Houston, Golden State, and Portland are now officially on vacation.

149 of 162: We started Cam again today – he was better, just not good enough – reliever Paul Williams gave up the game-winning walk-off solo shot to Benji Compton and that was all she wrote in this one. To add injury to the insult, Paul developed a nasty finger blister during his appearance and is now listed as DTD. Homer finished 3 for 3 with an RBI, and as a team, we committed 3 fielding errors. Elsewhere: Pittsburgh punched their playoff ticket… the division title is still up for grabs (but not really).

We needed to have a better showing than this. With the series loss and San Francisco’s sweep over the Los Angeles Lakers, we find ourselves 3 ½ games back. Making the playoffs is likely for us as a wildcard, but I had a sincere hope that we’d put a magical run together and take the NL West crown. All routes to earning that distinction, after this series, rely far too heavily on our rivals dropping games that they should win.