Los Angeles Lakers (11-4, .733, 1st NL West) @ Montreal Impact (8-6, .571, 2nd NL East)
We’ll continue our Canadian tour in Montreal before heading south into the lower 48 where we’ll get our first peek at Pittsburgh who hasn’t looked the same without Voorhis holding court. The Impact offense is humming already even though they haven’t even dropped it into 4th gear as Rex Engelstad has yet to look comfortable (.214/0/4)… when he starts to come around, though, he’ll join Harlem Peterson (who is on fire) and Austin Rollins to form as fearsome a triumvirate as we have in the Majors. Austin is off to a solid start for his new club and has already endeared himself to the Montreal fanbase, while Kwaku Kwaku (the other former Laker they got from us in the offseason) has struggled to secure solid footing with the club. Their staff, conversely, hasn’t yet gelled – they are 11th in Starters ERA and 9th in pWAR so far but have the talent to course correct sooner rather than later. Montreal is a good club – they got a bit better in the offseason – whose problem is that while they did improve, so did the rest of the NL and, so far, it seems that they may not have improved enough to have a better showing than they did in 2076 when they lost in the Wild Card round to the Vancouver Whitecaps.
Elsewhere: The Carolina Panthers, fueled in part by 1B Pablo Madera’s 8th inning GRAND SLAM, defeated the Toronto Reds (who STILL haven’t called Derek up yet) by a score of 18-2. 7 of Carolina’s runs in the game were unearned… The Minnesota North Stars also experienced an offensive explosion as they put 15 on the San Francisco 49ers at home – the North Stars hit 5 home runs during the game (including one for former Laker, Sammie Fregoso).
16 of 162: Aiden Jensen (1-1, 5.93) @ Max Harrington (0-2, 3.93)
Loss, 4-1. All of Montreal’s runs were scored by way of Solo HR… DJ Wilders, Jax Malagon, and former Lakers, Austin Rollins & Kwaku Kwaku get in on the action to secure the hard-earned victory. Aiden went 8 innings, but gave up all four of the HRs, Hamza hit a double and scored on a Tony Voorhis double, and we turned three double plays – just not enough of that to go around, however, as Montreal digs deep to kill all the good vibes we had in the clubhouse after sweeping the Whitecaps.
Elsewhere: Former Laker, SP Matt Olston, went 8 innings with 0 earned for Minnesota in their 4-0 win over Orlando… SP Josiah Weber, now with the resurgent St. Louis Rams, delivered an 8-inning, 6 hit performance against San Francisco – the Rams won the contest by a score of 2-1… LF Palmer Parker went 3 for 5 with two doubles, a home run, 3 RBI, and 2 runs in a losing effort for the 76ers (they lost a close one to the Whitecaps by a score of 6-5)… And, 1B Oh Hong, of your CITY OF COMPTON RAIDERS, has struggled to readjust to play in the IL – he’s hitting a disappointing .211/0/2 so far in 9 games played.
17 of 162: Michael Brisk (2-1, 1.69) @ Jaxson Mottola (1-0, 4.50)
Win, 3-0. BRISKY! A nice 8-inning, 2-hit shutout for everyone’s favorite Lambo owner… Rajkumar went 3 for 4 with two doubles, a homer, and 3 RBI, Barbaccia picks up his third save, Webster scored twice, and our stout infield unit turned two double plays. 48 degrees with a 23 MPH wind blowing in from left, ~36K frozen fans, and only one home run for the game… Canada is too cold for Baseball in April.
Elsewhere: SP Nacho Valadez went 7.1 innings and only allowed 3 hits in Chicago’s 8-0 win over Dallas, the former Luchador also K’d 7 batsmen… LF Jerry Landowski’s hot streak continues in Phoenix… he went 2 for 4 with a GRAND SLAM in the Suns’ 8-6 win over Brooklyn in the desert… SP Hudson Dorsch, currently plying his trade with your CITY OF COMPTON RAIDERS, spun a CG, 4-hit, shutout in Compton’s 1-0 win over the Mexico City Diablos – we got Dorsch via trade last season when we sent Philip King and Aston Monroe to the New York Jets for Ian Hanan. Hudson is the only piece of that deal I have left…
18 of 162: Dejuan Burns (1-0, 3.72) @ Dylan Bauer (1-1, 5.60)
Loss, 3-2. Hard-fought series win for the Impact – Dejuan gave them the business over 8 innings, but the three he allowed to get across were all the Impact would need to secure the series win at home. Hamza & Cooke scored, RBI for PEPPER, two stole bags (Hamza with #7, Otto with #3), and even a pretty sweet Pepper-Marshburn-Webster double play wasn’t enough to win in the rubber match.
Elsewhere: Former Laker, 1B Ian Hanan, went 2 for 4 with a GRAND SLAM against the San Diego Chargers in Pittsburgh’s 10-3 win at home. Hanan is off to a rip-roaring start for Pittsburgh – the 27-year old Santa Ana native is batting .328 with 1 homer and 13 RBIs so far in 2077. We’ll have an opportunity to experience the wrath of Hanan first-hand as we will be in Pittsburgh next for a 3-game set.
