Portland Timbers (12-19, .37, 5th AL West) @ Los Angeles Lakers (20-11, .645, 1st NL West)
So far, in 2077, the Timbers look like a collection of stiffs with a couple of actual baseball players sprinkled in for good measure. And, really, that’s what this club has looked like for the last decade with their best season of the bunch coming in 2076 when they posted a .475 winning percentage. Prior to this decade of tumult, Portland had made 9 straight playoff appearances and even managed to win the whole thing twice during that stretch – but that was then, and this is now. In the present, outside of hitting bombs, PDX is bad everywhere… especially in the pitching department where they rank dead last in the AL. Here is a club that boasts a starters ERA of 5.80 and a bullpen ERA of 4.74 – terrible – with an offense that is 9th in OBP, and a defense that has the worst ZR in all the MLB. So, maybe I was wrong at the beginning, maybe they don’t really have any actual baseball players – nope, this is just a loose collection of working stiffs going through the motions like they were playing ball in the Beer & Softball League of some nondescript suburban sanctuary for the Starbucks & North Face set. Easy money, unless, of course, it’s not… still gotta play the games as they say.
32 of 162: Peter Garcia (3-1, 2.68) @ Michael Brisk (3-2, 3.38)
Win, 5-0. Brisky gave us a CG shutout tonight – turns out that the rims I helped him pick out have improved his morale and have allowed him to stay loose out on the mound. HRs for Dom, Otto, and Voorhis… and, in the end, the house wins…
Elsewhere: Former Laker (well, for a few games at least), 1B Archie Imanov, went 3 for 5 with a double, 2 homers, 5 RBI, and 3 runs for the Sounders in their 13-5 win over the Minnesota North Stars. After a down year in 2076, Archie looks to have regained some of the power he displayed prior to us trading for, and ultimately trading away, during the Tricentennial Campaign…
33 of 162: Riley Valentine (0-5, 7.63) @ Dejuan Burns (3-1, 2.74)
Note: Riley Valentine, who I’ve highlighted a couple of times when he was with PDX’s minor league affiliate, the Salem Silverbacks, is a stud… don’t let his line fool you.
Loss, 3-2. Riley pitched well, not well enough to get the win, but it was easily his best performance of 2077, and Dejuan pitched even better (7IP, 6H, 2R, 9K) but, also, didn’t get the win… not when we have Rudolf the Ruiner available to blow another save… he gave up the only run that mattered in the top of the 10th in this one... Another homer for Otto (I guess we should send some more of our guys to this Guru he was telling me about…), a couple of steals (Hamza/Ethan), a couple of errors (Hamza/Pepper), and an all-around poor effort from the Purple & Gold tonight.
Elsewhere: SP Kordell Littles, of your
CITY OF COMPTON RAIDERS, went 8-strong with only 2 hits, 1 earned, 4 walks (bummer biscuits), and 11 K’s to lead our affiliate club to a 3-1 victory over the Seattle Supersonics. Kordell is getting there, no doubt, but he still has a ways to go before he makes the rotation on the Big Club… but, make no mistake, this kid is definitely in my future plans… in other news out of the
CITY OF COMPTON – Oh Hong is batting only .212 so far in 2077 and seems to have taken a couple of steps back from where he was last season when he earned a temporary assignment on the big club to cover for some injury woes we were experiencing – he’s gonna need to show me something and quick… Oh, and Rad Taylor is 2-3 with a 5.02 ERA – I keep reaching for this kid and he just keeps disappointing me each and every time… some things never change.
34 of 162: Thomas Ortega (0-1, 20.25) @ Newton Weiser (2-2, 3.25)
Win, 10-2. It was the PEPPER show in this one – your boy was out here earning his salary for a change – as he went 2 for 3 with 2 HRs, 5 RBI and 2 runs scored… 2 SBs (Mack/Hamza), 3 double plays, and no errors. Otto hit a double, Voorhis drove one in, and Dom hit one out. So, good all-around effort from the club and a much-needed series win at home.
Elsewhere: The Jacksonville Jaguars beat the Vancouver Whitecaps by a score of 17-7… 2B Telma Tavares went 4 for 5 with a 3-run homer in the win… Our lead over the Phoenix Suns in the NL West remained unchanged, but the North Stars now find themselves a full 3 games off of our pace… We’ll welcome the last place Vancouver Whitecaps to town for a 3-game set next, they are basically a bad knock-off of the Portland Timbers with less talent and uglier uniforms.
