Los Angeles Lakers (51-27, .654, 1st NL West) @ Phoenix Suns (46-33, .582, 2nd NL West)
Nothing beats a rivalry series… Phoenix has themselves an ultra-high-powered offense – 1st in RS, OBP, OPS, wOBA, and HR & 2nd in AVG – that they pair with a middle of the road pitching staff that is oft-injured and easy to score on. They enter this series at 7-3 in their last 10 games, with a +29 rDiff, a phenomenal 16-6 record in 1-run games (tops in the bigs) and are +4 against the Pythagorean. A motley crew of crusty desert dwellers who can play ball a bit and who always get up for a set when we are in town…
79 of 162: Paul Yeager (11-3, 3.03) @ Jack Sanchez-Flores (8-6, 4.15)
Loss, 4-3. Walked off in Phoenix – the subtitle of my yet to be written autobiography, to be sure… Some late, bottom of the 9th, magic from Jacob Wells to send us to the showers – kid hit a 2-out, run-scoring single to secure the win and save us all from extras. RBIs for Mullens, OH HONG, and PEPPER, and not a lot from anyone else – where oh where have my ballplayers gone? Dontrell Gay went 0 for 4 with 4 K’s – that’s special – and Hamza stole one and got caught on his second attempt… Yeager labored out there in the hot Arizona sun – 113 pitched over 5 innings of work for the 6’1” 190lb whirling dervish today. Some guy named Tony Wohlberg went 4 for 4 on us – looks like he was added to their club in a trade with Houston and called up to help manage injury fallout on the 22nd of June… My scout tells me that the kid is trash, but his box score says otherwise.
Speaking of Houston… they pulled off what is, in my estimation, an absolute coup of a trade today when they sent SP Cleveland Cornejo to Vancouver for RF Reading Minor and minor league RF Aris Anaconda… Anaconda is the steal here – my scout isn’t high on him but his OSA ratings are off the charts. I have to side with the OSA ratings on this one – kid’s a beast.
80 of 162: Newton Weiser (9-4, 3.16) @ Jake Talley (2-3, 3.38)
Win, 8-2. Some nice get-back today for the good guys… Weiser gave us 8.2 innings of 2-run ball before handing it off to RP Paul Wilson for the final out, Tony Voorhis went 1 for 3 with a 3-run HR, and Otto hit a 2-run blast of his own… Pepper drove two in, Voorhis secured his 4th ribbie of the contest on a SAC FLY, Hamza was hit by a pitch, and Otto threw Jacob Wells out at 3rd from CF – take that guy who ruined Christmas in the bottom of the 9th last night…
81 of 162: Aiden Jensen (6-7, 5.29) @ Julen Morales (6-4, 4.00)
Loss, 5-1. Jensen was better than he has been, just not good enough… 7 innings and 3 earned for the future stud who is still feeling his way around in the Majors… Our lone highlight is a SAC BUNT from Messick – everything else was ugliness… Hamza with the GIDP, Tucker got pegged by a pitch, Messick commits his 2nd error, and PEPPER had the day off. Wait. What? Who authorized a day off for PEPPER? With as much as he’s getting paid now, I expect him to go full Ivan Drago and trot himself out onto the field like a GD machine! Nothing else will suffice.
Note: We can all rest easy again, my friends –
OTTO NOW LEADS ALL VOTE-GETTERS IN NL ALL-STAR VOTING. That is all.
82 of 162: Michael Brisk (6-6, 4.46) @ Del Miller (6-5, 5.13)
Win, 10-4. We’ll settle for the split… Brisky did what he had to… nothing more, nothing less, Voorhis was a nightmare for the Suns – your boy went 3 for 5 with a 2-run ding dong, and Ethan drove one in and scored 3 runs… 22nd longball parked in the cheap seats by Otto, doubles for Hamza & PEPPER (welcome back little guy – hope you’re all rested up), and we stole 4 total bags (2x for Ethan, 1x for Dom & Hamza)… sweet outfield assist for Tony as well – he managed to throw Jess Alford out at home from deep in Left Field. Alford should’ve never gone for it – must be buying into his own (well-deserved) hype.
Elsewhere: Kwaku Kwaku, of the Montreal Impact, went 4 for 4 with two doubles, a homer, two RBI, and three runs in Montreal’s 14-1 win over the crestfallen Philadelphia 76ers… Harlem Peterson & Mack Ramirez also each drove in three runs for the Impact, who also hit 6 total doubles as a team… With the split in Phoenix,
our 5 ½ game lead remains intact – good enough for me… Pittsburgh has wrestled sole ownership of the top spot in the NL East away from Montreal (for now), the Toronto Reds are looking to overtake the New York Jets in the AL East and are now just a single game off the pace, and Seattle is sitting on a comfortable 6-game lead over
the suddenly floundering LA Galaxy (who are 3-7 in their last 10).