Brooklyn Citizens (49-49, .500, 4th NL East) @ Miami United (49-53, .480, 5th NL East)
After an 0-5 start in July, Brooklyn has been on a roll winning 12 of their last 15, including a 4-game sweep over Montreal and a 3-game sweep over the North Stars. Their offense is clicking – 4th in runs scored, 7th in OBP, and 2nd in HRs – and their pitching has, finally, started to come around with Merl and Krebs looking like they’ve recaptured a bit of their championship-winning 2078 form. If the Citizens were a luxury car in 2078, something like an Audi A8, then this year's model is a Subaru… nothing fancy and certainly not the envy of the other motorists, but it’ll get you where you need to go, has a sturdy 4-wheel drive for any potential challenging road conditions, and, despite having 200K miles on its motor, will turn over without fail. Despite their owners’ best efforts, what remains of the Brooklyn Citizens is a solidly constructed core that runs it slow & steady, and sometimes, when their opponents aren’t looking, wins the race. We’ve been good against these guys, 9-3 on the year, and look to give our hometown fans a repeat of those winning performances here, but I can’t help but worry that given their current form and our lack thereof, we may be in for a reckoning.
103 of 162: Merl Crawford (7-8, 3.84) @ Kordell Littles (5-9, 4.63)
Win, 4-0.
Kordell gave us 6.1 innings of shutout baseball before handing it off to our, recently, leaky bullpen who, despite what their recent history would forecast, preserved the shutout for our club. Well, at least one of them did –
RP Tom Rodriguez gave us 2.2 innings of shutout baseball, allowing just one hit and fanning one batter during the outing.
Homer Wingard drew 3 walks and hit an RBI double,
Kyle Weaver brought in two runs on a double of his own in the 6th, and
Magee stole his 32nd bag. After getting summarily dismissed by the Chargers in San Diego, it’s nice to be at home against a club whose number we have in our front pocket at all times… at least that’s what it feels like when we lock horns with these guys.
Elsewhere: Something about San Diego has brought
Cash Crouch back to life. After struggling during his time with United, he’s been on something of a hot streak in a Chargers kit. He finished tonight’s 11-3 win over the Minnesota North Stars with a 4 for 4 performance that included a double, a homer, 5 RBIs and 3 runs. I’m starting to feel like San Diego got the best of that trade – I mean, our skipper hasn’t even played the guy we got for him yet…
104 of 162: Cam Murphy (9-7, 3.41) @ Thomas Deane (6-7, 4.74)
Loss, 8-5. The Ballad of
Thomas Deane continues to play itself out in sorrowful tones and depressing lyrics… like a Nick Cave cut at his most introspective – you’re getting quality, sure, just don’t expect your spirit to be lifted as you flip the LP over to its B-Side.
Deane went 6 innings and only gave up two runs, he left us in a position to win – but, and this is starting to become a huge problem, our leaky pen continued to neatly illustrate its untenable seaworthiness.
T-Rod, so magical for us last night, got shelled for 4 runs, and, unfortunately, our skippers hearing problems kept him from hearing the air raid sirens until it was too late. 2B Len Iovino, who came over as part of the
Cash Crouch trade, went 2 for 4 with 2 RBIs and a run.
Homer Wingard struck out 3 times (I need to dump this guy – like, now), and
Magee showed off his wheels again with another steal, his 33rd of the season.
105 of 162: Dylan Tuyay (8-9, 5.21) @ Murray Wagner (4-4, 2.79)
Win, 8-7. We win the rubber match in extras on a run-scoring walk drawn by
Kyle Weaver – got to hand it to the kid for finding a way to win and doing it in the most anti-climactic way possible… a bases-loaded walk in the bottom of the 11th. Our Skipper decided to experiment with using a reliever as an opener – it backfired as
Murray Wagner gave up 6 runs in the top of the 1st and failed to even make it out of the inning – that should have cost us the win, but baseball has a funny way of sorting these kinds of things out.
Magee went 3 for 3 with 2 homers, both solo shots, and 4 runs,
Kyle Weaver went 4 for 5 with a 2-run double and his legendary bases-loaded walk in the bottom of the 11th, and
Scharmer, back from injury, drove two runners in.
Elsewhere: Otto Isaac, back after a nearly 2-year absence, got his first rehab start with the
Compton Raiders today – he went 1 for 4 with a run. He’s not all the way back, obviously, but it was nice to see him get a hit in his first game back and it was even better seeing that he’s put most of his weight back on. Also,
Early Felger, who we’ve sent back down to Triple-A despite his solid showing on the big club, went 4 for 5 with a double, a homer, 3 RBIs and 4 runs in
Havana’s 9-1 win over the Cincinnati Bengals.
