[pauwoo]

Is Ghosteen amazing or what? I loved Push the Sky Away, was then blown away by Skeleton Tree, and never imagined he/they could take it to another level, but Ghosteen does.

Yes, I totally agree – Ghosteen is a formidable achievement and, along with the National’s ‘I’m Easy to Find’, is one of the best I’ve heard in 2019. The closing track, ‘Hollywood’, while long, is really something special.

Miami United (53-57, .482, 4th NL East) @ St. Louis Rams (58-51, .532, 3rd NL East)
Ours is the only division where 3 clubs are still locked in a fight for the divisional crown. That’s not to say that a club that is currently 8+ games off the pace couldn’t suddenly break out into a full sprint and eventually lay claim to a wildcard spot, or better – there is, after all, plenty of runway left. It’s just that the likelihood of us closing the 5 ½ game gap between us and St. Louis is unlikely – our Hoka’s are in a state of disrepair, our cardio is suspect, and our sprint would look like a vigorous jog to the untrained eye. The Rams boast a top tier offense that, while light on pop, can get on base, wreak havoc on the base paths, and score. Their starters leave a bit to be desired, sure, and while they are, so far in 2079, operating at a clip a few ticks below average, their bullpen makes up for it more often than not. In short, if their starter leaves with a lead, the likelihood that you’ll get it back sits somewhere between slim and none. Still, we’ve played them tough so far – we’re 5-6 head-to-head – and will look to dig just deep enough to stay in these games and to give ourselves a chance to win. Given our history here, and that each of our clubs is on poor form (we’re 4-6 for our last 10, they’re 5-5 over that same stretch), this could be a competitive series – a betting man’s coin toss. We’re calling heads, or, if St. Louis prefers a friendly game of Rochambeau we will throw rock, rock, paper – in that order – and hope for the best.

111 of 162: Radoslav Borovsky (7-7, 3.48) @ David Ouwerkerk (5-7, 5.29)
Win, 14-4. I lied – we went scissors and cut through their paper with a ruthless efficiency – Radoslav allowed 3 runs and struck out 7 over 7 innings of work, Verne Morey, a throw-in piece in the Cash Crouch trade with San Diego, went 2 for 4 with a GRAND SLAM in the tops of the 4th to put a lid on what would be a 9-run inning for us, and Kyle Weaver went 4 for 5 with 2 doubles, 2 RBIs, and a run. Anaconda registered 3 RBIs, we hit five doubles as a team, got a SAC FLY, and Magee stole his 38th bag on the year… 14 runs are the most we’ve scored in a game so far in 2079 – our previous high of 13 has been accomplished three times… in wins over Dallas, Brooklyn, and Pittsburgh. We’ve now scored 13 or more runs on 3 of our 5 divisional opponents.

Elsewhere: I’m sure this happens often in the Bush League, it’s just that it’s not, to my knowledge, happened to any of the players I’ve tracked down there – but, Angry Eloy, the current BL HR leader, was traded to the Mississippi Hound Dogs by the Decatur Donnybrooks. This is good news for him as it looks like the Tupelo-based Hound Dogs are a lock to make the playoffs while Decatur has less than a snowball’s chance in hell to make a postseason appearance in 2079.

112 of 162: Murray Wagner (4-4, 3.92) @ Cosmo Puente (7-10, 4.86)
Loss, 4-2. Murray Wagner had an okay showing – 4 earned, 6 K’s and 3 BB’s over 8 innings pitched, but our offense was befuddled by Cosmo who gave up one run (plus another unearned) in 7 innings of work and their bullpen locked us down over the final two frames. We just couldn’t get much going in this one – 10 hits, all singles, no steal attempts, 8 LOB… I mean, whatever. This was a pretty ho-hum effort from the Flim Flams. Standing still and looking pretty may work for Flamingos at the zoo, but, out here, in the wild, we need to be frantically searching for enough shellfish to keep our belly’s full.

113 of 162: Thomas Deane (6-8, 5.26) @ Gunner Amorese (5-2, 3.54)
Win, 5-4. We got 6 innings out of Deane – he gave up all 4 of the runs that St. Louis scored, but, because we did our work early here, he gets the win… a 5-run top of the 3rd did the trick for us, we got homers from Anaconda and Wingard, three doubles (including Weaver’s 25th of the year), and even turned two perfectly executed double plays. This was surely a better effort than our last game – but, in keeping with my earlier prediction, was every bit the coin toss I’d thought these games would be – I guess, sometimes, IT IS better to be lucky than good.

Elsewhere: With Otto nearly done with his rehab assignment, it’s back to business as usual in the CITY OF COMPTON… which means that it’s officially back to being KIRK JOHNSON TIME! Your boy went 3 for 5 with a double and 5 RBIs in Compton’s 7-4 win over the Cincinnati Bengals. The game was contested in Ohio, and, given that there is a limit to the kind of trouble you can scare up in Cincy, local media was unable to dig up any dirt to add to the fire for Kirk here…