[Bub13]

July 16-18 @ OAKLAND
Even with over 40% of the season remaining, this is still a big series for us. The A's sit at 60-33, five games ahead of us. AVG is third, about thirty points behind us, but they're first in runs, scoring 59 more times. Possibly the fact that they're out-homering us 223 to 85 might have something to do with that. Reyes has 45, Ryan Walton and Justin Sandy 27, and leadoff man Randy Costello 22. Anyway...also 8th in runs against, despite having the 7th-ranked rotation ERA and 2nd best bullpen. Losing ace Chris Schwartz for the year will hurt, as only Chris Larimer and Eric Stockton are pitching well among the starters right now. Like us, there isn't much in AAA to call upon, so I wouldn't be surprised to see them pull off a trade over the next couple of weeks. Then again, maybe they'll roll with Oscar "Going Going Gone!" Escobedo the rest of the year. I guess they can just outslug everyone anytime, however.

HAW pitchers: RH Biff the Skiff (11-6, 4.31) / RH Shamar Jackson (7-7, 5.52) / LH Shane Walker (4-3, 6.04)
OAK pitchers: RH Eric Stockton (8-3, 3.52) / RH Conrad Robertson (5-5, 6.10) / LH Mike Thomas (6-5, 4.85)

#94: LOSS 8-9 ... 3 HR to zero, guess who won that one...Biff gets pulled in the 3rd...4 RBI for Matson, but just not enough
#95: LOSS 0-5 ... we get just 5 hits, also one only K and zero walks...Neumann has been terrible in his first two appearances for us, this series
#96: WIN 11-3 ... 16 hits, including 3 HR: Frederick, Daley, Eason...CG for Walker, 4-hitter

We outhit the A's in two games, but only grabbed one win. Their lead over us is now 6 games.... Liles comes off the DL, and Shane Walker--complete game win notwithstanding--goes back to AAA. Also, Bader's diagnosis comes in: wrist soreness, dtd for five days. No DL time, and he'll slide down the rotation and miss only one start.... ELSEWHERE: Cubs 3B Juan Garcia had a 34-game hit streak ended. He's now batting .342, up to 2nd in the NL. Garcia, in his 14th season, is a career .323 hitter who has topped 200 hits seven times but has never won a batting title.... San Diego has lost 5 straight, bringing the Giants to just 2 back, the Dodgers to 3. Yes, the Giants still have nine MLB-level players on the DL. They also have seven minor league teams with a combined record of 148-288.... Detroit's Pat Townsand has reached 100 RBI.


July 19-21 @ MILWAUKEE
The Brewers haven't made any hay in the Central, at 45-51, in fifth place. Twelfth in runs, but fourth in HR, led by former Isle Dante Padilla with 33 and CF Oscar Espinosa with 28. Billionaire Dan Starr, signed in the off-season, will come off the DL in one day, but has gone just .248/8/21. Pitching ranks 15th in runs. Closer Xavier Pride has 30 saves and a 3.40 ERA, setup man Tyler Trovato a 2.95 ERA, but no one else is pitching well. Five guys have ERA well over 5. We swept these guys back in May.

HAW pitchers: RH Chris Liles (4-5, 3.04) / RH Josh Irvin (7-3, 4.42) / RH Biff Skiff (11-6, 4.36)
MIL pitchers: RH Danny Salgado (9-7, 4.06) / RH Bryan Shaheen (6-9, 4.94) / RH John Landers (7-5, 4.69)

#97: WIN 9-4 ... 3 hits, including a HR, for Lynn, and a 2-run single in the 11th by Wakabayashi in the 11th...Liles is okay, just getting into shape
#98: WIN 8-3 ... everyone gets a hit, including HR for Frederick and Daley again...7 IP for Irvin, 2 for Yaung in some quiet relief
#99: WIN 9-6 ... solo HR for Daley, but a 5-run 3rd is our key to victory...Biff gives up 10 hits and 2 HR, but our offense saves the day

Nice sweep, but we only gaine a game on Oakland.... Grace was due off the DL already, but we get the news that his return date is now uncertain. We're not getting any production out of his replacements, but it is what it is.... Bullpen is still meh; Neumann hasn't pitched well yet, Black gives up too many hits, Yaung has an ERA over 5, but at least Booker has been much better in his second go-round.... ELSEWHERE: Pittsburgh has now traded five relievers over the last three weeks. They've also lost their top SP and biggest hitter (1B Chris Goldthwait) for at least a month, but they've moved to just nine games in back of Chicago, especially as the Cubs have lost 7 of 10.... 8 straight losses for San Diego, now tied for first with the suddenly hot Dodgers.


July 23-25 vs TAMPA BAY
Solidly into 2nd in the East, keeping the Jays and Yankees behind them, and trailing the Marlins by 3. Hitting is still just okay, 9th in runs and 7th in average. Leadoff and 3B Orlando Navarro leads the hitting, at .301/10/37, and 1B Edgar Aranceta has 27 HR, RF Vance Wise 25. Pitching has been stout: 1st in runs and the best rotation ERA. John Odom leads the AL with a 2.29 ERA, and Carlos Munoz already has 15 wins. The bullpen, however, sits 16th in ERA. Not even the great-named Bubba Fairweather has kept the pen afloat. Our former star Rich Stoneback has played solid SS, and been healthy enough to make 70 starts; but he's batting just .237. The other big free agent acquisition from the winter has been CF Kris Warner, doing his part in the #2 slot at .288/16/61/

HAW pitchers: RH Mike Bader (8-6, 4.05) / RH Shamar Jackson (7-8, 5.36) / RH Chris Liles (4-5, 3.19)
TBR pitchers: RH Carlos Munoz (15-2, 2.66) / LH John Odom (9-4, 2.29) / RH Greg Drake (5-10, 6.01)

#100: WIN 5-1 ... Groff homers, as does Lynn, driving in three...Bader goes the distance, giving up 10 hits and striking out 4
#101: WIN 5-1 ... Medici's 2-run blast is the GW, and it's Jackson's turn to pitch a CG, yielding 7 hits and fanning 7
#102: LOSS 2-6 ... we can't do much with 9 hits...Liles does fine through 7, but takes the loss anyway...Neumann is trash again: great trade there

Still five behind the A's, three ahead of Texas.... So Neumann has been hit hard in his four appearances with us so far, with an ERA near 20. Maybe Pittsburgh has another RP they're looking to sell.... Still no word on Grace's return.... ELSEWHERE: 12 straight losses for Richmond, falling well out of the NL East race.... Detroit has pulled away steadily in the Central, up to 10 games over the White Sox.... San Diego's back on top in the NL West, but the whole division--outside of poor Austin--is within 8 games of first.... We may have a future Italian superstud, but Brooklyn has one playing right now: 2B Maurizio Barbiusa, batting .283/30/86 in his first full season in the bigs. He's also disloyal, greedy, lazy, and kinda dumb. But he can hit, run, and turn a double play. A man of many moods, apparently.


July 26-28 vs SEATTLE
Back home to face the hapless Mariners, now at the bottom of the division, a game behind California. Offense has dropped to 14th in runs, 17th in average, and pitching is rock-bottom. 1B Jon Terrell (.295/23/60) has been steady, and sophomore DH Ger van Mourik (.257/17/39) has recovered from a slow start. But slugging 2B Jose Rodriguez is out, and three regulars are hitting below .200. Only SP Dan Welker has an ERA below league average. Two former Isles are trying to make a mark in the starting lineup: CF Daniel Newell (.272/3/25) and LF Brian Ware (.237/11/30). We've taken 7 of 9 against them so far.

HAW pitchers: RH Josh Irvin (8-3, 4.39) / RH Biff Skiff (12-6, 4.40) / RH Mike Bader (9-6, 3.85)
SEA pitchers: RH Dan Welker (9-9, 4.34) / RH Erik Ramey (4-11, 6.27) / LH Shaun Ostrander (4-9, 6.04)

#103: WIN 7-5 ... Goodloe drives in two, including the GW sac fly in the 6th...3 H, 3 RBI for Alonzo, including a solo HR
#104: LOSS 4-5 ... a 5-run 3rd is our doom...13 hits, 4 by Daley and 3 by Groff...rough game for Biff tonight
#105: WIN 8-5 ... another HR for Daley, this time a 2-run shot...Bader gives up all five, but Neumann (finally!) and Johnson shut things down

Winning that last game keeps us 5 behind Oakland, who just keeps on winning.... We finally reach 100 team home runs! Daley has 19 now, Frederick 17.... Two wins here were more a function of our continued offense, combined with some scary pitching. Bad outings from all three starters put us behind in all three games.... ELSEWHERE: The Yankees lost two top relievers for the season on the same day, including last year's closer Jon "You must sign him at all costs!" White, who was rolling with an ERA over 7.... KC and Baltimore are the last teams without 40 wins. Oakland (with 68) is closing in on 70.... Cincy's David Rivera and Andy Howard are still at it, making headlines with their ongoing feud. Rivera, a light-hitting 2B, is not to be confused with teammate Dave Rivera, the powerful 3B who slugged 50 HR last year. Try to keep up.


July 29-31 vs CALIFORNIA
Hanging on to fifth place, a game ahead of Seattle. Like the M's, not much is going right: 15th in offense, 17th in pitching. Mauricio Marquez (.303/17/53) continues to chase the ROY prize, while Nate Elder has been a one-man rotation. After a year-and-a-half of struggle, we can proudly announce that closer Scott Mahala finally has his ERA below 5. Feels good, man. And for some reason, they recently traded a couple of prospects for 33-year-old 2B Alan Branham, an excellent fielder but a lifetime .260 hitter. And he's 33. Rebuilding? What's that? And yet we're only 5-4 against them this year.

HAW pitchers: RH Shamar Jackson (8-8, 5.07) / RH Chris Liles (4-6, 3.15) / RH Josh Irvin (8-3, 4.57)
CAL pitchers: RH Nate Elder (5-9, 4.34) / Rh Ryan Kuehner (6-9, 6.58) / RH Josh Pomerantz (9-9, 5.02)

#106: WIN 12-3 ... Frederick and Matson homer, Alonzo goes 3-for-4 with 2 RBI...CG for Jackson, despite giving up 11 hits
#107: LOSS 4-5 ... we blow a 3-0 lead in the 8th, as Johnson has his worst outing of the season...wastes a big night from Frederick (4 hits, 2-run HR)
#108: WIN 2-1 ... our turn to win late, as Lynn singles home Simmons in the 8th...strong 8.1 IP from Irvin, fanning 8

On-again-off-again pitching strikes again: this time, our starters were pretty good, with only an unexpected bullpen collapse costing us that one game.... Backup IF Jesus Lopez has an odd stat line since his recall: 0-for-4, 3 RBI.... We made another TRADE to try to shore up the bullpen, reacquiring Robbie Collier for minor league pitchers Henry Weareorwear and Jaheim Mwaura. Collier has been pretty good for Brooklyn, with a 2.13 ERA and 57 K in 38 IP. Brooklyn will also consume 75% of his nutso $8M contract this year and next. Collier fanned 116 in 63 IP for us last year, and I'm hoping he can bring some of that nastiness back to our pen for the stretch run.... ELSEWHERE: Oakland has won 5 straight, now holds a 6-game lead over Hawaii.... Pittsburgh's recent turnover of its entire bullpen may just be working, as they're back to .500 and just 8 games behind the floundering Cubs.... Philly continues to roll out baseball's best offense, scoring 676 runs in 108 games; and now their pitching is coming into shape, up from the absolute basement to 13th in NL runs against. If that continues to trend, they'll be unstoppable this fall.

......

TL;DR Version: Man, can I gripe out a 10-5 stretch, making its sound so much worse? Yes, I can. So let's reset: we're now 65-43, a more-than-solid 22 games over .500 and--it feels weird saying this--in the first wildcard slot, three games over Tampa Bay and Texas. (Note: wildcards this year will be best-of-three playoffs, rather than the single game win-or-die format.) Moving into the stretch months, I'm feeling a bit more confident at this moment about the team: we're still hitting the tar out of the ball, and actually adding some home runs to the mix. We get a ton of hits, don't strike out, take a good amount of walks, and actually lead the league in steals. If our pitching can get a move on, I like our chances to catch the A's. Speaking of pitching: the rotation ERA has finally cracked the top ten, and I'm seeing more good outings than bad of late. And although the trade for Dan Neumann hasn't yet worked out, fingers crossed that Collier can maintain the hometown (he's from Ewa Beach) brio he had last year. All season long it's been the Kyle Johnson/Ben Germann show, and you can't get it done when 2/3 of your bullpen doesn't show up. Here's hoping we've put that problem to bed.