[Bub13]

The final 27 games of the season, no games in October. Twelve at home, fifteen on the road, although we do finish up with two series at home. Let's see if our pitching can keep improving and maybe we can put a little pressure on Oakland. We'll know early, as we play both Texas and Oakland early on.

September 1-3 @ BALTIMORE
This year's 50-win effort is already better than last year's 48-win season. Improvement is always a positive. And yet: league-worst batting, last or next-to-last in nearly every category. Sieb Moleman leads the team at .297; DH Miguel Echeverria has missed nearly 40 games but still has 28 HR; 3B Fernando Marino has 30 HR in his first starting season, at age 30. Pitching ranks 13th, so not terrible. The system ranks 11th, and there are some solid players on the way, including #5 guy OF Xavier Perez, called up for the roster expansion from A ball. He only lacks for power, but looks like he has everything else going for him. Other OF Francisco Trejo and Antonio Alvrado look good, and this year's #1 pick SS Eddie Feltman could be in the bigs by next summer, he's that far along. Mike Zulick (already in MLB), Dustin Whytsell, and Danny Fite also look like the basis for a strong rotation one day.

HAW pitchers: RH Shamar Jackson (11-9, 5.19) / RH Chris Liles (7-7, 3.17) / RH Josh Irvin (11-4, 3.80)
BAL pitchers: LH Rich Davis (3-12, 5.16) / RH Pat Karahalios (2-16, 4.73) / RH Mike Zulick (7-7, 4.96)

#136: WIN 11-1 ... six-hitter by Jackson, 10 K...only 8 hits for us, but 12 walks too...HR from Freds, Daley, and Medici
#137: WIN 14-2 ... tonight, 16 H and 9 BB...CG win for Liles...3 H and 4 RBI for Groff, 4 H and 3 RBI for Grace
#138: WIN 9-5 ... more HR from Frederick and Medici...3 RBI for Matson, now over 100 on the year (second on team after Daley)

Seven game winning streak now, and we've passed Texas, now two games ahead. We play them next. And six games behind Oakland.... Daley and Frederick have 25 HR each; still hoping someone can reach 30 this year, just for the look of it. Daley also leads the team with 116 RBI.... So far, we've called up only IF/OF Jesus Lopez. AAA Santa Barbara is playing well, and all of my minor league teams are riddled with injuries; so there isn't much leeway to bring up a raft of players. But with AA Androscoggin missing the playoffs, I'll likely move up some of their guys to AAA, then bring up another couple of players to the big club over the next week.... ELSEWHERE: Chicago is now just five games behind Detroit.... Couple of big losing streaks now: Cleveland has dropped 11, not that they were going anywhere; Pittsburgh has dropped ten, and now have fallen away from the Cubs, back into third place behind New Orleans.... Philly has the lowest Magic #, now just 8.... 60 HR for Felix Reyes, pulling away from triple crown hopeful William Swanson.


August 4-6 @ TEXAS
With us getting hot and Oakland continuing to win, the Rangers have fallen back just a nudge, to eight games out and three games ahead of Tampa Bay in the second wildcard spot. Of the three offensive powerhouses in the AL West, they're right in the middle: 2nd in runs, 2nd in average, 2nd in HR. William Swanson is, yet again, heading to another MVP: .360/55/133. Five other regulars have at least 21 HR, and CF Ronnie Halverson may be the best combo of power (17 HR) and hitting (.290) in the leadoff position in the AL. Pitching sits in 5th, but #3 starter Mike Kent has a pending injury diagnosis and may miss the series. But Paul Labbe and Bobby Daniel have become a solid 1-2 punch in the rotation, and Garrett Slone (1.33, 28 SV) has emerged as a quality closer.

HAW pitchers: RH Biff Skiff (13-10, 4.67) / RH Mike Bader (13-8, 3.92) / RH Shamar Jackson (12-9, 4.98)
TEX pitchers: RH Paul Labbe (14-5, 3.07) / RH Cory Graulich (3-4, 7.61) / RH Bryan Crider (3-3, 6.07)

#139: LOSS 2-4 ... not a great start...Skiff gives up a 3-run shot in the 6th for the loss
#140: LOSS 2-3 ... just a pair of solo HR tonight (Simmons hits his 3rd!!!), little else...RP Collier hurt
#141: WIN 8-5 ... rough outing for Jackson, 5 runs in 5 innings...4 hits, 3 RBI for Goodloe, 3 hits with 2 doubles by Grace

Tough series, but we stay a game ahead of the Rangers, and still seven behind Oakland.... We outhomered their sluggers, but I would rather have had the two wins instead.... Collier's injury is a sore ankle, and he's just dtd for the next series.... ELSEWHERE: Tampa Bay is not going down without a fight, having won 7 straight to pull to 6 behind Miami and 2 behind Texas in the wildcard.... Detroit is hanging on by just 3 games over the White Sox now. And the Tigers just found out that star CF Luis Rodela will miss six more months with post-concussion symptoms. This could end his career, tbh.... Philly just keeps rolling along, up to 96 wins now and a magic # of 8.... Portland is the next hot team to discuss: ten wins in a row and just a game behind LA. Talk about coming out of nowhere: they were .500 on August 1, but since then have gone 26-7.


September 7-9 vs OAKLAND
They've been remarkably consistent all year, but a 3-3 start to the month has brought us and Texas back into play. Still, we'll need at least two wins here for me to think we've got a chance to catch them, at seven games back. Team offense is still first in runs, and 1st with an outstanding 327 home runs. Felix Reyes has hit 60, and Ryan Walton has reached 40 for the eighth consecutive year. Pitching ranks 8th, with no one really standing out (now that ace Jim Schwartz is done until next August). Oddly, #4 starter Oscar Escobedo threw a shutout and a one-run complete game and then complained to the press about how the team was doing him wrong. Another oddness: #5 batter John Cannon has 23 home runs, but only 42 RBI. Probably because the two guys ahead of him in the lineup have hit 103 homers, always clearing the bases.

HAW pitchers: RH Chris Liles (8-7, 3.10) / RH Josh Irvin (12-4, 3.91) / RH Biff Skiff (13-11, 4.68)
OAK pitchers: RH Oscar Escobedo (8-7, 5.26) / RH Conrad Robertson (13-6, 4.48) / RH Eric Stockton (11-7, 4.36)

#142: WIN 3-2 ... 5 runs, 5 solo home runs...the last was Matson's second of the game, a walk-off shot in the 9th
#143: WIN 15-6 ... 3 more HR, including 2 by Matson...5 hits by Daley, tying a team record...Irvin isn't good, but turns out he didn't need to be
#144: LOSS 1-5 ... only 4 hits, one is a solo shot by Frederick...Skiff gives up 11 hits in 5.2 innings

We just couldn't win that third one. Gained a game on first, however, which is still a good thing. Texas won twice, still just a game behind us.... With minor league seasons winding down, I call up two more from Santa Barbara: catcher Mike Covington will get a couple of starts and a handful of at bats; and RP Nate Kearns threw so well for the Surf that he gets another look over these last few weeks.... ELSEWHERE: Three game lead for Detroit over Chicago now. Tight! Miami is hanging to a five game lead over Tampa Bay (still two behind Texas for the #2 wildcard), and LA has opened a slim three game advantage over Portland.... Philly is the first to clinch a playoff spot; now up to 97 wins.... KC finally won their 50th of the season.... Fun race for the NL batting crown: Rick Logston (PHI) .344, Ben Grossman (BKN) and C.J. Howard (CHC) .342, and Dustin Wasilewski (LA) .340.


September 11-13 vs CLEVELAND
The massive off-season roster churn had everyone thinking rebuilding, but a 19-8 April got them all excited. Since then, however, they've been 29 games under .500, sliding back to where the preseason pundits had them. The lineup has been productive, 7th in runs, but pitching has struggled to a 14th place standing. LF Victor Guillen is the star here, at .304/36/104, and youngsters Marcus Stokes and Antonio Guerrero are solid parts of a new foundation. Acquired from us, OF Jerry Cappuccilli and 2B Julian Cardenas have also been solid. However, the pen has been pretty bad (17th), and the rotation (12th) not much better. Former Isle Ryan Ratliff was pretty good through June, with an ERA under 4.00; but he's been up near 6.00 since then. But two top pitching prospects--Dudley Mele and Tyler Malinich--are up on the big club already and have been rudely welcomed to the big leagues, but they'll be in the rotation next year. There's promise here, Indians fans.

HAW pitchers: RH Mike Bader (13-9, 3.92) / RH Shamar Jackson (12-9, 5.02) / RH Chris Liles (8-7, 3.08)
CLE pitchers: RH Mario Guzman (1-0, 5.40) / RH George Millard (10-10, 3.66) / RH Ryan Ratliff (9-12, 4.52)

#145: WIN 8-0 ... solid 4-hitter by Bader...Fred and Matson stay hot, each homering again
#146: WIN 8-6 ... down 6-4 in the 9th when Goodloe mashes a GRAND SLAM to win it...Jackson doesn't make it out of the 4th, however
#147: WIN 8-0 ... nice 12 K outing from Liles, getting the shutout...another HR for Matson, and 3 hits from Grace, 2 H/2 RBI by Alonzo

Outstanding! And Oakland got swept by league-worst Kansas City, so we're only three games out now. We also picked up a game on Texas, now two ahead of them.... Matson has 7 HR in his last 8 games, and Alonzo went 6-for-8 with a HR in this series.... It's back: in the Great Homers-vs-Steals competition, HR are leading 155 to 153.... Joe Lynn has a career high 43 steals, looking for his second straight league title.... ELSEWHERE: Philly clinches the NL East, and still sits on top of the league with 99 wins.... LA has won 9 straight, opening their lead over Portland to 5, and Detroit has gained a couple on the White Sox and they also lead by five.... William Swanson leads baseball with 9.3 WAR; Phils slugger George Livezey leads the NL with 8.9.

......

TL;DR Version: A much-needed 9-3 stretch here has put us squarely into the division race. And what a difference some solid pitching makes. (Also, more home runs.) Jackson did pitch a CG early on, but his ratio of bad-to-good games is still somewhere between two- and three-to-one. Fun note: we've now used 21 pitchers this year, tied for the second most in team history. We used 21 in our inaugural year in 2034, and 24 the following year. Finally, if we can't catch Oakland these last couple of weeks, our stretch of division titles will end at eight years.