Our time in California is coming to an end as we will face the Athletics one more time before returning to the PNW in all its natural splendor – at worst, we’ll finish 1-1 in our series with a 3-3 record overall. At best, with a road sweep against Oakland completed here today, we’ll improve that record to 4-2, which, while not a lights-out result, has a much better ring to it than 3-3. Listen, I’m not against running in place, it’s a solid form of exercise, but we need to be banking W’s at this point in the season while we are in such an unexpectedly good form. You are always just one robbed base knock away from a cold snap, a run of form so poor and so pervasive that you forget what it feels like to play well – we can’t fall into that pattern yet… we’re requesting a flyby and it is our position that the pattern isn’t quite full yet.
50 of 162: Marco Gonzales (4-4, 3.44) @ Mike Fiers (2-2, 4.96)
Win, 3-1.
We’re that snot-nosed jockey, coming in hot at 400 knots… Marco was sharp for us here and navigated his 8 innings of work admirably while allowing 5 weak little hits and an earned run. His form was impeccable, really, and, despite doling out a couple of free passes,
Marco served notice to our young up and comers that he sits atop the rotation for a reason. Offensively we’d get a double and a triple from
Joc, a run-scoring single from
Haniger, and a run-scoring double from
Kyle Lewis. It wasn’t all joy juice and band-aids, of course, as
Bobby Dalbec fanned three times on the day,
Kelenic, in an attempt to show off his wheels, got caught with his hand in the honeypot, and we left 6 of our guys stranded out there on the diamond. But -
ROAD SWEEP!
Elsewhere: San Diego’s
Joe Musgrove twirled an 8-inning, 3-hit shutout against the Milwaukee Brewers during a 5-1 win for the Padres. He has now registered two straight appearances without giving up a run with the first coming against us in San Diego late last week. I’d like to say that this makes me feel a little bit better about what he did to us, like we just ran into a chainsaw that night – but it doesn’t. Not one bit.
Record: 33-17
Up Next: We’ll return to the friendly confines of T-Mo Park and lock horns with the floundering Texas Rangers for four games. Good opportunity to add to our 4.5 game lead over the Athletics as they will be facing the Angels, who arrive in Oakland on an 8-2 tear.