[pauwoo]

Los Angeles Leopards (10-6, .625, 1st NL West) @ Mexico City Jaguars (6-9, .400, 6th NL West)
The last time we saw these guys, in Mexico City, they were busy breaking our hearts in the Division Championship Series during the 2077 playoffs and, while the current incarnation of the Jaguars isn’t as good as the version on display to close out 2077, some good old fashioned get back is the only thing on our mind. Their offense, unlike ours, came into the 2078 campaign en fuego, are ranked 1st in the NL in runs, average, OPS, and wOBA, and 2nd in Home Runs and Base Running while their pitching, also unlike ours, has come out disheveled, confused, and ill-equipped to play the part of a big league rotation where they rank dead last in runs against, ERA, and FIP. The entire order presents a problem for our staff, especially in Mexico City, even if their best player, Heathcote Kinton, is off to a subpar start at .203/.279/.305 with 2 dingers and 8 RBI so far… all told, this has the makings of a tough road set, despite what their record would seem to indicate, and, should we focus too heavily on righting last years wrong, could find ourselves on the wrong end of some haymakers, out on our feet, and, before this thing is through, down for the count.

17 of 162: Jan Hernandez (1-1, 8.64) @ Casey Tucker (0-1, 5.51)
Loss, 5-3. Otto was on fine form – 3 for 5 with a 3-run moonshot – but the rest of the club couldn’t be bothered to follow suit as the Mexico City Jaguars picked up right where they left off against us last year with a win, in their house… Offensively, there’s not much to parse out – Ono fanned thrice on an 0 for 3 day, Andy Shepard went 0 for 4 and left 4 stranded, Ethan, in an attempt to turn his early season ugliness around, drove one in on a double, and stole his 5th bag of the year. On the bright side, only ~20K fans made it out to Estadio Alfredo Harp Helu Park to spectate our demise.

18 of 162: Trev Anderson (2-0, 3.31) @ Ben McGillicuddy (0-1, 1.56)
Win, 10-3. Trev fanned the first 6 batsmen he faced, went 5 innings in total, and allowed only 3 earned runs, while the offense, led by Hamza’s 4 for 4 day that included a double, a jack, 4 RBI, and 2 runs, finally woke up long enough to remind our fans what it is capable of. Dom went 2 for 3 with a double and 4 scores, Ethan picked up another hit and steal, Ono went 3 for 5 and drove 2 in, PEPPER tallied two RBI of his own, and Ian Hanan put a tasty little SAC FLY on the board for good measure. Hamza earned the Player of the Game designation and Grumpy Losito, working 4-innings in relief, picked up his second win of the season and now boasts a record of 2-1 out of the pen.

19 of 162: Peter Garcia (2-1, 3.12) @ K.J. Judd (1-2, 6.48)
Win, 5-3. Down 3-2 heading into the 9th, we’d snatch victory from the jaws of defeat with a 3-run top of the 9th thanks in large part to Kyle Weaver’s clutch, 2-run double that put us up by the final tally after PEPPER GRANT knotted things up during our previous at bat. Garcia had tip top stuff again and went 8-innings while allowing 8 scattered hits and 3 runners to plate, Ono blasted a 2-run jack during the top of the 7th to get us on the board, and Turnbull was at it again in relief, picking up his 8th save on 14 pitches. And with that, we exact some small measure of revenge before returning stateside to the Lonestar state for a date with the Grackles…

Roster Notes: Jan Hernandez is being sent down to Compton after this set – he has a hitch in his giddyap and our pitching coach in Compton should have the remedy to whatever it is that ails him… which means that Mr. Dwight Beasley is coming up for a stint on the Big Club… we’ll start him in the pen, moving Masaya Nakagawa to the #5 slot in the rotation for now. I’d love Beasley to stick, for Jan to get his stuff ironed out, and, eventually for Nakagawa to head to Compton – that would be this working really well.

Record: 12-7, .631, 1st NL West
Up Next: We’ll head into Austin where we’ll try to nurse our taco & tequila hangover with a smoked brisket and bourbon remedy… oh, and we’ll also play some baseball – 3 games at Dell Diamond to be exact.