Los Angeles Leopards (18-11, .620, 1st NL West) @ Buffalo Nickels (17-13, .567, 2nd AL East)
Our first foray into interleague play comes against the Buffalo Nickels who are playing with some real verve right now at 7-3 over their last 10 and currently riding a 3-game winning streak. Their start to the 2078 campaign has been a bit of a surprise as the baseball punditry had them pegged to finish dead last in their division at the start of the season… so far though, they’ve bucked that prediction and have come off the line like a finely tuned dragster, with their nose down, and have managed to stay straight on the course. They were semi-active during the offseason and the upgrades they made to their pitching staff have paid dividends so far…
Cory Sterner is currently putting in work as a middle reliever for them after putting in work as our closer last season and
Case Tunnell, who we traded to them for
Donovan Turnbull and a prospect, is currently slotted in at the top of their rotation. As a unit their staff is ranked 1st in Runs Against, Bullpen ERA, and FIP, and 2nd in Starters ERA and pWAR, proving themselves difficult to figure against their American League rivals. We’re coming in as losers of our last two, the confidence is wavering a bit, and we’re looking a bit ragged around the edges – could be a tough slog through the AL for us with Toronto on the docket after we wade through these next three in Buffalo.
30 of 162: Stephen Estevez (2-0, 2.72) @ Case Tunnell (1-3, 3.24)
Win, 1-0. Case pitched us tough – 6.1 IP, 3 H, 1 ER, 4 K’s – but had some early control issues and doled out 4 free passes during the appearance while our own
Stephen Estevez put it down something fierce over 7-innings of work where he’d allow just one hit, nothing earned, and fan 8 hapless hitters. Our one score came on a
Dom Cooke solo dinger, only four other batters would muster a hit (
Ethan, Hong, Otto, and Hamza),
Rishon Shaw picked up his 8th hold while lowering his ERA to 0.63, and
Turnbull is now up to double digits in saves as he picked up his 10th of the season in closing this one out.
31 of 162: Merl Crawford (2-1, 1.56) @ Roddy Dubey (2-3, 1.31)
Win, 6-0. So far, so good in Buffalo as we held the Nickels scoreless for the second day in a row behind a stellar, 7-inning performance from
Merl (only 3 hits, nothing earned, and 7 K’s too), and another good day at the plate for everyone’s favorite everyman,
Andy Shepard, who went 2 for 5 with a double, a JACK, and 2 RBI.
PEPPER also got after it a little bit with a solo dinger that came during a 2-run top of the 7th,
Ono secured an RBI on a double,
Hamza drove two in on a two-bagger of his own, and
Dwight Beasley, stating his case to remain a Big Leaguer, gave us 2 innings of scoreless baseball in relief to preserve the team shutout.
All good things…
32 of 162: Masaya Nakagawa (1-1, 2.08) @ Oswald Johnson (3-2, 3.70)
Win, 9-3.
SWEEP CITY! LET’S GO! Otto led the way with 2 DING DONGS, 4 RBI, and 4 runs as we entered our first sweep of the season into the permanent record and
PEPPER followed his lead with another solo dinger and 2 runs…
Nakagawa gets the win despite giving up a staggering 14 hits over 8.1 innings of work,
Ethan hit his 11th and 12th two-bagger of the year,
DOM put his 1st triple on the board, and we’d shut down a late Buffalo rally attempt with an expertly executed
Hamza-Hanan-Ono double play. The
La La’s came correct in this series folks, and will head off to Toronto cocksure and ready to rumble with the Leafs…
Elsewhere: Jan Hernandez, currently making his living down on the farm in
Compton, seems to be figuring things out as he works to reappear on the big club… he dominated the Abilene Roughnecks today, hurling a complete game, 6-hit shutout to lead the way as the Raiders notched the 6-0 victory at home. This marks
Jan’s 3rd, and best, start in
Compton so far – he still has some work to do though as he allowed 10 earned in his 1st two starts in Triple-A.
Record: 21-11, .656, 1st NL West
Up Next: We’ll take a quick hop to Toronto to continue our short foray through the American League East.