Phoenix Coyotes (25-16, .609, t-1st NL West) @ Los Angeles Leopards (25-16, .690, t-1st NL West)
After stumbling our way through a 7-5 road trip it’s impossible to overemphasize how good it feels to be home… the only thing semi-spoiling our hard-earned homecoming is the fact that our Divisional Rival, and owners of an identical 2078 record thus far, Phoenix Coyotes are meeting us here for a 3-game set that is certainly the most important we’ve played so far and could become the series we point to as either putting us over the top or for being our undoing once the dust has settled on the regular season. Phoenix is in a good way right now – 12-5 so far in May, fresh off a home sweep against the Las Vegas Outlaws, and bringing a 4th-rated staff that seems to get better each time out with them to Los Angeles. This will be a tough test for our club... proctored by a mean-spirited librarian, timed down to the second, and incredibly light on multiple choice… here we’ll need to pack at least a half dozen, perfectly sharpened No. 2 pencils and a couple of those pink erasers with us as we try our level best to test out of Baseball 101 and continue our journey to the promised land…
42 of 162: Dejuan Burns (2-2, 3.95) @ Masaya Nakagawa (2-2, 3.51)
Win, 7-3. A good, tone-setting win to open the series with
Nakagawa going 7 strong while allowing just 2 runs,
Ono punching out a 2-run bomb during a 2 for 4 day, and
Ethan driving 2 in on a single.
Otto went 2 for 4 and scored,
OH HONG managed to come around twice after reaching on a walk and a HBP, respectively, and
PEPPER pumped his average up over .200 for the first time this season on a 2 for 4 day. The offense looked great in this one, like a finely tuned F-1 cart, but the real story was the pitching as they registered 12 combined K’s for the game with
Masaya earning 8 of those while
Keith Baeza secured the other 4 in relief.
43 of 162: Kikuzo Ueno (4-3, 3.88) @ Peter Garcia (3-1, 4.53)
Win, 2-1. After yesterday’s rip-roaring, rootin’ tootin’, full on frontal assault, we’d find a way to dig deep and clip the Coyotes in this one scoring the game-tying run during the bottom of the 8th before
Satoru Ono walked them off on a 2-1 changeup that he hit for a run-scoring single to secure the win during the bottom of the 9th. The pitching for both clubs was stout – our guy,
Garcia, stumbled a bit during his 5.1 innings of work but managed to hold the Coyotes to just one run while
Grumpy Losito put in 3.1 workmanlike innings in relief where he’d allow just 1 hit while fanning 6, and
Turnbull would snipe the win by striking out the last better of the game on 4 total pitches. Some solid pitching, superb defense (
Otto’s OF Assist catching
Kaszuba at 3rd comes to mind), and timely hitting wins the day and enters another series win into the permanent record.
44 of 162: Damian Harris (3-1, 1.50) @ Trev Anderson (3-1, 2.70)
Loss, 8-3. Phoenix found a way to break through our defense and put some bad ones on us to avoid being on the wrong end of a sweep, had 6 runs banked before the start of the 4th, and had no problem keeping their distance from their as
SP Damian Harris gave us the business over 7-innings of work and
SS Marcel Suggs scored each time he reached safely and tallied 3 runs once this thing was all said and done. For our part, we reached safely 12 times, squandering each opportunity, managed to swipe two bags (
Ethan’s got wheels), and even showed off the leather a little bit with two expertly executed double plays… it just wasn’t enough though as we couldn’t find a way to capitalize on each of the chances we afforded ourselves.
Elsewhere: A look at the
Great 8 (linked below) as the NCAA playoffs are, and have been, officially underway and peep the box score from
Shreveport’s 18-1 shellacking of the Dearborn Dilly’s in Bush League play (attached)…
Side note: the Tasty Waves are Ridgemont Community College.
Record: 27-17, .613, 1st NL West
Up Next: We’ll conclude this all too short homestand with a three-game set against the Austin Grackles.