Phoenix Coyotes (52-48, .520, 4th NL West) @ Los Angeles Leopards (63-36, .636, 1st NL West)
At 11 ½ games back, you’d think that Phoenix would be well out of consideration for the playoffs. They’re not. In fact, they find themselves in the thick of it – locked in a battle for the last wildcard slot with the Miami Herons, and are, really, just one or two good stretches away from solidifying their place in the Wildcard race with Brooklyn and San Jose not too far ahead. Phoenix has been trading on their pitching acumen so far – 2nd in FIP, 3rd in RA, Starters ERA, and pWAR, and 4th in Bullpen ERA – while their offense has lagged a bit at 10th overall in the National League and ranked dead last in power with only 68 homers so far. I’d like to see them loose a reliver or two to shore up the offense… of course, if the goal is to simply make it into the playoffs, then maybe they don’t need to do that…
100 of 162: Dejuan Burns (3-9, 3.98) @ Trev Anderson (3-4, 3.99)
Win, 4-1. We lost
Trev Anderson for 9 games when he beaned
RF Turner Williams after
Justin Jenkins pimped a HR only one AB prior during the 4th inning, ingniting an all-out, benches-clearing donnybrook… not awesome… BUT, our bullpen gave a good account of itself as
Dwight Beasley held on to a 1-hitter for 4.2 innings and fanned 5 before handing the pill off to
Losito for the hold and
Turnbull for the save. Offensively, we’d get contributions from
Otto who went 2-for-4 with a run,
Hamza who drove one in and scored, and
Hanan who finished 3-for-4 with a run and an RBI… two in a row for the
La La’s – lets hope we are putting another run together.
101 of 162: Kikuzo Ueno (9-7, 2.88) @ Keith Baeza (4-1, 2.07)
Loss, 0-4.
Kikuzo gave us the business over 8 innings of work where he’d allow us only 1-hit while fanning 4 to lead the Coyotes to a hard-earned win on the road… and
Tyler Hill punished
Baeza during the top of the 3rd with a 3-run jack that would, essentially, be both the game-winner and their opening salvo. Nothing doing for us offensively… only
DOM and
Ian secured hits, we drew 5 free passes as a club, left 7 runners stranded, and sat idly by as
Satoru Ono hit into a double play during an ill-fated rally attempt during the bottom of the 8th.
Welp… so much for putting something snappy together.
Trade alert…
Austin “the Wolf” Rollins (60/60), a former Seattle lifer who’s spent his entire 9 year and 48 day pro career flexing a Metros kit, was traded to the Miami Herons along with MiLB
SS Brandon Watkins (32/38) for Seattle's
RP Ronald Ames (55/58), & Minor Leaguers
LF Norman Bogdonovic (22/37) and
C Randall Washington (22/31)… Miami, as indicated in the intro, is battling it out with Phoenix for that last wildcard slot and this move may well put them over the top… hell, they’re only 2-games off Pittsburgh for the NL East – suddenly that’s a lot more doable too.
102 of 162: Damian Harris (6-5, 3.00) @ Merl Crawford (9-3, 2.61)
Loss, 1-3. Our only score here would come on an
Otto solo shot and
Merl was better-than-solid during a complete-game, 5-hit, 3 earned performance that should have been enough to win… unfortunately the rest of our lineup wouldn’t contribute, and we’d suffer the indignity of 2-consecutive home losses against a division rival.
Germain Sturdivant put it down something fierce for Phoenix in a 2-for-3 performance with two, two-baggers, 2 RBI, and a run while we fanned 8 times as a club, left 6 stranded, and found a way to hit into 2 DP’s over the course of the game… Bummer biscuits, for real.
Record: 64-38, .627, 1st NL West
Up Next: Another day off followed by a quick hop to Las Vegas for 3-games to close out July…