Los Angeles Leopards (64-38, .627, 1st NL West) @ Las Vegas Outlaws (63-39, .618, 2nd NL West)
Still playing second fiddle but maybe not for long, the Las Vegas Outlaws’ days spent as the bridesmaid could come to an end depending on the result of this series… here they’ll put their #1 ranked offense up against our #1 ranked pitching staff, try to run up the score just enough for our 4th ranked offense not to be able to keep the pace, and, ultimately, knock us from our spot at the top of the table in the NL West. Vegas is entering this set on better form than us, they’ve won 6 of their last 10 contests, and are coming off a hard-fought, 4-2 win over the Austin Grackles in their last time out. Conversely, we’ve been in a bit of a rough patch, are spinning somewhat out of control, trying to neutralize the stick, and giving the rudder input opposite the spin direction… the question we’ll need to answer here is if it’s enough to stop our current tailspin, on the road, against the second biggest bully on the block.
103 of 162: Stephen Estevez (9-1, 2.02) @ Cam Murphy (8-4, 2.79)
Loss, 4-5. Things were going well,
Estevez was dealing, gave us 5-innings of 4-hit, 1-earned filthiness, before handing it off to the pen. The offense, to that point, had put 3 bad ones on the board off a run-scoring single from
Ethan and a 2-run, two-bagger from
PEPPER. But, it’d not be enough as our bullpen sprung a leak, our nightwatchman,
Rishon Shaw, ran us right into an iceberg, giving up 2 dingers and 3 runs during the bottom of the 7th, and the USS Leopard was sunk once again. A tough one to swallow as the Outlaws pull even with us on the NL West table…
104 of 162: Peter Garcia (8-2, 3.52) @ Jake Talley (10-3, 3.37)
Loss, 2-5.
OH HONG did his level best to lead the charge for us here with a 3-for-4 day that included a
DING DONG and a swiped bag, but the rest of our offense couldn’t be bothered to follow suit as we were dismissed with prejudice in Las Vegas once again…
1B Jacob Wells broke things open with a 2-run double during the bottom of the 3rd that put the Outlaws up for good while our offense squandered every opportunity afforded to us, left 4 runners stranded, and found a way to hit weak little dribblers into double plays three times over the course of the contest. When you play like we have lately, you don’t deserve a seat at the head of the table… 2nd place in the NL West now and looking hopelessly lost, listing portside, and all but sunk for good.
Elsewhere: One of my
Strangeverse favorites,
2B Heathcote Kinton (80/80), is headed to Buffalo after the Mexico City Jaguars traded him to the AL East’s 2nd place Buffalo Nickels for
SP Victor Hamm (34/53), SP Theodore Junkersfeld (43/55), 3B Luke Bernhard (42/42), and LF Stanley Paige (30/32). While the move immediately improves the Nickels regular season and playoff prospects, it’s not without some risk as
Heathcote’s contract expires after this season and he’ll likely be looking for a pretty hefty raise on his $24mm/yr pricetag.
105 of 162: Masaya Nakagawa (6-4, 3.87) @ Patrick Keith (4-1, 2.32)
Win, 6-5. We’d escape Vegas with some of our life savings still in the bank, going out on a win behind
Dom’s 2-for-4, 2B, HR, RBI, 2 run day at the plate and
Nakagawa’s 6-innings of work where he’d allow 6-hits with 4 earned.
Ian Hanan drove 3 in, one on a single, the other two on a bases-clearing double,
Ono and
Shepard got in on it a bit with one riblet each, and
Rishon acquitted himself over 2-innings of work before handing it off to
Turnbull who closed the show by striking out the side to earn his 36th save of the season. With the win, we’d pull even with the Outlaws once again… with some dangerous curves ahead as we are heading to San Jose for two quick ones before returning home to do battle with the suddenly
Heathcote-less Mexico City Jaguars… talk about a toothless little kitten…
Record: 65-40, .619, t-1st NL West
Up Next: We’ll kick off the month of August with a quickie 2-game series on the road in San Jose…