[pauwoo]

Las Vegas Outlaws (80-46, .635, 1st NL West) @ Los Angeles Leopards (80-47, .630, 2nd NL West)
In some circles, there is a belief that, at +5 against the Pythagorean, Las Vegas is punching above their weight so far in 2078… that said, they have the 2nd best RDiff at +111 (only our +164 is better), are adept at winning 1-run games (22-17), and, at 10-5 against us head-to-head so far, would seem to have our number. For our part, if we are going to show out against our rival here, now would be the time as we’re coming in hot, on a 7-game winning streak, footloose, and fancy free… If we can’t get it done against these guys here, at home, during the regular season, then any route to the World Series that goes through Las Vegas looks awfully prohibitive from my perspective.

128 of 162: Jack Sanchez-Flores (13-7, 4.44) @ Stephen Estevez (10-3, 2.12)
Win, 1-0. Sanchez-Flores and Estevez locked horns over the 1st 6-innings of this contest before we turned it over to the pen, with five of our relievers getting some burn, to close this one out… and, offensively, it was Otto’s clutch 8th-inning solo homer that’d give us all the cushion we’d need to preserve our winning streak, up to 8-straight now, against our most reviled divisional foe. Our staff recorded 12 K’s in total, with 9 of those belonging to Estevez, and we somehow avoided an all-out donnybrook as Stephen hit three batsmen during the game… had this not been such an important game, and had Estevez not had a good case for those HBP’s to be accidental, we’d be talking about suspensions right now… but, since that isn’t the case it’s all joy juice and Band-Aids in Los Angeles with 2 more games to go.

And just like that, given that we were a scant ½ game back prior to game #128, we’ve reclaimed our perch at the top of the table, and are comfortably looking down our nose at the riff raff below us once more…

129 of 162: Cam Murphy (11-4, 2.67) @ Peter Garcia (10-3, 3.74)
Win, 9-4. A 1st inning GRAND SLAM from DOM served as an emphatic opening salvo for us and represented a lead we’d not relinquish over the course of the game as we handled the Outlaws from pillar to post, during a rabble rousing 9-4 home victory to run our streak up to 9 and put us one game away from a season-defining sweep over Sin City. Ethan and Ono would each contribute two doubles and two RBI for the game, Mullens secured his 30th steal on 35 tries, and OH HONG and DOM each controlled their emotions after being hit by pitches before the stretch… could’ve been some get back from yesterday, we don’t care… to the winners the spoils go and right now its all champaign wishes and caviar dreams in La La Land…

130 of 162: Shizuka Takeuchi (10-8, 3.86) @ Merl Crawford (12-5, 2.70)
Win, 2-1. We’d run our streak up to 10, complete an improbable HOME SWEEP, and improve our head-to-head record against Las Vegas to 8-10 after gutting out this tight, taut affair to the delight of Leopards supporters everywhere… Ono was the show early, bringing in our 1st run during the bottom of the 4th on a double, and OH HONG secured the difference-making RBI-single during the bottom of the 8th to usher in a victory by the slimmest of possible margins. The staff was great again – Merl went 6.1 scoreless innings, Major Hansen kept the clean sheet intact during a 1.2 inning hold, and Turnbull secured his 44th save despite loading up the bases during the bottom of the 9th and walking in a run before striking out the last batter of the game.

You can’t stop the train.

Record: 83-47, .638, 1st NL West
Up Next: We’ll head to Austin for some bourbon, a bit of barbeque, and some baseball as we close out August with a 3-game set contested in the Capital of the Lonestar State.