Los Angeles Leopards (86-47, .646, 1st NL West) @ Philadelphia Founders (56-77, .421, 5th NL East)
Poor Palmer Parker… stuck languishing near the bottom of the pack as the member of a subpar squad. Philly is operating well off the pace at 18 games back in the NL East, rank 8th in runs scored, 11th in batting average, and boast a staff ranked one slot above the woeful Grackles at 11th in the National League. They’re just not an example of a good club… what they are, instead, is an example of a poor club holding one of our leagues top talents hostage while the front office attempts to make things right… but, when you couple the fact that their management has a history of making poor decisions with
Parker’s contract expiring at the end of this year, what you get is a stormy future in the city of Brotherly Love as
Palmer will most assuredly bolt to the club of the highest bidder during the offseason…
134 of 162: Merl Crawford (13-5, 2.60) @ Steve Allen (7-10, 3.11)
Win, 6-2. We’d pour 6 runs on before the stretch, earning 2 in each of the 3rd, 4th, and 6th innings of the contest thanks to
Otto’s 2-run Jack in the 3rd,
PEPPER’s 2-run TRUCK in the 4th, and
Ailani’s 2-run, two-bagger in the 6th. And that’s where we’d leave it as
Major Hansen came in during the bottom of the 6th, giving us 2.2 innings of work with SIX K’s, before handing it off to
Igarashi who closed the show on only 5 pitches. That’s 14 in a row now… our boys can do no wrong.
Elsewhere: Your boy,
Michael Brisk, former Los Angelino currently doing the dirt for the Portland Pines, went gonzo on the New York Sluggers as he turned in a complete game, 3-hit shutout with 9 K’s to lead his club to a 3-0 victory at home. At 64-70, and underachieving per the preseason predictions, the Pines haven’t had much to celebrate this season… that’s where having a big name on your club like Brisky comes in handy… at his best he’ll inspire the base and help to sell tickets regardless of what the standings look like.
135 of 162: Keith Baeza (4-3, 2.67) @ Jonny Garcia (11-12, 4.46)
Loss, 5-6.
OH HONG was our catalyst during the top of the 1st, opening the scoring with a 2-run dinger off Starter
Jonny Garcia and was our savior later as his solo homer during the top of the 9th that looked like it would be the winning run until Philly’s
Thiago Leyva brought the equalizer in during the bottom of the frame on a double. During the top of the 10th,
PEPPER, doing his best
OH HONG impression, put one out to reclaim the lead only to have it erased during the bottom of that frame on a
Josh Largent solo shot as the Founders refused to go away… finally putting an end to our winning streak on a
Ethan Masson solo shot against
Rishon Shaw with 2-outs already on the board. Fair play to Philly… they gutted this one out, refused to roll over, and put our streak to bed much to the delight of their hometown fans.
136 of 162: Stephen Estevez (10-3, 1.94) @ Linden Brittingham (8-10, 4.83)
Win, 3-1. Down and out early after last nights let down, it’d take us until the 7th to get anything across, putting up 3 runs during the top of the frame with 2 of those driven in on a double courtesy of
Ethan Mullens. With the engine primed, and our opponent understanding that we wouldn’t just go off quietly into the night,
OH HONG would drive in another on a SAC FLY during the top of the 8th to run it up a bit before
Turnbull came on for the bottom of the 9th to close things out for us… he was shaky, loaded them up, let one score on a hit into a double play, and, finally, fanned the last batter to earn his 47th save, get us back into the win column, and send us off to the airport on some good vibes. D-Batteries be damned…
Elsewhere: Case Tunnel, former Leopard, though a less popular one than
Brisky, put it down something fierce for his new club, the Buffalo Nickels, during a complete game, 3-hit shutout with 9 K’s during a 7-0 win over the defending champion Vancouver Mounties… Buffalo now leads the AL East by a whopping 8-games, while Vancouver’s lead in the AL West is still tentative at 3 games ahead of the neighboring Seattle Metros.
Record: 88-48, .647, 1st NL West
Up Next: We’ll head home, because that makes sense, to begin a 7-game homestand with three against the lightly regarded New Orleans Pirates.