[pauwoo]

New Orleans Pirates (55-82, .401, 6th NL East) @ Los Angeles Leopards (88-48, .647, 1st NL West)
Dead last in the NL East and nearly dead last in the entire National League with only the dreadful Austin Grackles below them in the pecking order, the New Orleans Pirates are an example of futility… here’s an organization that gets everything wrong… their minor league system is only rated 10th, the free agents they do attract all seem to get lost in New Orleans’ black magic, and their revenue seems to erode with each passing year. At the rate they’re going the franchise will fold, cease to exist in its current form, only to be reborn again in some undeserving town… look, the pitching is bad, ranked 10th in the NL so it could be worse, and the offense has reached depths that no other NL team could stomach with their 11th overall rating in runs scored, average, and OBP representing its strengths while every other category we track finds them ranked 12th… here, like our last time up in Philly, the trick will be to maintain our focus, to not play down to the level of our competition, and to give a good account of ourselves as we begin to steel ourselves up for a sprint to the finish.

Just noticed that the weekly PR was in my inbox…
Los Angeles Leopards (125.5)
Brooklyn Citizens (108.9)
Pittsburgh Pipers (105.9)
Buffalo Nickels (104.3)
Las Vegas Outlaws (102.9)

137 of 162: Carson Vespa (8-13, 4.00) @ Trev Anderson (4-4, 3.75)
Loss, 0-1. New Orleans’ Carson Vespa had his good stuff tonight… he was feeling it, as they say. He’d twirl a complete game, 4-hit shutout against the best offense in the National League, on our turf, and on an economical 103 pitches. Rishon Shaw, on the bump to spell Trev Anderson who went 7-strong for us, fell apart yet again, and allowed the game-winning, solo homer during the bottom of the 9th. We didn’t do much tonight… just 4 total hits for the club, each of them singles, Hamza was caught trying to steal 2nd, twice, and, sadly, 47,864 of our fans paid to see it.

138 of 162: Joseph Hinder (10-8, 4.10) @ Peter Garcia (12-3, 3.75)
Win, 13-1. After being shut out last night, the boys came correct during game 2, and ran roughshod over the woefully inept New Orleans Pirates… we scored 10 runs prior to the stretch and 3 more after to run it up and, hopefully, put these yokels back in their place. OH HONG led the charge – 4-for-5, with 3 TANKS, a double, 6 RBI, and 4 runs – Otto tried to keep up with a solo shot and 2 total RBIs of his own, Ethan hit a double, scored four times, and swiped three bags, and, in total, the club hit 9 extra base hits, 5 of which were dingers. Garcia, after 5 hard-scrabble innings of work, picked up his 13th win of the season and Nakagawa got the pill in long relief, closing it out for us over those final four frames, adding 5 K’s to Garcia’s 9 for a total of 14 between the two… HONG tied the regular season club record for most homers in a single game – I imagine that Otto’s on that list somewhere too, but can’t be sure.

Note: Ian Hanan is back from injury, he’ll return to the big club directly which means that 2B Hetereki Ailani is headed back to Compton… in 48 games with the big club, Ailani hit .205/.250/.227 with 3 runs and 4 RBI – that’s not wonderful.

139 of 162: Gabe Uruburu (4-6, 3.90) @ Merl Crawford (14-5, 2.62)
Loss, 2-4. So, we were shut out in the first game, exploded for 13 in the 2nd, and then could only manage 2 in the 3rd to lose the series, at home, against the 2nd worst team in the National League? The heart of our order combined to hit 2-for-16, PEPPER hit into a double play during an ill-fated rally attempt, Ian committed his 10th fielding flub of the year in his first game back, and we left four runners stranded over the course of the game while our bullpen, Igarashi to be specific, came unglued once again giving up the game winner and one to grow on during his 2.1 innings of ho hum work. Not a good look, not a good set… I guess, after that 14-game outburst, someone had to come along and put some bad ones on us sooner or later.

Record: 89-50, .640, 1st NL West
Up Next: Montreal’s in town for the next four days…