[pauwoo]

Los Angeles Leopards (95-51, .650, 1st NL West) @ Mexico City Jaguars (65-82, .442, 5th NL West)
When your program reads, “Hey! At least we’re not Austin”, you know you’re in a bad way… and, while the Mexico City program most assuredly does not say anything of the sort, it may as well. Directionally, Mexico City looks like a club without a compass, headed nowhere fast, and unlikely to be competitive anytime soon. They’ll line up at 5th in our division, 7th in the wildcard standings, with the 12th ranked staff in the National League, and an offense that looks awfully toothless since they traded Heathcote to Buffalo. And, even though we’re coming in hot, Mexico City remains a tough place to play, so, should our focus waver at all, this set could end up being more daunting for us than it should…

147 of 162: Trev Anderson (5-4, 3.32) @ Justin Torres (4-4, 4.92)
Win, 3-2. We’d take a couple on the chin early with the Jags putting runs on us during the bottom of the 4th and 6th frame to knot things up before both offenses went on self-imposed embargos until the top of the 10th when Ethan broke the tie with a what turned out to be a game-winning solo-shot. Turnbull gets the save, his 51st, Nakagawa the win, his 9th (even though he’d also be charged with a blown save in this one), and Mullens managed to keep the crowd from falling asleep with a hard-earned steal, his 33rd, during the top of the 8th.

148 of 162: Peter Garcia (14-3, 3.47) @ Lee Myers (9-10, 3.21)
Loss, 3-4. OH HONG showed up, went 2-for-3 with a solo-shot and 2 runs, but it’d not be enough as Mexico City’s late run during the bottom of the 8th broke our 3-3 stalemate and held firm as their closer, Paul Williams, held us in check during the top of the 9th to secure the win for the home team. Peter was just okay, let three come across, fanned 6, in 5-innings of ho-hum work, the pen, Armendariz specifically, couldn’t keep it together, and, as a result, our 7-game winning streak would come to a crashing halt. On the bright side, I got a line on some really good tacos tonight and when I checked it this morning, I found that I still have quite a bit of Mezcal left – things could get weird.

149 of 162: Merl Crawford (15-6, 2.70) @ Ben McGillicuddy (7-11, 4.37)
Win, 11-4. After waking up in an unknown, nondescript place, next to an unknown, nondescript woman, I managed to make my way to Estadio Alfredo Harp Helu park to witness Ethan Mullens’ 2-run homer, one of 4 for us, in the top of the 7th, that put us up 10-2 at the time. We’d get one more and Mexico City 2 more but, by that point, the deed had been done… we’d be leaving town on another series win, improving our head-to-head record against the Jags to 12-5 on the year, and primed to go on yet another run as we grind our way through the last bit of the regular season… Otto put his 40th ball out of the park during a 1-for-4 day, OH HONG brought two in on a double, PEPPER brought one in on a double of his own, Ian Hanan led the team with 3 RBI’s, and we put up 11 total runs while leaving 7 more stranded. Merl was brilliant, gave us a tip-top, 7.1 innings of work to earn his 16th win on the year and Dwight Beasley finished this one off, allowing those two late runs and still finding a way to get it done. A good series win for the La La’s…

With the loss, Mexico City was officially eliminated from the playoffs. Mathematically and otherwise.

Record: 97-52, .651, 1st NL West
Up Next: A long flight from Mexico City to Phoenix, AZ followed by 4-games in the desert against the Coyotes.