[pauwoo]

Los Angeles Leopards (5-4, .556) @ Pittsburgh Pipers (5-4, .556)
As I mentioned last time (I think), Pittsburgh’s played us tough all year… we’re 1-3 in their house and I can think of no worse time to try and buck that trend as our offense is in relative shambles and the team, to a man, seems stressed to the gills…

3 of 7: Merl Crawford (1-0, 7.94) @ Gregory Morgan (2-0, 0.00)
Win, 2-1 (10). While the offense continues to struggle, our pitching has managed to be the other side of that coin for us and continues to turn in gutsy performances… here, we’d get another solid outing from Merl who went 6.1 innings, allowing 5 hits, 1 earned, and 5 K’s for the game while Rishon Shaw and Trev Anderson were lights out in relief… PEPPER GRANT, a Los Angeles Legend if ever there was one, came through in the clutch, drilling a run-scoring double during the top of the 10th to break our 1-1 tie, and, ultimately, give Trev all the cushion he’d need to close out Game 3 in style for us. If you told me that we’d only score 5 runs through the first three games of this series and still be up 2-1, I’d have looked at you funny… at the very least. There may have been some laughter too. And some pointing.

4 of 7: Stephen Estevez (1-1, 1.90) @ Jaxson Mottola (2-0, 2.19)
Win, 7-0. Estevez was lights out for us here – your boy came through with a complete game, 4-hit shutout with 9 K’s and OH HONG lit it up during a 3-for-5 performance that included a double, 2 TRUCKS, 3 RBI and a couple of runs… a 2-run homer from Ethan closed the show to run it up to 7 during the top of the 9th, we hit 2 doubles and 3 TANKS as a club, got a SAC BUNT from PEPPER, and managed to piece together our best offensive performance of the series when we needed it most… this was a thoroughly dominant win for us, on the road, against a club that has had our number all year.

Elsewhere: After losing the first 2 of 3 to Boston, the Nickels were able to get back on track today and now take a 3-2 series advantage with them back to Buffalo after thrashing the Shamrocks by a score of 9-1.

5 of 7: Peter Garcia (2-0, 1.59) @ Casey Tucker (0-2, 4.38)
Loss, 1-2. After yesterday’s rip-roaring performance, I was sure that our club with show up today with renewed chutzpah at the plate, but that just wasn’t the case as our offense went back into hibernation wasting great pitching performances from Peter Garcia and Trev Anderson… our only run came when Pittsburgh Starter, Casey Tucker, walked one in while Mack Ramirez gave us enough business to cover his whole squad with a 2-for-3 day that included a solo homer and a run-scoring double as the Pipers survive to make at least one more road trip, joining us in Los Angeles for a high stakes game of Rochambeau.

Series Record: Los Angeles 3, Pittsburgh 2
Up Next: Two more the hard way in Los Angeles for the right to go to the World Series