Mexico City Jaguars (1-1, .500, 3rd NL West) @ Los Angeles Leopards (2-1, .667, t-1st NL West)
The Jaguars, not unlike Austin, didn’t really do much of note during the offseason – they traded
SP KJ Judd (50/52) to Boston for a couple of prospects, picked up
1B Benjamin Herrera (48/48) on a 1-year, $4mm deal, and brought in an ageing
Ash Newman (43/43) on a minor-league deal… though, a key difference here is that Mexico City possesses the 6th rated development system, so any potential rebuild looks a lot more likely in the short term than that of our previous foe. Still, there’s an outside chance that Mexico City, after missing the playoffs last season, could return this year given the makeup of their club on paper and the chaotic nature of our sport.
4 of 162: Nacho Valadez (0-0, 0.00) @ Dwight Beasley (0-0, 0.00)
Win, 6-0. We’d get right back on the horse after dropping that last one to Austin, dispatching the Jaguars with relative ease here, shutting their offense down while
DOM, with a 3-run TANK, and
Ono, going 3-for-3, with a 2B, and 2 RBI, styled on the Mexico City defense early, accounting for our first 5 runs before we’d even reached the 5th frame.
Beasley, making his living as a full-time starter for now, settled into the role nicely with a 7-inning effort where he’d allow only 2 hits, and nothing earned to go along with his 4 K’s before handing it off to
Nakagawa to pull the curtain back on our visitors over the last 2 frames on 20 total throws.
Elsewhere: Dejuan Burns, putting in work for the Toronto Maple Leafs after signing a 3-year, $42.9mm deal with them in the offseason, showed that, for now at least, the 32-year-old is worth every penny in a complete game, 6-hit shutout to lead his club to a resounding, 9-0 victory over their in-division rival, the Buffalo Nickles.
Burns, who only fanned two batters during the win, managed to get 8 outs by grounder and 15 by pop up, and was no doubt buoyed by his defenses two tip-top double-plays.
5 of 162: Ben McGillicuddy (0-0, 0.00) @ Ramiro Marte (0-0, 0.00)
Win, 6-1. Kyle Weaver, manning LF for us on a near-daily basis, went 1-for-4 with a 2-run single that got our 5-run bottom of the 4th started to put this contest out of Mexico City’s reach early… we’d also get contributions from
Hutchinson,
PEPPER, and backup C,
Lee Rolon, with an RBI each (
Pepper &
Lee earned theirs on
run-scoring walks), and the Jags’
1B Ryder Nieman, who committed an unforgivable fielding flub that led to our 6th and final run during the bottom of the 6th. Our pitching remained otherworldly as
Marte went 6.2-innings deep allowing 5 hits and a run before handing it off to
Jan Hernandez who closed out the last 2.1-innings without allowing a single hit… we’re in superb form to start the season – it’s great to see!
6 of 162: Randy Keramidas (0-0, 0.00) @ Stephen Estevez (0-0, 0.00)
Win, 17-1. After a pedestrian, 1-run bottom of the 1st, our club would then raze Mexico City’s defense and proceed to run roughshod over the Jaguars en route to a rabble rousing, complete and utter annihilation of our visitor by a score of 17-1. There’s a ton to parse out here, so, in the spirit of a picture being worth 1000-words, peep the carnage…
7 of 162: Lee Myers (0-0, 3.38) @ Merl Crawford (1-0, 5.06)
Loss, 5-7. After going buck wild our last time out, the club came off the line in this one quickly with 3 runs during the bottom of the 1st but fell dormant from there as our offensive exploits finally caught up to our early season fitness level… here, Mexico City would dig deep, tapping into their pride a little bit to hold us off and secure a win in our building and 2nd so far this season behind timely hitting and a consistent attack that saw the Jags score 1 run or more during the first four frames of the game…
Merl, who recently signed a 3-year extension with us, got lit up, giving up 6 earned over a mere 3.2 innings of work, and, while the pen performed admirably in relief, we just couldn’t recover in time to make up the necessary ground after our 2-run rally attempt in the bottom of the 8th fell short.
Record: 5-2, .714, 1st NL West
Up Next: We’ll travel out to Phoenix tomorrow, get settled into our digs in the desert, and then participate in our first 3-game road set of the season.