[pauwoo]

San Jose Seals (6-6, .500, 4th NL West) @ Los Angeles Leopards (8-5, .615, 2nd NL West)
After reaching for the stars and making it to the playoffs for the first time in 6 seasons last year, the San Jose Seals have seemingly taken a step back… their offseason was ho-hum, with not even a low-key acquisition worth discussing, and they did nothing during it to fill in the holes where they lost talent to free agency. With spots that once belonged to RP Micho Ishibashi (54/54), LF Travis Scharmer (50/50), and RF Andrew Beck (58/58) going unfilled and only Case Tunnell being added to the fold, it seems that the San Jose Seals are resigning themselves to the role of an also-ran that spends its days shuffling along aimlessly while the rest of us pursue baseball immortality.

14 of 162: Julen Morales (1-1, 3.38) @ Dwight Beasley (2-0, 1.46)
Win, 5-3. It looks like, where Otto is concerned, the 3rd time is the charm as your boy, in his 3rd opportunity to be our hero so far this season, would come through with a 2-run blast that put us ahead against San Jose for good during the bottom of the 7th and the bullpen would take over from there to keep the Seals away from our mackerel the rest of the way… Isaac and Ono each brought in 2 runs on 2-for-4 days with Satoru scoring twice to Otto’s once, we’d secure 3 doubles, two JACKS, and two swiped bags as a club, and Don Haag secured his 3rd save of the year on 12 total pitches.

15 of 162: Knox Hussmann (0-1, 9.35) @ Ramiro Marte (1-1, 5.73)
Loss, 3-4. Proof positive that you can’t win them all, we’d drop a winnable contest here after coming just short on our rally attempt during the bottom of the 8th as we could only muster 2 of the 4 runs we’d need to pull ahead and get the win in this one. 4 doubles for the club, with none of the bunch leading to any runs, two runs driven in on singles, with the other on a wild pitch, and another rough outing for Ramiro who is, after this loss, sitting on a 1-2 record so far with an unacceptable 5.71 ERA. San Jose’s Knox Hussmann gets the nod as the man of the match after giving us the business for 8 innings, allowing a scant 3 runs on our 12 hits, and fanning 4 for the contest. 1-1 for the series so far, with the rubber match all set for tomorrow evening.

16 of 162: Lucas Torres (0-0, 0.00) @ Stephen Estevez (2-0, 1.15)
Win, 5-2. We’d come off the line scoring two quick ones during the bottom of the 1st and trickle a few more in over the course of the game to run this one up a bit with Kyle Weaver leading the way on a 1-for-3 day that included a 2-run single and a run-scoring walk for three total RBI. Estevez continued his hot start, improving to 3-0 on the year with a 1.23 ERA after letting 1 get across in 6.1 innings of work and Don Haag earned his 4th save of the year, fanning two and getting the 3rd out on a pop up as we stayed undefeated in rubber matches and manage to win our 4th series of the season in 5 tries so far.

Record: 10-6, .625, 2nd NL West
Up Next: We’ll take a quick day off before getting back after it, on the road in Portland for the first of two straight series against American League foes.