[pauwoo]

Los Angeles Leopards (25-15, .625, 1st NL West) @ Austin Grackles (16-24, .400, 6th NL West)
The Grackles are mired in a ho-hum season, ranked at or near the bottom in every category we track, and have really taken on the look of a directionless club that is listing portside & on the verge of capsizing… Devoid of big league talent outside of RF Rajkumar Kosciusko, SP Vin Uhlman, and 3B Ronaldo Guzman, the Grackles have a long way to go before they are a consistently competitive club – for now they, and their fans, will need to remain patient, steadfast in their belief that the best is yet to come, as their immediate future is less than bright and the sun doesn’t seem to be rising on the horizon just yet…

41 of 162: Keith Baeza (1-2, 2.76) @ Ryan Burg (1-3, 3.65)
Win, 6-2. Baeza gave a good account of himself over his 5-innings of 5-hit, 2 earned work and picked up the win as Weiser kept Austin off the board for 3 innings before handing it off to Haag to pull the curtain back on a non-save opportunity. 11 K’s for K-k-k-k-kieth and 8 more between Newton and Haag with 5 Austin batsmen on the brink of a Golden with 3 K’s each, respectively. OH HONG led the offense with a 3-run TANK, Otto put out a solo shot, his 12th long ball of the year, and Chuck Holmes continues to lure in trading partners with another double and RBI. Two steals today as well… Holmes & Otto wrecking the basepaths for us as we handled the Grackles with relative ease to start this 4-game series off on the right foot.

42 of 162: Merl Crawford (4-1, 4.03) @ Joshua Moeller (1-5, 6.31)
Win, 7-1. Merl, like Keith before him, gave a good account of himself over 5-innings of 7-hit, 1 earned ball before handing it off to Marte and Armendariz to close out the final four frames of the game… and, offensively, we were led by Otto whose 3-run TRUCK during the top of the 3rd pushed our lead to 4 on the day… well out of reach for an ineffectual offense like the one that Austin fields… PEPPER also contributed a 3-run homer, his 2nd dinger of the year, and we’d get a swiped bag from Rodriguez to keep the Grackles’ defense honest. All systems go so far on our trip to Texas’ capital…

Note: Ethan Mullins is all set to make his triumphant return from his 10-day stint on the IL, while Chuck Holmes returns to Compton for a spell while we entertain offers for his services…

43 of 162: Masaya Nakagawa (2-0, 1.77) @ Dwaine Schilling (1-2, 5.34)
Loss, 3-4 (11). After a 27-game shutdown streak, Haag would finally hang a curve, giving up the game winner on a run-scoring single to Ronaldo Guzman for his first loss on the season as his ERA ballooned to a still excellent 0.47 on the year… a Kyle Weaver error in LF allowed two runs to score, rattling Nakagawa a bit before he left the game one batter later, Ethan, in his first game back, got caught with his hand in the honeypot on a steal attempt, and the rest of the offense couldn’t string anything consistent together after the stretch as we just sort of withered away, all but giving this one to the Grackles.

44 of 162: Dwight Beasley (4-2, 3.47) @ Vin Uhlman (1-4, 3.76)
Win, 6-1. Ian Hanan was back at it – 4-for-5 with two, two-baggers, a HR, 2 runs, and 3 RBI – and Bill Cox contributed 2-RBI to the cause to help insure that we got over on the Grackles one more time before exiting stage left… Otto hit a triple, his first of the year, we’d get a SAC BUNT from PEPPER, another from OH HONG, swiped a bag, and watched from the dugout as Armendarz closed the show on 11 total pitches during the bottom of the 9th. A good series win, on the road, against a club where anything less would have been unacceptable.

Record: 28-16, .636, 1st NL West
Up Next: We’ll head home, rest, and reflect on what we’ve accomplished so far while we wait for Phoenix to meet us in our park for a couple of ballgames.