New Orleans Gators (20-46, .303, 6th NL East) @ Los Angeles Leopards (40-25, .615, 1st NL West)
With a team as woefully inept as the New Orleans Gators in town for a 3-game set, you’d think I’d be in good spirits, excited even… but, after our recent series’ against the Alpines (currently in 6th place of the AL West) and Mexico City (that ho hum also-ran making their living mid table in the NL West), I’d much rather we just put our heads down and go to work, leaving all our misplaced bravado at the door so we can focus, instead, on the task at hand. And, while not the tallest of orders, with only a scant two games separating us and the universally reviled Phoenix Coyotes in the NL West, we need to secure these wins to keep ourselves out in front of their pace.
66 of 162: Pete Taylor (4-6, 4.08) @ Keith Baeza (5-2, 2.23)
Win, 4-2. 5.1 scoreless innings from
Baeza, a win for
Kudo in relief, and save #24 for
Haag would be the story here as our offense remains lukewarm in scoring 4 runs while relying too heavily on our pitching to put ourselves in a position to win….
Ono, Hanan, PEPPER, and
Cox would each drive in a run,
Ono committed his 4th fielding flub,
Dom was charged with a passed ball, and, as I mentioned briefly above, our pitching held water for us as our porous offense, if left to its own devices here lately, would surely not provide the buoyancy required to keep the USS Leopard afloat.
67 of 162: Joesph Hinder (2-6, 5.52) @ Dwight Beasley (6-3, 3.55)
Win, 4-1. Beasley spun a masterpiece, 8-innings, 2 hits, with 1 earned and 6 K’s, and
Haag preserved the performance closing the show on 12 total pitches for his 25th save of the year, keeping New Orleans at bay as our offense continued its workmanlike stretch of performances.
OH HONG led the offense with a solo homer and 2 runs, and
Otto,
Dom, and
Cox drove in the remaining 3 runs. Two doubles for the club, 2-out RBI’s for
Hong,
Otto, and
Dom, and 4 total runs scored despite leaving another 8 stranded. Look, we’ll take it… I’d like to see our guys run roughshod over these miscreants from the bayou, but a win is a win and all that mess.
Elsewhere: SP Bradley Hughes, currently plying his trade with the Brooklyn Citizens, mowed down 14 Outlaws in a 7-inning performance during a 2-1 win over Las Vegas. The 3-time Pacheco Award winner has spun 2352 K’s over the course of his career with this outing being his highest strikeout total so far this season. His previous best of the year was a 12 K effort against the Detroit Motors back in April.
68 of 162: Tom Abraham (3-3, 2.31) @ Masaya Nakagawa (3-1, 2.98)
Win, 6-3.
Dom made the most of a late, 8th inning PH opportunity with a 2-run single that served as the opening salvo of what would turn into a 4-run frame, and
C Lee Rolon, in to give
Dom a day off from behind the plate, drove in 3 to make sure we came away with the
SWEEP against these lowly swamp rats from New Orleans.
Nakagawa struggled a bit – 3 earned over 5 innings of work, but the bullpen closed up shop early keeping the Gators off the board over the final 3.2 innings of the game. Our ho-hum, 2-2 start to the month of June has suddenly turned into a gangbusters 11-5 run as we’ve now won 7 of our last 10 contests.
Record: 43-25, .632, 1st NL West
Up Next: We’ll board a cross country flight bound for Miami to mix it up with the Herons over 4 games.