Our injury woes persist as Swift is hurt in a bad loss to open the month and needs to go for a minimum IL stint. We claim Joe Strong off Waivers as a purely stopgap measure – things have got that dire among our staff. Then Dihigo picks up a knee niggle but thankfully he’ll be able to be nursed through it. All in all, however, it is bit of a messy start to the month as our pitchers get beat up pretty bad on a number of occasions.
Our pitching continues to struggle but our bats fire up and we string together some wins yet again. In fact, we manage to best our season high of 6 straight with 9 on the go to briefly move into first place.
That doesn’t last long as we revert to some inconsistent form over the rest of the month, but still finish it with a 17-10 mark and well in the hunt.
The bats continue to be our driving force, with our starting eight now all hitting at least 270. Power numbers remain down, however, with only Dihigo in double-figures to this point with 10. Still, this side of our game is firing on all cylinders.
If not precisely a shambles, our pitching is nevertheless our big worry. Neither Newsom nor Hildebrand seem up for SPing in the bigs just yet but these injuries of ours leave us little choice but to use them as if they are. Swift will be back soon, I just sent him to AAA for a freshen-up. As for Derringer, given he won't even be eligible for the roster if we do make the WS, if he does make it back this year it will be off to Wilkes-Barre for a rehab stint for him to see the season out. Foster seems to slowly be finding his groove and Trent has been our rock all year.
It is still incredibly tight in both divs, with the Yanks coming back to the pack this month as both the White Sox and Tigers make their move. Our half of the draw seems a race in four, with just 3 1/2 games separating Philly, ourselves, Boston and the Jints as we approach the halfway point.
Turkey Stearnes looks a sure thing for the AL Triple Crown, leading each category comfortably. He also registers his 1500th career hit this month, while Joe Sewell reaches the 2000 plateau. John Beckwith belts his 300th HR, Mel Ott #200.
Awards, news, leaders.
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