[pauwoo]

Pittsburgh Pipers (68-50, .576, 1st NL East) @ Los Angeles Leopards (76-42, .644, 1st NL West)
After a slow start in April, the Pittsburgh Pipers opened things up in May, posting an 18-10 record for the month before falling back into April’s poor form during a ho-hum, 13-15 June – but once again they’d bounce back the next month, finishing out July with a 17-9 record and are looking to keep that form intact as they are off to an 8-3 start so far in August. The offense continues to be led by Tom Franzone (.299-26-82) and Mack Ramirez (.232-27-77) while Paul Yeager (12-8, 3.47), Robby Garrett (12-8, 2.56), and Gregory Norman (11-5, 2.85) are holding it down for their 4th ranked staff. As winners of 6-straight, Pittsburgh has pulled ahead of Brooklyn in the NL East and arrives in town playing their best baseball so far this season… something’s got to give here – either they continue to run roughshod over all comers (in this case us) or we stop them dead in their tracks on our turf in the City of Angels.

119 of 162: Jaxson Mottola (5-2, 3.41) @ Keith Baeza (10-4, 2.69)
Loss, 2-3 (14). Pittsburgh mainstay, Xavier Pace, a contributing member of the Pipers’ club for the last 6 years, has Veteran manager Jim Bielefeldt’s full vote of confidence when the game is on the line. And, with a man on 2nd & two outs already on the board, Xavier showed that his Skipper’s trust isn’t misplaced as he managed to sneak one through the infield for a run-scoring single during the top of the 14th that all but sealed our fate. Major Hansen, after pitching admirably for 2.2 innings last night, struggled to close this one out, giving up the game-winner and seeing his record fall to an imperfect 5-1 on the year.

Some notes… the weekly power rankings came out today and your Los Angeles Leopards are currently holding it down in the MLB from the top of the pops while our AA outfit, the Inglewood Sentinels, and our Short A outfit, the Brentwood Bishops, are doing the same in their respective leagues… also, and perhaps more importantly, Inglewood pitchers have recorded complete-game shutouts in their last two tilts starting with SP Cristobal Ruiz’s complete-game, 5-hit shutout on the 13th (during a 2-0 Inglewood triumph over the Newark Colonials) and finishing with SP Morton Saldivar’s complete-game, 4-hitter during today’s 1-0 win in Newark. Cristobal will one day be at or near the top of our rotation, he’s one of our most promising prospects, while Morton’s ceiling looks to be as a Major League bullpen arm… only time will tell, as they say.

120 of 162: Edwin Blaxley (8-10, 3.53) @ Merl Crawford (13-5, 3.62)
Win, 1-0. Blaxley, like Merl, busied himself in this one by mowing down the competition until, after probably being left in one batter too many by his Skipper, Dom took him yard for a solo shot with two outs already on the board, giving us the margin required to claim victory in game two, evening this 3-game set a 1 each with the rubber match all set for tomorrow. 6 Ks, 3 hits, and nothing earned in 7-innings of work for Crawford, 2 K’s for Turnbull during the 8th, and save #44 for Haag, who’s now trending to record 59 saves (still enough, by 1, for the all-time record), during a 9-pitch 9th to close the show.

121 of 162: Kurt Miller (3-1, 4.35) @ Jan Hernandez (7-4, 2.16)
Win, 5-1. Jan Hernandez pitched six shutout innings, OH HONG had four RBI to power the offense and your Los Angeles Leopards put a bad one on the Pittsburgh Pipers to secure our second straight series victory against the current leader of the NL East… knocking each from their perch atop the division as Pittsburgh moved into that spot after we finished with Brooklyn only for the Citizens to slide right back into that spot once we made mincemeat of the Pipers.

Record: 78-43, .644, 1st NL West
Up Next: We’ll take a day off in Los Angeles before getting back after it on Friday against the visiting Vancouver Mounties, who, as luck would have it, look to be just as good as our last two opponents.