San Jose Seals (72-74, .493, 5th NL West) @ Los Angeles (92-54, .630, 1st NL West)
With less than 20-games left in the regular season, teams like San Jose who, for all intents and purposes, are destined to finish outside the cake, are likely too preoccupied with firming up their plans for the offseason – travelling to see family, time spent fishing on the lake with friends, maybe a little scuba in the tropics – to focus too intently on the task at hand. Here, for the Seals, that task includes meeting up with us in Los Angeles for a date with the biggest bully on the NL West block… it also represents, despite their poor standing, an opportunity to get in a couple of bad ones before they exit stage left on the ’79 season.
147 of 162: Julen Morales (8-11, 3.78) @ Stephen Estevez (15-6, 2.00)
Win, 1-0. A triple from
Otto would be followed up, expertly, by a SAC FLY courtesy of
Satoru Ono, and serve as our opening salvo during the bottom of the 7th after our two clubs had idled the time by trading zeros before the stretch. And, that’s where we’d leave it as our offense continues to perform like a 90lbs weakling despite enjoying the comforts of our own beds.
Estevez was lights out… 7-innings, 4 hits, nothing earned for our Ace,
Turnbull retired a single batter to close out the 8th, earning his 15th hold in the process, and
Haag locked it down in the 9th, throwing the ball a mere 10 times to enter his 54th save into the permanent record.
Elsewhere: A rare misstep at home for the Brentwood Bishops as they were manhandled, rag dolled, and tossed around effortlessly by the visiting Punxsutawney Phils, who took game 2 by a score of 11-2.
148 of 162: Lucas Torres (11-11, 3.43) @ Dwight Beasley (13-6, 3.16)
Loss, 2-3 (14). We’d require 14-innings to get this one sorted, with the Seals relying on an anticlimactic, run-scoring SAC FLY from
Eden Holbrook to get the job done… and, at the risk of sounding even more like a broken record, our offense, diminutive in stature and lacking in strength, would once again give a poor account of themselves, this time only finding it within them to muster up 2 total runs for the game while our staff was out on the mound doing everything in their power to give our guys a chance to make things happen. I half expect to walk into the clubhouse with them split into two factions, the pitchers as the Sharks and offense as the Jets, engaged in a choreographed snap-off before leapfrogging each other in the hallways.
Elsewhere: Some playoff scores…
149 of 162: Bentley Hunt (13-12, 3.56) @ Keith Baeza (13-6, 2.67)
Win, 6-1. After losing our first series of the month to Mexico City, and splitting our next three – against Las Vegas, Philadelphia, and New Orleans – we’d win our first set of September, 2 games to 1, over the Seals on the back of a low-key offensive outburst from the Yellow Tops.
Otto led the way – 2-for-4 with
TWO WW2 STYLE SHERMAN TANKS and 3 total RBI – with
OH HONG posting an identical 2-for-4, 2 DING DONG, 3 RBI line to follow his lead.
Ethan swiped his 17th bag,
Cox got caught trying to do the same, jumping from the second story balcony in shame, without his dungarees, for the 3rd time this year, and the pitching, as ever, remained resolute with
Miotke sniping
Baeza’s win,
Duarte getting credited with a hold after giving up the game-winner late last night, and
Kudo shutting the door over the final 1.1 for the 3rd time this year.
Record: 94-55, .630, 1st NL West
Up Next: We’ll keep slogging our way to the finish against the visiting Phoenix Coyotes after taking a day off between sets.