[pauwoo]

Los Angeles Leopards (5-4, .555) @ Brooklyn Citizens (7-3, .700)
Heading into Brooklyn, on a 1-1 tie, with an offense so preoccupied by being polite that I have to wonder why the equipment manager brought the bats, helmets, and gloves at all. We’re in a bad way at the plate, off-balance, uncoordinated, and unable to get out of our own heads – and, if we don’t find the cure for all that ails us, and soon, we’ll be leaving Brooklyn in a few days a shell of our former selves, stuck in some depression spiral as we wait on hold with our travel guy trying to find a suitable, leave-all-your-worries-behind resort we can drink ourselves into a stupor at.

3 of 7: Stephen Estevez (1-0, 2.08) @ Josiah Kawka (2-0, 2.25)
Loss, 4-9. Brooklyn’s Quinn Charvat powered the Citizens offense with a 3-for-4, 3 RBI performance with several of his peers falling in line behind him, and contributing to the cause… and, while our offense found a way to double our previous output, our efforts at the plate would be all for naught as the staff sprung a leak, with Estevez being the main culprit (1.2 IP, 6 H, 6 ER) while Duarte and Chen followed suit in allowing 3 more runs between them. TRUCKS from Otto and Ono are no consolation here – but, if they can build on their offensive reawakening, and our pitching can get back to being good at throwing the ball, we might be able to find a way to at least win one of the next two contests.

4 of 7: Merl Crawford (0-2, 7.45) @ John Aivazian (1-0, 0.00)
Loss, 0-2. We’d find ourselves on the wrong side of another shutout, only managing to secure a paltry 3 hits on the day (Otto, Tyler, and Ian), as Brooklyn Starter, John Aivazian, went the distance, cuffing our offense to the steering wheel as he went into our house and stole all our most prized possessions. For their part, they’d not do much offensively – just enough to saddle Merl with his 3rd loss of the postseason as your boy has been mercilessly Kershaw’d in the 2079 postseason. It’s a sad, sad state of affairs.

5 of 7: Keith Baeza (1-0, 0.84) @ Patrick Keith (1-1, 1.44)
Win, 3-0. We’d find a way to stay alive in Brooklyn, narrowing our series deficit to 3-2, as Satoru Ono heated back up with another solo shot, his first since game 3, to open our scoring during the top of the 5th, complimenting Baeza’s 6-inning, 1-hit, 8 K shutout nicely and, ultimately, giving us all the cushion we’d need to stave off elimination for at least one more game… this was a much-needed, confidence-boosting win in Brooklyn, no doubt, but our club will be far from jubilant on the plane ride home as we realize that the real hard work is ahead of us yet.

Record: 6-6, .500 (down 2 games to 3 against Brooklyn)
Up Next: We’ll be back home in Los Angeles, in a must-win situation with everything we’ve worked so hard for on the line.