Brooklyn Citizens (24-23, .510, 2nd NL East) @ Los Angeles Leopards (27-19, .586, 1st NL West)
After coming so close to the ultimate prize last season, and knocking us out of contention on their road to the World Series, Brooklyn is off to a suspect start to the 2080 campaign. They came off the line just fine, sprinting out to a 13-7 record in April, but have found themselves low on fuel in May, trying to navigate an early-season storm on bald tires, and putting up a paltry 11-16 record while doing so. The problem seems to run a bit deeper than your typical ‘tune up & go’ type of fix as their offense has seized up on them leading to a 12th ranked AVG, 11th ranked OBP, OPS, and wOBA, and a 10th ranked runs scored & bWAR. Here we’ll get them in our house, and do our level best to shut an already poor offense down using our substandard staff that is in dire need of a pick me up…
47 of 162: Isaiah Zuno (0-2, 5.88) @ Jan Hernandez (3-2, 1.93)
Win, 8-0. As advertised, the Brooklyn offense sputtered early and often as our staff, in what took on the look of our finest performance so far this year, played them like marionettes made to perform
Wrestling Macbeth to the delight of a small, yet respectable, crowd of Shakespeare loving wrasslin’ fans. Meanwhile, as their engine choked, flooded on fuel, ours fired like a perfectly tuned exotic as
Walt Tignor’s 1-for-3 day that included a 3-run TANK, 4 total RBI (with that 4th coming on a SAC FLY), and a walk leading the way with
Ethan,
D-Rod, and
Hutch each finding a way to contribute to the cause… we’d get the team cycle – a double and a triple for
D-Rod, that DINGER from
Tignor, and plenty of singles to go around – 2 swiped bags courtesy of
Otto and
Ono, 2 dandy double plays, and would delight from the dugout as
Jan held Brooklyn in check over the games first 6.2 innings before handing it off to
Duarte for more of the same.
Elsewhere: 2B Bobby Solomon, of the Staten Island Killer Bees (a Brooklyn Affiliate) was feeling it today against Arvada, finishing with a 5-for-6 day at the plate that included a double, 2 DING DONGS, 6 RBI, and 2 runs as his squad defeated the Colorado-based Panners by a score of 10-9. Also, some other quick hits… somehow, someway
Don Haag took home pitcher of the month in the NL while our own
OH HONG took home batter of the month for his rip-roaring month of May (.408 avg, 13 TANKS, 29 RBI, and 27 runs…). Also, not to be outdone, former-Leopard,
Tony Voorhis, took home the BoTM prize in the American League… always nice to see one of ‘
our’ guys do well.
June standings are attached...
48 of 162: Sawyer Dahlgren (2-4, 2.98) @ Dwight Beasley (5-1, 3.72)
Win, 8-6. Brooklyn would rip free from the cables we’d affixed to their arms and legs early, posting a 5-run top of the 2nd on
Dwight Beasley to show us, and everyone who happened to be tuned into the game, that they are no one’s marionettes… in the end though, despite being free to move around as they saw fit, they’d not be able to equal our output as our furious, 6-run rally during the bottom of the 6th, with each of those being charged to
RP Charlie Baggs’ account, would put us up for good with
Ram Chen and
Don Haag coming on to cool the Citizens down over the final 3 frames… hold #6 for
Chen, save #12 for
Don.
In a bit of bad news… CF Otto Isaac got himself a boo boo and will hit the IL for a 10-day stretch with an Oblique Strain, making room for us to bring
BJ Cristoforo up from Compton in his stead.
49 of 162: Egar Lopaz (3-3, 3.77) @ Dontrell McNeil (2-1, 4.74)
Win, 3-2 (10). Our offense started in neutral and hard a difficult time getting into gear as we’d spend the 1st 9-innings of this contest doing our best Brooklyn impression. Once the dust had settled, it’d be
Hutchinson’s run-scoring single during the bottom of the 10th that would put our fans in attendance out of their misery and send Brooklyn to the showers on the wrong end of a SWEEP.
OH HONG, hitting in the 3-hole for an ailing
Otto, went 2-for-2 with a 2-run TANK and a walk,
McNeil tossed a respectable 5-innings of 4-hit, 2-earned ball, and
Don Haag improves his record to 5-4 on the year as he gets credited with the win after putting Brooklyn down in order during the top of the 10th.
Elsewhere: CF Zoe Cuello, of the
Hagerstown Beavers, put on a show for his Bush League fans, finishing with a 2-for-5 day at the plate that included a double, a JACK, 5 RBI, and 2 runs scored during his teams 10-2 win over the Gulfport Growlers. The Beavers, who currently find themselves in 6th place of the Independence Division, have now won 7 of their last 10 and are looking to make their move on the unsuspecting Naperville Nibblers who’ve only managed to finish 5-5 during the same stretch.
Record: 30-19, .612, 1st NL West
Up Next: We’re headed across the country to Miami where we’ll try to keep our guys off the beach long enough to take a road series off the 6th place Herons.