Los Angeles Leopards (61-31, .663, 1st NL West) @ Montreal Alouettes (41-50, .450)
Montreal can pitch (5th in Starters ERA) and they can defend (5th in runs against, defensive efficiency, and zone rating) – what they can’t do, obviously, is hit the ball. Ranked 10th in AVG, OPS, and wOBA, 11th in runs scored, and dead last in OBP, it’s clear to see that the Alouettes are this year’s definition of futile offensively. Still, they’ve managed to keep their RDiff respectable (compared to the clubs they hang around with at the bottom of each week’s power rankings) at -26 so far and have posted a 19-17 record at home… so, while they are a far cry from formidable, they ain’t no patsy, especially when they are putting in work at home, in bootleg France.
93 of 162: Jan Hernandez (8-3, 1.74) @ Rad Taylor (4-9, 4.64)
Loss, 0-2. Shutout in Montreal, lulled to sleep by Montreal’s staff who befuddled us with a mix of well-placed sliders and readings from
Leonard Cohen’s Book of Longing… we’d manage a paltry 6-hits as a club to go along with our 9 total strikeouts with
Rad Taylor leading the way for the Alouettes staff, putting in 5-innings of 5-hit, shutout work before handing the pill off to the likes of
Steven Barbaccia,
Tony Cartwright, and
Max Enger to close the show. For our part,
Jan was good – 7.1 IP, 5 H, 2 ER, 4 K’s, 1 HRA – but we’d not give him even the minimum amount of support required to reward his effort with a much-deserved victory… instead, because our bats couldn’t be bothered to do their job, he’d be unjustly awarded with his 4th loss of the season and first in 5 outings.
Elsewhere: Seattle’s David Arney tossed a masterpiece today, twirling our 3rd
PERFECT GAME since 1992 during a 2-0 win over the Toronto Maple Leafs. For the game,
Arney, in addition to not allowing a single baserunner, fanned 11 batters, and recorded 6 outs by ground out, and the remaining 10 by pop up. This is the first perfect game since 2039 when
SP Mart Huerta, a Los Angeles Leopard at the time, completed one against the San Francisco 49ers.
94 of 162: Merl Crawford (9-5, 3.25) @ Joseph Grace (4-8, 4.38)
Win, 5-1. It looked like
Merl and
Donovan would return the favor, holding Montreal scoreless until the very last frame when
RF Leo Bullock brought one around for the Alouettes on a double… still, the stories of the game would be
Merl’s 6 lockdown innings of work,
Ethan’s 2-for-3 day at the plate that included a triple, 2 RBI, a couple of free passes, and two steals, and our two, rally-killing
Rodriguez-Hutchinson-ONO DP’s.
Otto,
Ono, and
Cooke each contributed an RBI,
Ono’s coming on his 12th JACK of the year, and we’d find a way to bring 5 of our guys all the way around despite leaving 5 more stranded… just a good, workmanlike effort from the club here, knotting this series up, and giving ourselves a shot at a road series win.
Elsewhere: LF Andy Shepard, of the Pittsburgh Pipers, had himself a busy Tuesday night in San Jose as he finished 4-for-5 at the plate with 2 DING DONGS, 5 total RBI, and 2 runs during his clubs 8-2 road win over the Seals.
Andy’s been something of a vagabond since leaving our club after the 2078 season with stops in Dallas, Las Vegas, and now Pittsburgh after the Outlaws dealt him to the struggling Pipers.
95 of 162: Ram Chen (3-3, 1.94) @ Norm Rodriquez (3-7, 3.05)
Win, 3-0. Ram Chen would turn in his most impressive start to date – 5.2 innings, 5-hits, nothing earned – and the pen,
Armendariz with the hold and
Haag the save, would do the dirt as we managed to hold Montreal to a single run over the last two contests of this four-game series.
Ethan Mullens recorded two more RBI today, the first coming on a
SAC FLY and second on a drawn walk,
D-Rod hit a double,
Hutchinson a run-scoring single, and the club, down to a man, brought their hard hats and lunch pails, turning in yet another workmanlike effort and guaranteeing nothing less than a split.
Elsewhere: SP Elroy Seaborn, currently plying his trade with the Oklahoma City Friendlys (a Dallas affiliate), twirled one for the ages, completing a NO HITTER over 9 innings of no-hit work with 2 walks and 14 K’s as his club ran roughshod over the Barbados Tridents by a score of 9-0.
Elroy was the 20th overall pick of the ’79 draft and, if tonight was any indication, appears to be developing just fine.
96 of 162: Dontrell McNeil (2-2, 4.45) @ Miguel Almeida (5-3, 2.99)
Win, 4-0. OH HONG, coming on during the top of the 6th with the bases juiced would be the whole show for us today, hitting the game-winning
GRAND SLAM to propel us to a much-needed, 3 games to 1 series victory on the road. We’d also claim another shutout, this time led by
McNeil’s 6.2-innings of 2-hit, 6 K work which would be followed up by a nearly as impressive 2.1 innings from
Ramiro Marte where he’d allow an identical 2 hits and secure 4 K’s on less than half the number of pitches. A good & satisfying three-straight for the La La’s as we head to Sin City to wrap up this road chip.
Record: 64-32, .667, 1st NL West’
Up Next: We’re headed to the crown jewel of Nevada for a 3-game set in Vegas over the weekend.