[pauwoo]

Los Angeles Leopards (91-46, .664, 1st NL West) @ Las Vegas Outlaws (76-61, .554, 2nd NL West)
The Las Vegas Outlaws boast an offense ranked 2nd in the National League, producing a mere 0.1 runs per game more than our squad, but have been unable to duplicate our success as their porous defense, ranked 10th in efficiency and 7th in Zone Rating, has made a habit of allowing clubs to stay within striking distance, especially on the road where they have a 27-34 record so far. Still, their newest edition, Aitor Cubas, has been worth every penny, bashing 31 TANKS so far with a 163 wRC+, and 5.1 WAR in the bank. For our purposes here, our 15-game lead in the NL West is likely an insurmountable one, so we don’t have much on the line against these guys yet… come playoff time, that tune may change. If Las Vegas can just tighten it up on defense a smidge, maybe get 1 or 2 great performances from their staff, and keep on truckin’ on offense during the postseason, we may be in for the fight of our lives.

138 of 162: Jan Hernandez (13-6, 2.06) @ Evan Church (6-6, 4.65)
Win, 3-0. Jan Hernandez came correct in Sin City, throwing darts for 5.2 innings of 3-hit baseball and Satoru Ono’s solo homer during the top of the 4th would end up the game winning run with two additional ‘security’ runs coming courtesy of Hutch and Hendo over the next two frames. We flashed the leather a bit in this one too – two double plays and another OF Assist for Otto, his 11th on the year (which is 4th in the league and 7 behind league leader CF Norris Flaherty, of the Seattle Metros, who has 18 so far).

139 of 162: Merl Crawford (11-8, 3.17) @ Cam Murphy (10-7, 2.87)
Win, 7-6. Both clubs squeezed into the proverbial phonebooth to engage in some crowd pleasing, back-and-forth fighting on the inside with our Leopards finding a way to outlast Las Vegas despite Steve Green’s 3-for-4 day at the plate. We drove in four runs on as many doubles during the game, got another TANK from Otto, his 39th, putting him in a 3-way tie with OH HONG and Tom Franzone on the overall HR table, and save #49 from Haag who was one of 4 relievers to get in on the action after Merl was chased out of the game one batter into the 4th with 5 runs already charged to his account. A good win for the Yellow Top – we really showed Las Vegas our resiliency here, weathering storm after storm, and still having the wherewithal to fish until our quota was filled.

Elsewhere: Our A-Ball Club in Watts won their playoff play-in game today, besting the Arvada Panners (a Salt Lake affiliate) by a score of 3-2 to secure the final wildcard slot in their sub-league. On the year, Watts finished at 77-64 and will face off against the top-seeded Everett Storm in the first round of the playoffs.

Record: 93-46, .669, 1st NL West
Up Next: We’ll get a day off before heading to Brooklyn for a 4-game series against the Citizens.