[pauwoo]

San Diego Skipjacks (68-91, .428, 6th NL West) @ Los Angeles Leopards (88-71, .553, 2nd NL West)
Let’s be honest… we’re ready to move on from the regular season, to ride off into the playoff sunset and find out what destiny has in store for us. We are also well aware that, should we sweep these guys, and should Austin be swept in Las Vegas, we could force a game to determine the winner of our division, and by extension the owner of home field advantage against one of the two lowest Wildcard seeds in the Second Series. So, we’ll hope to bring our 9-6 H2H record against these yokels so far in 2022 to bear as we look for the sweep. Of course, should Austin win one of their next few games, we’re benching everyone…

160 of 162: Carlito Cisneros (5-7, 4.40) @ Ram Chen (2-10, 3.53)
Win, 9-6. In what ended up being an offensive slobber knocker, we’d bury the Skipjacks beneath two, 2-run DING DONGS (Oh Hong (#39) and BJ Cristoforo (#1) stand up) and a run-scoring triple courtesy of Ethan Mullens. Chen, in what has been a theme this season, wouldn’t last long enough to get the decision but the pen was good for it with Dani Thorpe, Ramiro Marte and Mr. Don Haag closing the show for us here to secure the first of what could be three very important victories. Save #48 for Haag, steal #38 for Otto, and a team first, SAC FLY for Simon Paulino.

Elsewhere: Las Vegas did their part for us, besting the Grackles 5-4 at home, walking Austin off in extras on a Jason Bland solo TANK.

Note: it’s so difficult not to quick sim the Austin result so I can set my lineups accordingly.

161 of 162: Nash Law (0-0, 0.00) @ Jan Hernandez (7-7, 4.19)
Win, 1-0 (12). Austin did their part once again, dropping their 4th in a row and 2nd in Las Vegas by a score of 5-1, and we followed them up by winning our tilt against San Diego by the thinnest margin possible as Ethan Mullens walked the Skipjacks off with an anticlimactic SAC FLY during the bottom of the 12th. Great effort from Jan here… 6.2 innings of work, a mere 2 hits allowed, and 7 K’s for our starter with Ramiro Marte allowing the only other hit while Don Haag kept the Skipjacks hitless for 3 innings and T-Rex closed the show with an 8 pitch top of the 12th.

162 of 162: Lucas Torres (11-10, 2.62) @ Stephen Estevez (13-6, 3.28)
Win, 1-0. We’d mange to get this one done inside 9-innings, and in our alternate Sunday kits, off an 8th inning SAC FLY courtesy of Lee Rolon… Lucas Torres was torrid from the start, tossing 7-innings of filthiness for San Diego before Brady Mackay came on in relief to ruin things for him. Estevez was equally dominant, though he’d only make it through 5.2-innings before Duarte was called on to spell him, pitching the 6th, 7th, and 8th, with Mr. Haag, that purveyor of nasty spinning stuff, securing his 49th save of the year on 13 total pitches… after giving us 3-innings of work last night, no less. And, as luck would have it, Austin did their part too… losing their 5th in a row and getting swept in Las Vegas with that broom casting them aside on a 2-run, walk off TANK courtesy of the Outlaws’ Elmar Pirov.

It seems that we’ll have two tie breaker games, both in our division, as we’ll face off against Austin in Los Angeles with the Division crown on the line and the Las Vegas Outlaws, still playing for their life, will head south to Mexico City for a tilt to decide the final wildcard entrant of the National League… pretty cool, you ask me – no sure I’ve seen this wacky a scenario in OOTP before.

Record: 91-71, .561, t-1st NL West
Up Next: We’ve an opportunity to win our division for the 7th season in a row against the Austin Grackles.