Before we’d get our season started, there was a nearly full slate of games played on April 2nd – Opening Day for the Majors – that featured Leopard defector,
SP Stephen Estevez, starting things off on the good foot with Charlotte, twirling a 6.1-inning, 3-hit, masterpiece as his new club defeated the Detroit Motors by a score of 4-0. 2081 NL Pacheco winner,
SP Lucas Torres, came correct as well – he’d put together a 7.1-inning, 6-hit, 1-run performance, leading his Skipjacks to a 2-1 win over the Austin Grackles.
Mexico City Jaguars (0-0, .000, t-1st NL West) @ Los Angeles Leopards (0-0, .000, t-1st NL West)
We’ll kick off the 2082 campaign against the Mexico City Jaguars, who we last saw in the 2081 NLCS, a matchup combination that can never happen again given our new playoff format, where we bested their club 4 games to 3. They acquired
1B Austin Rollins via trade during the offseason, shoring up their lineup a bit, but didn’t make the type of splash that would make anyone take them seriously as a contender… they’ll likely post a winning record, finishing at 3rd or 4th in the NL West by my estimation. Their problem will continue to be pitching – they made some deals that should have a positive impact on the bullpen, just nothing substantial enough to make anyone stand up and take notice.
1 of 162: Owen Sum (0-0, 0.00) @ Nacho Valadez (0-0, 0.00)
Win, 5-0. Nacho allowed just 2 hits over 4.1-innings of work before leaving with an undisclosed injury during the 5th, handing it off to
RP Ramiro Marte who earned the win after holding the Jaguars hitless the rest of the way. 2-run dinger for
Otto, a dinger for his partner in crime,
OH HONG, two, two-baggers for the squad, and a run-scoring walk for
Hutchinson would round things out for us offensively as we get this season off to a good start in front of the hometown faithful.
2 of 162: Ben McGillicuddy (0-0, 0.00) @ Larimel Alvarez (0-0, 0.00)
Win, 3-1. Ethan drew a run-scoring walk during the bottom of the 4th, providing all the cushion we’d need as
Larimel, in his Los Angeles debut, went 7 strong, allowing just 3 hits and a run while fanning 6. A double for
Benevidez, triple for
Oh Hong, and RBI’s for
D-Rod and
Blasko represented the rest of the offense while
Don Haag recorded his first save of the season on 11 total pitches during the top of the 9th.
Elsewhere: LF Jericho Miguez, a 22-year-old former San Francisco Don currently plying his trade with the Pittsburgh Pipers, went 2-for-2 with a 3-run homer and 5 total RBI in his Major League debut as his squad easily dispatched the Brooklyn Citizens by a score of 13-1 to improve to 3-0, completing a road sweep to start their 2082 campaign.
DH Tom Franzone, who recently put pen to paper on a 3-year deal to stay in Allegheny County, contributed a 3-run blast of his own, his first dinger of the year, as the Pipers outscored Brooklyn 31-2 over these first three games of the year.
3 of 162: Max Harrington (0-0, 0.00) @ Marco Ortega (0-0, 0.00)
Win, 6-0. We’d hold Mexico City scoreless for the second time in three tries as
Marco Ortega gave us 7-innings of work, allowing 7 total hits while fanning 6.
Benavidez and
Chance Bell each drove in two runs, we hit four doubles as a club, fielded two double plays, and basically dismantled Mexico City’s
Max Harrington who could only muster 3.1 innings of work after having 5 bad ones charged to his account through the first 4 frames of the contest.
Kicking off the 2082 season with a sweep! You love to see it.
Ok, cool… after finishing the 2081 campaign on such a sour note, the boys have come out throwing elbows to kick off ’82. Our +13 RDiff, while fierce, is still only good enough for 5th best in the league with Philly (+20), Charlotte (+22), Pittsburgh (+24), and Dallas (+25) all outpacing us in that department so far. We’re one of 5 undefeated teams remaining… Charlotte, Buffalo, and San Diego each sit at 4-0 while Dallas and ourselves currently boast a 3-0 record. Some things I noticed… Former Leopards
Pepper Grant,
Arnold Webster, and
Zippo Hollins are all still free agents. I get
Zippo, he's still an elite defender but his 30 contact isn’t even good enough for the Bush League, but
Pepper and
Arnold still have something snappy. I want to offer them MiLB contracts to keep them busy, but, instead, I let this thing play out to see what OOTP has in mind as we creep ever closer to the end of their stories.
Record: 3-0, 1.00, 2nd NL West
Up Next: We’ll travel to Austin for our first road series of the season.