[pauwoo]

Los Angeles Leopards (70-39, .642, 1st NL West) @ Pittsburgh Pipers (56-51, .528, 2nd NL East)
Losers of six straight yet still treading water in the NL East where they find themselves a scant game off New Orleans’ pace for the division crown, the Pittsburgh Pipers have the look of a team primed to waste yet another year of 1B Tom Franzone’s illustrious career. Their offense, save Franzone, has been a mess, is nearly last in AVG and wOBA in the NL, and really just struggles to strike any kind of fear into the opposition while their staff, led by SP Gregory Morgan and SP Kenly Bartoli, has proved themselves a sturdy and effective unit so far this year. They’ve been swept twice in a row at home, where we’ll meet them, and could very well see that tripled up with the likes of us in town.

110 of 162: Larimel Alvarez (9-8, 3.06) @ Gregory Morgan (7-11, 3.31)
Win, 8-1. We’d kick things off by toying with the Pipers like a barn cat toys with a field mouse, though they’d find their second wind during a nearly disastrous bottom of the 9th where, after wiggling themselves free from our indifferent claws they’d almost get away scot-free, coming up just two runs short after charging 5 bad ones to Ramiro Marte’s account. Otto put his 30th ball out of the park, Larimel put in a sturdy 5-innings of 3-hit ball, and we’d manage to hand on for dear life despite Tom Franzone’s 3-for-5, two, two-bagger, 3 RBI day.

111 of 162: Nacho Valadez (7-1, 2.88) @ Kenley Bartoli (3-3, 3.79)
Win, 2-1. We’d deal Pittsburgh their 8th straight loss on the back of rock solid pitching punctuated nicely during the bottom of the eight by Haag punching out the final three batsmen in a row… 5-innings of 5-hit, 6 K ball from Nacho, runs batted in by Burch and Hong, Rad Taylor earned a 4-pitch hold by fanning the final batter of the 8th frame, and Don Haag secured his 37th save of the season by blowing Iglesias Ruiz, Maddox Whalen, and your boy Pepper Grant out of the water to close down the community pool. A nice, solid defensive effort from the boys here… we need just one more for the sweep.

112 of 162: Dani Thorpe (6-6, 3.83) @ Adam White (6-7, 4.03)
Win, 7-3. Knowing that the Pipers were desperate for a win, focused on not finding themselves on the wrong side of a sweep, at home, for the third time in a row, we’d show no mercy like some OG representative of Cobra Kai who has never seen a leg he wouldn’t like to sweep… OH HONG led the way with a 2-for-5 day that included a double, a TANK, and 4 total runs batted in, backup backstop Julian Nagy brought two home, and Dani Thorpe cobbled together a strong enough outing to leave here with a win, his 7th, despite Pepper Grant taking him yard during the bottom of the 4th. For our part we’ll head further East and attempt to keep the good times rolling in Massachusetts while the Pipers will, undoubtedly, spend copious amounts of time taking a good, hard look at themselves in the mirror after this most recent debacle on their turf…

Record: 73-39, .651, 1st NL West
Up Next: We’re shipping up to Boston for a three-game set against the Shamrocks.