Los Angeles Leopards (89-42, .679, 1st NL West) @ San Diego Skipjacks (69-62, .526, 3rd NL West)
At 69-62 and power ranked 9th overall in the league, the San Diego Skipjacks are on something of a come up… and, if this was last season, they’d already be up as they would, no doubt, qualify for one of the 4 WC slots that were available prior to the 2082 campaign. And, well, that’s sort of unfortunate – a by-product of my decision to change our playoff system after we were unceremoniously usurped from the top of the NL West by Austin yet still made the playoffs. These Skipjacks are primed, ready to take their next step towards the promised land, to represent our division in the playoffs in the not too distant future – they are, literally (in my mind), only a pitcher or two away from really making some noise, from peeling enough wins off the likes of us to lay claim to the throne that has been (mostly) ours for the last 8 years.
132 of 162: Marco Ortega (14-6, 3.48) @ Jan Hernandez (6-5, 4.50)
Win, 8-3. Dan Blasko led the way offensively, finishing 3-for-4 with a 2-run homer and 3 runs scored,
Otto drove one in on his only hit of the game, a triple, his 4th of those this year, and backstop extraordinaire,
Lee Rolon, drove in 4 runs – two on a TANK and two more on a well-hit single.
Marco went 5.1-innings, allowing 5 hits and 2 earned while picking up his 15th win of the season, and the defense, as evidenced by our THREE DP’s, did its level best to make sure the Skipjacks understood that there are levels to this thing. And, perhaps most importantly, they’re not on ours.
Roster Expansion: Roster sizes increased by three to 28… for our part we’ll bring up
SP Sherwin Kane, SP William Tajima, C Darby Helton, and 3B Walter Tignor – and, yes, that’s four…
RP Ryan McGuire went on the 10-day due to a strained forearm.
133 of 162: Leonardo Duarte (10-3, 2.62) @ Calvin Fox (13-7, 3.98)
Win, 5-2. Dalton went 3-for-4 from the leadoff slot,
Joseph Brant drive two in on a
TANK, we hit three doubles as a team, swiped three bags, and totally outclassed San Diego once again to pick up our 91st(!) win of the year…. Win for
Duarte, his 11th, another save for
Haag, his 43rd, and the defense fielded another crispy DP with an OF Assist from
Chance Bell tossed in to round things out a bit.
Elsewhere: LF Arthur Grant, former Leopard and a member of Vancouver’s 2077 World Series winning club, who now plies his trade in the Bush League, went 4-for-5 with a double,
TWO TANKS, 5 RBI and 3 runs to lead his Decatur Donnybrooks to a resounding, 13-8 win over the visiting Hagerstown Hummingbirds.
Grant is hitting .298/.343/.557 with 22 HR’s, 58 RBI, and a 139 OPS+ in Bush League play. Currently, the Donnybrooks are doing their level best to hang on to the last available Wild Card slot as the BL season starts to wind down…
134 of 162: Larimel Alvarez (12-8, 3.17) @ Alan Barrientos (6-14, 4.21)
Loss, 0-1. Alan Barrientos gave us the business for 7.2-innings, allowing just three base knocks and nothing earned while fanning six… and, things wouldn’t let up from there as former Leopard,
Dylan Miotke earned a hold by fanning the only batter he faced to close out the top of the 8th, and Closer
Brady Mackay earned his 41st save despite giving up two hits during the top of the 9th. Three strikeouts for
Oh Hong, 6 men left stranded, two errors, and
Benavidez was caught with his hand in the honeypot – so, not our best outing and certainly not the best way to close out this set…
Record: 91-43, .679, 1st NL West
Up Next: Some R&R followed by a three-game set, at home, against the visiting New Orleans Alligators.