Mexico City Jaguars (73-66, .525, 3rd NL West) @ Los Angeles Leopards (96-44, .686, 1st NL West)
Listen, 73-66 is a good record, under normal circumstances it would be more than good enough, but with us having already run away with things in the NL West, where we own a 22.5 lead on Austin and Mexico City, these Jaguars have run out of things to play for. Sure, they’ve had a good season and should be satisfied about that, but what good is it if you don’t even make it to the dance? Here, we’ll pit our #1 rated pitching staff and pit them against Mexico City’s #1 rated offense for a glimpse at what could have been a sick Division Series had we not altered our playoff structure shortly before this season began… and, should these Jaguars have any pride at all, I’d expect to peel one or two of these tilts off us before the dust has settled on this 4-game series.
Note: Phoenix, Las Vegas, and San Diego have all been eliminated from playoff contention.
141 of 162: Patrick Torres (14-6, 3.55) @ Dani Thorpe (8-7, 3.72)
Loss, 1-2. We’re not dead yet… These Jags, playing for their pride and not much else, waltzed into our building and managed to win a close one against us in our house on the back of
Patrick Torres’ 8 IP, 5 H, 1 ER performance… we had one extra base hit on the night,
D-Rod stole his 25th bag of the season, and
Dani Thorpe, despite putting in a sturdy 5 IP, 5 H, 2 ER performance, fell to 8-8 on the season.
Note… the Austin Grackles, after losing by a score of 10-5 against Toronto, due in large part to
Richard McTaggart’s 3-for-5, 3B, HR, 5 RBI, 2 R day, have officially been culled from the list of potential playoff combatants. Fare the well good sirs, fare thee well.
142 of 162: Owen Sum (6-10, 3.94) @ Marco Ortega (16-6, 3.52)
Loss, 1-4. We have an opportunity here to clinch, to eliminate any, no matter how microscopic, doubt and, for the second consecutive contest, just can’t seem to get it done. Not a lot to parse out here, really… Mexico City
DH Austin Rollins did us in, finished 2-for-4 with 3 RBI, giving Jaguars starter,
Owen Sum, all the cushion he’d need to secure his 7th win this year. For our part, the pitching, as is our style, was good with
Ortega giving us 5.2-innings of hard-scrabble work, allowing a mere 2 earned on 5 scattered hits, but the offense, once again, couldn’t be bothered to make an appearance in this one leaving our fans who were so eager to celebrate our division clinching victory at the park tonight with little revelry to partake in before making their way back to the suburbs.
143 of 162: Hunter Cartmel (7-10, 3.69) @ Leonardo Duarte (11-4, 2.58)
Win, 4-0. Finally, we’ve done it. We’ve given the hometown faithful, who’ve dutifully showed up for our last two games in the hopes that it would happen to them, something to lose their minds over… an early(ish) September clinch of the division after losing it for the first time in 7 years just one short season ago. Here, we’d do it in style… on a well-pitched, 7.1 inning, 5-hit, nothing earned gem from our starter, who picked up his 12th win in the process, and a well-rounded offensive effort that saw four hitters chip in on the total. RBI’s for
Chance,
Lucas Sherman,
Blasko, and
Brant, 2 double plays for the defense, and 1.2 innings of filthy relief work from
T-Rex would round things out nicely as the La La’s clinch a playoff berth with just over three weeks left in the regular season.
144 of 162: Max Harrington (12-7, 4.52) @ Larimel Alvarez (12-9, 3.04)
Win, 11-3. In the end, we’d have to settle for the split with
Joseph Brant doing a lot of the work on a bases-clearing double and 4 total RBI with the rest of our offense falling in line behind him as 5 other hitters contributed 1 or more runs to the final tally.
Rad Taylor, after giving us 2.1 innings in relief, was credited with the win, his 7th so far, and
Ramiro Marte closed out the top of the 9th to enter this one into the permanent record as our 98th win of the season.
Elsewhere: CF Mason Duryea, the #1 prospect in all of baseball, currently getting in his development reps in Salt Lake’s affiliate system, showed the punditry why he continues to be rated as our games future – the young man, despite his unfortunate facial hair, went 4-for-5 with 3 DINGERS, 7 RBI, and 3 runs to lead his Arvada Panners to a 10-4 victory over the Everett Storm. With the win, Arvada has claimed a spot in the Single-A Playoffs just one day before the close of the season.
Record: 98-46, .681, 1st NL West
Up Next: We’ll have a day off to re-center our chi (is that how that works?) before getting back after it against the Las Vegas Outlaws in our building.