After defeating Detroit in our park, we’d
lose four in a row, including getting swept by the Imperials in Charlotte…
not our best look, to be sure. And, really, just a terrible way to end July as we stumbled for the first time this season, finishing the month with an
11-13 record.
Gross. We’re off to a 10-6 record so far in August, nothing to sneeze at, sure, but a far cry from the pace we’ve grown accustomed too. Still, we’re in the Baseball God’s good graces, are enjoying a 9-game lead over the Austin Grackles in our division, and are outpacing the Charlotte Imperials, somehow, by two games.
Some notes… Otto has 40 tanks now,
that’s 10 more than the next guy (
Palmer Parker has put 30 out for Seattle in the American League)…
Larimel has amassed 13 wins and is just two behind Mexico City’s
Patrick Torres and Former Leopard, current Charlotte Imperial,
Marco Ortega… And, as a club, we lead the majors in runs against at 437 (15 less than Charlotte) and defensive efficiency at .716, which is just a smidge better than Brooklyn and Vancouver.
And now, a look at our hitters & pitchers…
Hitters:
Code:
POS Name AVG OBP SLG HR RBI R SB BB% SO% OPS+ WAR
C MASON CLICK 323 402 468 2 28 20 0 10.9 17.9 158 1.7
C Julian Nagy 231 270 361 6 28 22 0 5 15.1 86 0.8
1B Oh Hong 285 361 426 18 59 88 2 10.3 18.3 132 2.2
2B DAN BLASKO 221 259 321 5 30 30 0 4.9 21.3 71 0.5
2B Oliver Koloski 237 303 475 3 9 10 0 6.1 25.8 127 0.4
3B SANDRO BRINCAT 208 278 229 0 3 5 0 9.3 27.8 52 -0.1
3B Demetri Rodríguez 206 273 271 0 29 41 16 5.6 21.5 62 1.4
SS Carson Hutchinson 272 307 358 2 44 36 1 4.3 14.1 97 0.3
LF Chance Bell 221 247 400 7 23 18 2 4 25.3 89 -0.1
LF Hernando Benavidez 254 375 365 10 40 69 18 13.9 20.3 120 4.3
CF OTTO ISAAC 295 375 610 40 102 72 15 11.2 23.9 188 6.4
RF DALTON BURCH 300 381 452 10 52 61 15 10.8 12.5 146 3
RF ETHAN MULLENS 264 375 417 17 69 70 23 14.3 17.6 135 4.6
Pitchers:
Code:
POS Name T G GS W L SV HLD IP K ERA ERA+ FIP
SP Ryan McGuire L 24 24 12 9 0 0 129 159 4.4 85 4.17
SP Rad Taylor R 22 22 9 7 0 0 122.2 95 4.33 86 3.95
SP Dani Thorpe R 15 15 5 3 0 0 73.2 48 3.18 117 3.61
SP Nacho Valadez L 31 15 9 3 0 5 101.1 89 3.29 113 3.81
SP Larimel Álvarez L 25 25 13 6 0 0 137 112 2.96 126 3.24
RP Leonardo Duarte L 57 0 3 3 2 17 109 102 2.31 161 3.01
RP Major Hansen L 28 0 1 0 0 6 10.1 15 3.48 107 3.01
RP Brody John R 33 0 1 0 1 1 64.2 41 2.23 167 3.23
RP Sherwin Kane R 39 0 4 0 0 1 67 53 4.97 75 4.75
RP Adrian Parker R 50 0 6 3 1 15 65.1 68 3.31 112 3.05
RP EWING RIVERA L 41 0 1 7 2 19 40.2 47 5.98 62 6.09
CL T-Rex Stiles L 52 0 2 2 37 0 55.1 69 1.79 208 3.02
Austin Grackles (65-55, .542, 2nd NL West) @ Los Angeles Lakers (74-46, .617, 1st NL West)
It was just two short seasons ago that the Austin Grackles supplanted us from our perennial throne at the top of our division, relegating us to the circle series for the first time in 6 seasons. We righted that wrong last season with a 112-win campaign and look well on our way to repeating as division champs even if we don’t quite live up to the standard we set for wins last year. It is unfortunate that our playoff structure has changed such that only the division winners get a ticket to the dance given that Austin is every bit as good as the NL East’s best, but we’ll stick with that decision for this season at least. Here, knowing full well that they have little chance of catching us with 120 games already played, the Grackles will look to punch us in the throat anyway, if only to let us know that they’re on a come up, and that they, given their dearth of young talent, won’t be going away anytime soon.
121 of 162: Alfred Adcock (9-7, 3.88) @ Ryan McGuire (12-9, 4.40)
Win, 9-3. Otto put out his 41st long ball and
Oh Hong sent his 19th over the fence as the boys
dismantled the Grackles with 8 of our 9 batsmen driving in at least one run. Win #13 for
McGuire –
6 hits, 2 earned (both on solo homers), and 9 K’s – a
SAC FLY for
Ethan, and a spectacular
Rodriguez-Blasko-Hong DP would round out the highlights for us after a day spent brutalizing Austin’s starter to kick off this three-game set.
122 of 162: Joe Matthiessen (4-12, 5.75) @ Larimel Alvarez (13-6, 2.96)
Win, 4-2. Humberto drove two in on a triple during the bottom of the 7th, which served as the difference maker for what was otherwise a low energy, defense first affair… two extra base hits for the club (
Dalton Burch hit a double with no one on), two swiped bags (1 each for
Otto (16) and
Ethan (24)), a solid, 5-inning, outing from
Larimel,
who was unable to secure his 14th win, hold #20 for
Ewing Rivera, and
T-Rex Stiles secured his 38th save in his first season as our closer.
It’s always nice to secure a series win at home, on a Saturday, in front of ~54k fans.
Elsewhere: Dallas
C Dominic Cooke, a former Leopard who is now in his 3rd season with the Chaparrals, went 2-for-3 with 2 TANKS, 2 RBI, and 3 runs to lead his club to a 10-7 win over the Portland Pioneers. With the win Dallas, who is in a dog fight for the AL West crown with Vancouver, has opened up a tenuous, 1-game lead in the AL West.
123 of 162: Wilson Pena (8-6, 3.91) @ Rad Taylor (9-7, 4.33)
Loss, 1-3. We’d stop short of a sweep as Austin got some small measure of revenge after being big bro’d in the first two games of this set… here,
Pena gave us the business over 7.2-innings of 3-hit, 7-k filthiness and 40yo
DH Jonah Dove, the
2072 Boyce Rigg winner, hit the 2-run DING DONG that put the Grackles up for good as Austin did their level best to let us know that, while this may not be the year, they’re coming for us in the near future (we won’t let that happen, of course). For our part, this is our 4th series win in August out of 6 tries so far…
Record: 76-47, .618, 1st NL West (
we’re only 1-game ahead of the Imperials)
Up Next: We’ll catch up with the boys in Pittsburgh on September 17th as we battle the top dog in the NL East.
Current standings, as of August 22nd, are attached for your perusal...