[pauwoo]

Los Angeles Leopards (100-50, .667, 1st NL West) @ Las Vegas Outlaws (68-82, .453, 6th NL West)
Our key here, and really the only thing worth thinking about in this set, is to come through it unscathed, injury free, and healthy enough to finish out the rest of the regular season campaign before really getting after it during the playoffs.

Here are the projected pitching matchups, our pitchers listed first:
LHP L. Álvarez (14-9, 3.22 ERA) vs RHP P. Taylor (7-14, 4.32 ERA)
RHP H. Vaughn (11-6, 3.35 ERA) vs RHP R. Borovský (9-12, 4.32 ERA)
LHP O. Arce (14-4, 2.55 ERA) vs RHP C. Murphy (6-9, 5.04 ERA)

#151: Loss, 7-8… A nice, come from behind, walk off victory for the Outlaws who, entering the bottom of the 9th, were down by two until RF KC Raines hit a 3-run blast off CL Max Egner to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. Max, who fell to 9-5 on the year after this one, has now blown his 3rd save. In his last 10 appearances, Max has earned 6 saves, blown 2, and found himself on the losing end of two others. This is run of up and down form that we’d like to see him get corrected well before the playoffs begin… so, like starting tomorrow.

#152: Win, 7-6… this time, after grabbing the lead with a 4-run top of the 6th, we’d find a way to hold onto it the rest of the way with RP’s Rad Taylor, Sherwin Lane, and T-Rex Stiles each put in scoreless work after Hunter Vaughn left just 2.2-innings into the game having allowed 6 earned runs over the first three frames. Ethan put another one out – he has 32 now, and Otto brought in 2-RBI on a double to run his ongoing tally in that category up to 103. He leads the team there and is 4th on the RBI leaderboard behind Tom Franzone (118), Alexander MacDonald (108), and Former Leopard, Satoru Ono (104).

#153: Win, 6-2… another nice start from Orlando, who improved to 15-4, 6 doubles from the team, including one from the recently resurfaced Oh Hong, and we’d get an RBI from 6 different batsmen as the offense spread the love around a little bit – just a nice, yet meaningless, team win.

Note: Isaac won the NL Player of the Week Award. The 35yo vet posted a .526 batting average with 4 home runs and 11 RBIs last week while scoring 7 runs. To date this year Isaac is batting .282 with 36 home runs. Also, Mexico City Clinched a WC berth… so far, it’s just us two in the NL with an official spot as the NL East is too close to call. Charlotte, at 92-61, is the only American League team to punch their ticket.

Record: 102-51, .667, 1st NL West
Up Next: We’ll travel to Phoenix to do battle against the Coyotes on their turf.