[pauwoo]

Los Angeles Leopards (106-56, .654, 1st NL West) @ Montreal Alouettes (84-78, .519, 2nd NL East)
Arriving in the land of poutine and sourpuss attitudes, on a split, is less than ideal – which, is not to say that I don’t enjoy my time in Montreal whenever I visit, I do, it’s just that these circumstances, with our season hanging in the balance & needing to win at least one game in such a stingy and inhospitable environment, are not comforting to a General Manager with a tendency to worry about anything and everything. If beggars could be choosers, and, despite what the old saying would have you believe, they can & often are, I’d like to win both of these, outright, and to ride off into the sunset for a date with destiny in the League Championship Series. That’s the goal. I’ll settle for a split though. Can’t lie.

Here are the projected pitching matchups, our pitchers listed first:
RHP C. Arnett (10-12, 3.81 ERA) vs RHP N. Powell (10-11, 3.16 ERA)
LHP L. Álvarez (15-9, 3.29 ERA) vs LHP M. Gang (1-1, 7.13 ERA)

#3: Loss, 3-10… gutted, filleted, splayed open, and baked in a 9x9 pan – our hopes of winning both of these already out the window and, as a result, we face down the unenviable task of a must-win tomorrow. Here, SP Noah Powell gave us the business over 6-innings of 1-hit, 1 earned work, while Montreal’s suspect offense went buck with 3 HRs including a 3-run shot courtesy of LF Lynden Urmanski. The Alouettes defense was on point again too – 2 double plays in this one with 13 grounders and 7 pop ups successfully fielded over the course of the contest. Yikes.

Elsewhere: Mexico City defeated the Philadelphia Founders, 3 games to nil, and will anxiously await the winner of our series against Montreal to determine their opponent for the LCS. It should be noted that the Jaguars played us tough this season, finishing 9-9 H2H, always giving us a run. That series, should we be fortunate enough to get there, is a toss up if ever there was one.

#4: Win, 4-2 (11)… with our backs against the wall, death on the line, and a Sicilian sitting across from us, the boys managed to knot this series up on the back of a workmanlike offensive effort and some late-inning heroics from none other than Otto Isaac, whose 2-run TANK was the difference maker. Good stuff from Alvarez, 5.1-innings, 6 hits, 1 earned, and 3 K’s, a win for Max Egner, his first of the post season, and two run-scoring doubles for Dan Baker would round things out for us nicely here as we earned an opportunity to punch our ticket to the LCS in our park tomorrow.

Elsewhere: Vancouver defeated the Dallas Chaparrals 3 games to 2 while Denver defeated Charlotte by that same margin to completely upend the American League side of the bracket with both lower seeds punching their ticket to the LCS… to see the 99-win Imperials go out like that to the 84-win Miners only increases my already out of control anxiety.

Playoff Record: 2-2
Up Next: Game 5, in Los Angeles, with ~40K+ of our closest friends in attendance.