Portland Pioneers (2-1, .667, 2nd AL West) @ Salt Lake Alpines (2-1, .667, 1st AL West)
Our first of many trips to Salt Lake City – a fact that, as the former Los Angeles GM, I’ll have to get used to – to meet up with a club who, not unlike us, was lightly regarded by the preseason punditry and picked to hang out in the rear with the gear during the 2085 campaign. So far, with the 2nd rated offense & 3rd rated staff, they’ve done anything but, handling the Colorado Kings with relative ease to kick this thing off. For us, and I do realize that there is a ton of baseball left to play, this is the kind of set that we have to win if we want to make our goal of making it to the playoffs a reality. Simply put, the Alpines are one of those clubs we are supposed to beat, and, given that this set will be contested in Utah, we want to be good boys and do what we’re supposed to.
Here are the projected pitching matchups, our pitchers listed first:
RHP K. Voll (0-0, 0.00 ERA) vs RHP T. Green (0-0, 0.00 ERA)
RHP B. Sánchez (0-0, 0.00 ERA) vs LHP W. Winston (0-0, 0.00 ERA)
RHP W. Macomber (1-0, 0.00 ERA) vs RHP W. Allen (1-0, 2.84 ERA)
#4: Loss, 2-3… with a 2-0 lead heading into the bottom of the 9th, Salt Lake would produce some late magic in this one to send us off to the ice cream shops to be cheered up by heaping helpings of Utah’s finest vanilla.
RP Payton Inzen takes the loss (and is charged with a blown save) after giving up a solo homer to
CF Mason Duryea on his first pitch of the inning followed by the game-winning, 2-run TANK, courtesy of
LF James Rivero just two batsmen later. Our pitching, with the obvious exception here, remains stout, while the offense continues to find ways to make an impact without much in the way of extra base hits. We really need to mix things up a bit more – singles don’t win ballgames.
Down on the Farm: SP Waldo Long, currently plying his trade down on the farm with our 3A club in Eugene, is one of the few bright spots I see in our development system. At 27yo, however, we really need to bring this kid along – he’s got 5 pitches, with his 60/60 Changeup being the best of the bunch, is an Extreme Groundball guy that tops out around 98mph, with 55/60 movement and 55/55 control. Kids a big leaguer… we’ll let him soak a bit longer, but I have designs on bringing him up this season. Looking at the Big Club – I could see dumping someone from the back of our rotation for a young-ish, versatile utilityman to open up a slot for him.
#5: Loss, 2-7…
felled, destroyed – the Alpines hung 6-runs around our staffs neck during the bottom of the 7th, 4 of which came on a
Bakari Konate GRAND SLAM, the 1st in five years as a pro for the Ivorian, and our offense, anemic and underfed, would not have what it takes to answer back, wilting under the pressure applies by the Alpines instead. We did get two homers though – one for
Leo Bullock, one for
Wyatt Raphael – with nothing else of note to highlight. Just another example of too little, too late for my new club.
Look, we have a lot of work to do, we knew that coming in.
#6: Loss, 0-4… swept, in Salt Lake City, with nowhere to go to drown our sorrows – this ain’t the life. Again, our offense was nonexistent, wholly incapable of, well, anything, while our staff, once our beacon of shining light, was bashed into oblivion again, allowing 4 total runs and a couple more homers. So, yeah, stop me if you’ve heard this before – we could muster nary an extra base hit, the staff came unglued, and these Alpines styled on us like a agile playground bully in a game of dodgeball.
Elsewhere: 1B Oh Hong, of the Los Angeles Leopards, went 3-for-4 with 2 TANKS, 4 RBI, and 2 runs to help his club improve to .500 on the year with a 6-2 win over the Las Vegas Outlaws.
Hong now has 3 homeruns in the early going of the 2085 campaign, which if you’re counting, has him trending to bash an unholy 81 of those this season.
I mean, I’ll take the under, but still…
Record: 2-4, .333, 4th AL West
Up Next: We’ll have a day off to rest & reflect before heading north to British Columbia where another Cascadian rival will be anxiously awaiting our arrival…