[pauwoo]

Portland Pioneers (30-27, .526, 4th AL West) @ Seattle Metros (25-32, .439, 5th AL West)
With the 9th rated order and 8th rated staff, the Seattle Metros have certainly seen better days… still they have some great, if underperforming, ballplayers in their lineup – like Patrick Adams, Austin Velasquez, and Rajkumar Kosciusko – and a staff that shouldn’t drop off in quality so drastically after the top 2. What I mean to say is – if my calculations are correct (and, they are, I did them on my trusty TI-84 Plus CE), Seattle should be performing much better than they are. They’re no doormat, no cellar dwelling miscreant straight out of a Eastman & Laird comic – nay(!), these Metros should be solid, better-than-solid for significant stretches, and, ultimately, somewhere in the thick of it, in the hunt for a wildcard slot. But, so far this season, up is down, left is right, and we still have a shot at shocking the world should we find a way to get it together. Seattle, despite what it says on paper, represents as good an opportunity to do that as there is…

Here are the projected pitching matchups, our pitchers listed first:
RHP W. Long (0-1, 9.22 ERA) vs LHP A. Gunter (5-5, 2.85 ERA)
RHP K. Voll (4-2, 3.14 ERA) vs RHP S. Kenny (1-2, 5.66 ERA)
RHP W. Macomber (6-3, 3.90 ERA) vs RHP B. Dauncey (4-4, 5.60 ERA)

#58: Win, 4-2… Frodo hit a 2-run blast that gave us a lead we’d not relinquish the rest of the way as our bullpen kept Seattle off the board over the final 3 frames culminating in Payton Inzen’s 10th save of the year. We’d hit two doubles, two homers, and fielded 3 double plays while finding a way to put 4 on the board despite leaving 9 men stranded. Seattle’s SP Adam Gunter, mired in a terribly unlucky season thus far, is charged with the loss dropping him to 5-6 on the year after allowing 3 earned on 2 TANKS while fanning 10. We’ll take what we can get – a win is a win, and all that.

Still waiting for Hornbrook’s diagnosis. At this point I half expect them to pronounce him dead.

#59: Loss, 3-6… I need to do something to tighten up our offense, find a player with solid defense that can smack it around a little bit, someone with good contact and gap power, someone who can lead us out of this malaise where we’re fine just hitting singles & stranding runners all day – here, we could only muster one EBH while stranding 8 runners to allow the Metros, with their weak staff and weaker offense, to get the best of us, knotting up this series, as we work our way through the first set of June. Kade had the loss charged to his account, he’s 4-3 now, and our bullpen did little to stop the bleeding as they allowed two runners to plate after taking over for our starter. Rubber match tomorrow and we gotta have it.

Injury Update: The verdict is in and Hornbrook will serve 9 weeks on the IL with shoulder inflammation. SP Morton Shepard was called up from Eugene in his stead and will slot into the rotation at #5 working as a follower behind either Gray Switzer (RHP) or Kade Diao (also a RHP)… Morton is a lefty.

#60: Win, 3-2… LF Adam Collins went 3-for-3 with 2 RBI – each hit a single – and Macomber earned his 7th win of the year after turning in a tip-top, 5 IP, 3 H, 1 ER, 3 K effort. There’s really not much to parse out in this one – we found a way to win – that’s good – but did so without a single EBH, and despite stranding 9 baserunners. Our offense has dropped two spots in the AL rankings, where we now sit at 4th, while the staff is now ranked 7th. Sinking like a stone my friends… we desperately need to carry this good fortune – or good luck, or whatever it is – forward before we become just another also ran that is out of the mix and not looked at as serious competition.

After the game I finalized the following trade… it doesn’t solve my offensive troubles, but I think it will be a step in the right direction in the long run: 2B Mike Duncan (46/46 – retaining 60%) and CF prospect Twan van Goens (20/48) were sent to New Orleans for 2B Tate Ramsey (44/44) and 3B prospect Irene Atkins (20/49). Tate will start at DH against Lefties… otherwise he’ll platoon a bit.

Record: 32-28, .533, 4th AL West
Up Next: We’ll travel to Dallas on Monday evening for a three-game set in Texas.