Vancouver Mounties (46-35, .568, 3rd AL West) @ Portland Pioneers (41-40, .506, 4th AL West)
Despite what the standings say, for my money, these Vancouver Mounties are the best club in our division… they’ve just not put it down like that so far. But, they will – mark my words –
they will. By the time this thing is all sorted, I fully expect them to have won our division, casting aside those irritants from Dallas and Salt Lake while leaving clubs such as ourselves some room to make our move. Or, at least that’s the fantasy I’m working with at this point because, look, we’re not where we want to be yet, we don’t have all the pieces yet, and most of the ones we have now don’t really fit quite right. Vancouver boasts a rip-roaring, first ranked offense – 1st in, literally, everything… RS, AVG, OBP, OPS, bWAR, wOBA, and HR – that makes its living beating the brakes off of opposing staffs while their rotation, an underperforming one at that, is still working on developing their sea legs for the long voyage ahead. If they can shore it up a bit, start putting some better outings together, improve their collective FIP, and take what their first ranked defense provides, this is a club that could,
maybe, win it all. For now though, we just want to catch them looking as we attempt to close out the month on some wins.
#82: Loss, 2-5… welp, our dreams of a .500 month have been squelched, beat to a pulp, and left for dead by a Mounties club who would suffer no fools as they routed your Pioneers by three runs in our park.
Leo and
Sam each put balls out,
Jess swiped a bag, we fielded a nice
Bullock-Arvinda double play that also counted as an OF Assist, but also fanned 10 times as a club while our starter left battered and bruised after giving up 5-runs in just 4.2 innings of work to fall to 9-6 on the year. It’s a sad state of affairs in our clubhouse, friends. A sad state of affairs indeed.
Elsewhere: By going 2-for-3 in the Seattle's 2-1 win over Colorado,
Patrick Adams reached the 2000-hit mark. The Seattle fans, friend and foe, burst into applause and
Adams's teammates hugged and congratulated him on his achievement. For his career, Adams is hitting .293 with 345 homers, 1186 RBIs and 2001 hits.
Dude’s a stud… there can be no doubt about that. ‘Stache is legit, too.
#83: Win, 5-3 (10)…
SS Jess Alford knotted things up during the bottom of the 7th on a run-scoring single and
Leo Bullock did the dirt, winning this one for us in spectacular fashion, by walk off, during the bottom of the 10th when he smashed a resound, 2-run DING DONG off
Ron Collins for the victory. Three homers for the club with
Jess Alford and
Wyatt Raphael adding a couple to
Leo’s game-winner, a double play for
Angel Marino (he caught a line drive and tagged the runner), and a 2-inning, 29-pitch winning performance from
Payton Inzen who improved to 3-3 on the year as a result… with that we finish the month at 12-14 and manage to cling on to our winning record if only for one more day…
Elsewhere: Down on the farm in Eugene, our top draft pick, the 2nd pick overall, and #2 rated prospect in all of baseball,
SP Norman Barilla, tossed the first NO-NO of his professional career, allowing no hits with 6 K’s over 9-innings of topflight work as our Ducks defeated the Reno Travelers by a score of 3-0…
I got a good feeling about this kid.
A quick look at the league standings as of July 1st, the league leaders, and our clubhouse…
#84: Win, 9-2… A great way for the club to kick off the month of July – on a win, against a fellow Cascadia club, and division rival. Here we’d pound the Mounties into submission, leaving them in a ditch on some non-descript street, someone else’s problem to deal with as
Shane Fukumoto hit a bases-clearing double,
Frodo hit a 3-run DING DONG, and
Marino,
Jess, and
Wyatt would round things out for us to knock the absolute stuffing out of Vancouver’s beleaguered staff…
RP Kade Dio gave us a 1-run 1st inning as our opener with new guy,
SP Peter Yamaguchi, making a statement in his debut, holding our leagues best offense in check over 8-innings of 4-hit, 1-earned, 9 K baseball.
A great start to the month here – with a winning set against a highly-regarded division rival.
Record: 43-41, .511, 4th AL West
Up Next: We’ll head north on I-5 to Seattle where the Metros will, no doubt, be anxiously awaiting our arrival.