[pauwoo]

Boston Patriots (62-83, .431, 4th AL East) @ Portland Pioneers (78-66, .541, 3rd AL West)
We’ll welcome the Boston Patriots to town, our final non-Divisional opponent of the 2085 campaign, before taking one more run through the AL West with our season on the line. Here, the hope will be that these Patriots, despite boasting our game’s greatest player, Tom Franzone, will play patsy as we truck headfirst into the most consequential set of games we’ll contest this year. And, they’re in a bad way – of sorts – posting a 5-5 record over their last ten contests and losers of 2 straight to the Los Angeles Leopards their last time out. This is an opportunity to best a middling team, pad our standing in the American League Wildcard race, and to enter the last stretch of this regular season on something of an upswing.

Here are the projected pitching matchups, our pitchers listed first:
RHP P. Yamaguchi (8-3, 3.82) vs RHP K. Littles (11-8, 3.34)
RHP W. Macomber (12-8, 3.74) vs RHP C. Sisson (1-4, 5.81)
RHP D. Hornbrook (7-9, 3.80) vs RHP C. Forbes (10-10, 3.50)

#145: Win, 9-2… Peter Yamaguchi was on that good stuff – 7.1-innings of filthiness, 6 hits allowed, 1 earned, with 6 K’s – and improved to 9-3 as a Pioneer while the offense busied itself by scoring early and often in this one for our 79th win of the season. Aitor finished 1-for-3 with a bases-clearing double, Angel, Frodo, and Micky each brought in a run, we swiped two bags, and helped our starter out of a jam with a timely, Alford-Raphael-Marino double play. It was all systems go in this one – a lot of good looks from the squad and hopefully a precursor of what’s to come down the stretch.

#146: Win, 6-3… 1B Angel Marino led our offensive effort, finishing 3-for-3 with a SOLO HOMER and 2 total RBI, Micky Austin brought one around on a deep SAC FLY, and we’d get the nod for the second game in a row, despite our leaving 13 runners stranded over the course of this one. Inzen picked up his 29th save on 12 total pitches, Macomber was solid, but didn’t do enough to earn the win, and Gray Switzer put in some solid relief work here, giving us 3-innings of 2-hit, 4 K ball as the second man trotted out to the bump – he’d earn his 3rd win of the campaign as a result and is turning in a solid season for us with his 2.61 ERA over 38-innings of work for us thus far.

#147: Win, 5-4 (10)… the sweep would prove more difficult than the first two, but, in the end, the boys would find a way to get it done, in extras, as FRODO put a solo dinger out during the bottom of the 10th to tread all over the 1776 boys and send them back from whence they came, a shell of their former selves… Aitor was at it again, putting a 3-run TANK out to knot this one up during the bottom of the 5th, RP Joe McMillen gave us a sturdy 3-innings of relief, and CL Payton Inzen was credited with the win after pitching the top of the 9th and 10th for us. A great, timely, and much-needed sweep for the boys here – boosting our confidence as we head into the home stretch with nothing but interdivision sets left to close out the 2085 campaign.

Record: 81-66, .551, 3rd AL West
Up Next: We’ll begin our sprint to the promised land (or decent into madness) with a home set against the Salt Lake Alpines, who we’re currently tied with in the AL West.